Across US in two and half days...

When I first came to US, I had a stupid dream or rather a wish that I should cover all 50 states in the nation before I go back to India for good. I always wanted to do a coast to coast road trip for this purpose and time and again, I couldn't do that partly because of laziness and partly because of practical limitations. But this time, it became a necessity and though it's not technically a coast to coast drive, this 2700 miles drive did take me through a many parts of the nation I've not been to, before.

Ironically, as much as I wanted to do this trip before, I didn't really have the mind to drive all the way this time because of several reasons. First of all, I was driving my own car and I didn't want it to break down or get damaged during the long and almost continuous course. Second, unlike a trip with a group of friends (or at least one good looking girl :D) I had to travel all alone and third, I couldn't really enjoy the trip or halt at different places. I just had to rush from end to end and reach the destination by Saturday (Jul 4th) in the worst case, so that I have a day to relax before I get to work. So as much solitude lover as I am, I thought that the trip wouldn't let me enjoy it.

But the trip eventually turned out to be pretty interesting; and I took away a lot of memories from this trip. Usually I drive at very high speeds and my objective would be to cover the distance in the shortest time possible. But this time, I was averaging 80 miles may be because I'm getting older; or because I was too cautious not to add any more direct/indirect expenses because of speeding :)

Before I talk about anything else about the trip, I should definitely appreciate the US government for building such a neat transportation system. I've travelled about 2700 miles which is more than the distance between Kanyakumari and Kashmir; and this I was able to do without any sort of pre-planning. A printout of the route and I'm all set. I sincerely wish Indian roads were as organized. (Fortunately for us, we have the railways and we could really boast of our rail network :))

The drive through the North-Western states was unbelivable and the scenaries were awesome to say the least. Uploading a few photographs that I managed to click on my way... Wish I had more time to spend clicking. :)

Apart from these, a lot of thoughts/ideas were going on and off in my mind; and to recollect them all or write them in a blog would be an impossible task. But sure enough, I'd say this would be one of the most memorable trips I ever made - thanks to my stallion which was smooth as silk throughout the journey, the police department for not noticing my ocassional speeding :D and of course God for well... everything! :)

Tampa to Tampa via St. Augustine and Daytona

One good thing about US is that you can cover long distances in short intervals due to the roadways and infrastructure in place. A travel that'd take about 10 hours at the least back in India would not even take 5 hours in the US even if you are always traveling within the speed limit (70 miles per hour is the speed limit in most roads but almost everyone drives at 80 mph and we drive even faster with the speeds sometimes crossing 120 mph). The result - you can plan trips at the last moment, comfortably arrange everything online and travel in your car.

We planned a trip on Friday and covered St. Augustine (a historical ?! place in FL) and Daytona (yet another Floridan beach) in the past couple of days. Apart from the usual solo and group snap collection for Orkut, some photographic experiments, food and roaming; I did find a few other things quite interesting in this trip.

First, the ability of Americans to make a big show out of nothing! The St.Augustine fort is the oldest fort in whole of US and surprisingly the fort was built only in the 1600s which is just over 400 yrs back. With the facilities, good orators and the past era costumes; they made thousands of visitors look at the place as if it was the most historic spot in the whole world! Back in India, we have a lot of temples, buildings and architectures that are thousands of years old but hardly any effort is taken to maintain them and some of them are not even known to Indians in other states.

Second, the revenue that is generated out of this vacationing craze. In India, people tend to save a lot which beyond question is a good habit. But even those who tend to spend money don't have much choices because the spots within India and well known across India could be numbered; thanks to the Government's strenuous efforts to hide these spots from visitors. In US, if you cover 5 different varieties of places viz cities with huge sky scrapers, old cities, theme park laden areas, hills and beaches; chances are that you won't find any more different places wherever you go. But still you could see a host of Americans traveling at every possible opportunities to different parts of US just because of the internet marketing and complete usage of technology to their (the Government/property owner) favor.

Third, on a lighter note the fun that we had in beach sports. Assembling a gang, going to some good beach and playing some sport is tiresome but refreshing. Even volley ball in strong winds and cricket in soggy beach sand was absolutely entertaining. In normal days, either so many people don't get together or there is always some other work that might take priority. So dedicating sometime of life for vacationing really helps!

Let's hope that meaningful vacationing is promoted in India and the beauty and majesty of the tourist spots and the ancient Indian tradition is taken to all corners of the world!