The 2000 mile Trip from Phoenix to Seattle - Dec 24th 2006 TO Jan 2nd 2007

Day 1: Phoenix to Las Vegas
Phoenix to Las Vegas - Reached Vegas largely with no major incident. Stayed overnight
in a neat accommodation at incredulously cheap price in Vegas, close to the strip.The nearby Desi tabla for dinner helped a lot.

Distance travelled: ~300miles

Day2: Death Valley
Headed towards Death Valley. Death valley during winters are the best time to travel
as summers are extraordinarily hot with temperatures reaching the 120 mark.

The badwater road is the key tourist area which includes the artistic drive(so called as there are these rocks with a hue of colors, like that of a artist's palette) and the basin that is ~400ft below sea level. Interesting white background of NaCl and Bauxite minerals (and not snow!!). Looks like snow in pictures. Zabriskie point is an incredible view of the death valley mountains in all it's glory. Stayed overnight at the beautiful Panamint Spring Resort Resort.

Pretty nippy and the heaters in the room definitely helped. Distance travelled: ~200miles

Day 3: Drive towards Lake Tahoe

Very interesting drive with south westerns storms hitting the passes around the Yosemite fringes. Survived two gales which were pretty nasty. Managed
to reach South Tahoe late evening with no major incidents. The desi dinner at the Taj Mahal at South Lake Tahoe was one of the worsts we have ever had
in our lives.

Distance travelled: ~300miles

Day 4: South Lake Tahoe

The cruise on MS Dixie around Tahoe was absolutely stunning. The heavy fog did not help thought in the onward journey. Added to this was the incredibly cold weather. However the return journey was clear of fog giving way to the majestic snow capped mountains in the background

Distance travelled: ~0 miles

Day 5: Depart South Lake Tahoe towards Medford, Oregon.

Took the I50 West and the I5 North with tremendous excitement on the way. Lot of snow storm
warnings fizzled out to nothing. It was a good drive with very minor delays on the Tahoe
side of I50. Stopped at Redding for Dinner. Very pleasant journey indeed.Distance travelled: ~400 miles

Day 6: Depart Medford and head to Portland, Oregon.

Passed through some really stunning scenes around Oregon. Portland was beautiful with the
Christmas time decorations in downtown. We were quite shocked to see a desi Chaat mobile
centre in the middle of Portland downtown. After much anxiety and contemplation decided to
not try the chaat!Distance travelled: ~300 miles

Day 7:

Depart Portland and head to Seattle.

Drove through the incredible Columbia River
Gorge in Orgeon. The Multnomah falls was absolutely stunning and the drive till Hood river
was wonderful.Wrapped up the day by heading to Seattle.
Distance travelled: ~300 miles

Day 8: Seattle

Day of Sashtiabdhapoorthi.Defined by Wikipedia as - SASHTIABDHAPOORTHI or Completion of Sixty years has a special place
in the Hindu tradition since the Hindu calendar follows a 60-year cycle. On this day, all
the celestial bodies are said to align in exactly the same way they were during the birth of
the individual concerned. The entire family gathers to give/seek blessings to/from the
couple for continued good health and prosperity. The couple reaffirm their wedding vows and
there is a re-enactment of the wedding ceremony. We had a great time meeting family members (some of them I have not met since 15 years!) and
participating in this very important event.
Also New Year eve: Closed the day and started the new year with a bottle of champagne and
lots of games. Had a great time playing a new card game called Mafia.

Day 9: New Year in Seattle

Had a great lunch in Sridhar's place. What a sumptuous lunch!!

Day 10: Time to leave to home - Phoenix

Rounded the trip with a comfortable ride
back to Phoenix in US Airways.

The hub Trip - Cincinnati

Arrived late in the night into a sleepy town in Cincinnati…Spent the night through a heavy sleep after an extraordinary tiring day

Next day had a great visit at the Wilmington Hub. The hub has all the parcels sorted and get re-routed to their respective destinations (outbound).

Lunch & chit-chat

1. Good old pizza hut buffet
2. Good old discussions around state of affairs
3. Team’s bowling escapades and Nitin’s “winning only matters” attitude (Heck, Laurie did beat him in the tele-coding game!)
4. Learnt something new around the “long island” iced tea - a lethal combination of rum, vodka, margarita and iced tea – yum!
5. Rajeev geared up to beat Nitin in bowling and thinks that 100 points is a low number fit for kids…

Look forward for the dinner with the team & Mike S

The blogger bug appears to have caught me….Gotta see the power of the bug though and the sustainability given the extreme demands on my time my job puts on me..

 

 

A Neat picture...at Bhatu Phirang...24hrs before the fiery Tsunami hit and created so much havoc to mankind. Will never forget the incredible kindness of God in having not touched us/fam when we were right there. Crusing right on top of the water where the Tsunami was taking birth to hit the innocents on the coastlines.
Strange are the ways of this world indeed...

Musings for the day

Spending the evening in the Bay area...strange place indeed. Its so much traffic during the evening and then everybody disappears as rapidly as a morning dew. Its like the ants running in fine lines picking their food or whatever and then suddenly there is nobody
Can't resist thinking of home..24X7 activity..a special hum all the time. Miss the sweat and buzz..
Back to the hotel room..can't wait to get out of the place, jump on the plane and get home to fam.

Thats me ....stuck in the humdrum of the world trying to make a living....