There were some obscurity on the July 4th weekend on whether Qualcomm is giving the Friday as holiday or the Monday. I hate confusion, so I took both days off. That decision gifted me with one complete day to make the return trip from the Sunnyvale to San Diego. Almost every long weekend I visit Sunnyvale to see my friends Samik and Anish. I have done this route numerous times. But each time I travelled on the boring I5 highway in order to make it within eight hours. Also each time I traveled at night to save a day. Driving alone at night for eight hours is not the easiest of the things I have done, but repeatedly I had to prove to myself that I could do it. But this time I had one complete day to make the return trip. I chose my long desired route - the beautiful California 1 coastal highway!
Over the weekend I finished a fascinating trip of northern California with my four friends - Samik, Ananya, Anish and Shalini. We visited the beautiful coastal town Mendocino, enjoyed World's Largest Salmon BBQ festival (Yummy!) etc etc.. But that story some other time..
Monday morning, when Ananya and Samik left for office (I was staying with them), I was doing my packing. Packing is a very important part of any trip. It is never waste of time to put some extra thinking behind what all things will be required to be easily accessible during the trip versus the things I will need later. Also, it is important to keep some stuffs for emergency conditions. These are more important for me since a lot of time I travel alone. I kept my still camera, video camera separate. Filled a big bottle with water. Stole some biscuits from Ananya's stock. Made sure my first-aid kit is packed. Dumped the bigger bag in the trunk and the hand bag on the passenger seat for easy access. Closed their house and started my Honda Accord. It was a very modest start to what was otherwise going to be a remarkable day!
I was running low on gas so first I went to the nearest gas station and did a tank full. Then I started on the historic El Camino Real (In Wnglish it means the Royal Road). This road goes through the heart of this Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View area. On and off, this road is visible in various parts of California. I heard this is a very old and long road. Now it exists only it parts as you go from north to south of the state. I heard stories that in days when there were no cars, people used to walk from southern California to San Francisco over this road. In between there were churches built to shelter travelling people. Those churches were named after saints. Like San Diego, Santa Ana, San Jose etc. They are big cities now. Not sure whether true, but I believe these stories.
After some left right turns in no time I was on highway 17, on the way to Santa Cruz. Highway 17 was built in 1940, few years after the depression. I found it to be a very scenic highway with lots of sudden speed changes and surprising sharp turns. It was fun to drive on. But no wonder the highway accounts for large number of accidents and fatalities every year. With a careful driving session, I reached Santa Cruz by 9:30 morning. Santa Cruz is the place where highway 17 meets CA1. It was easy to find the exit to CA1 south. At this point I was very excited as first time in my life I was driving on my dream road. California 1.
The initial impression did not quite go with the reputation. This road is supposed to be one of the most scenic and adventurous highways of the World! But at Santa Cruz it was just like any other state highway, busy and little unruly. I took an exit to Santa Cruz town and finished my breakfast.
Around 10 am I started the second phase of my journey. I was already dreaming of the road twisting on the hills with pacific on one side. But I knew I have two wait for some more time. For about half an hour I drove through very usual and plain American terrains. CA1 runs couple of miles away from the sea in this area. First time it kissed the pacific at Moss Landing. I saw a yacht yard at Moss Landing where I saw couple of small sail boats and catamarans parked. Recently I discovered a hidden interest in myself for sailing. So I tend to note the yacht yards nowadays.
In few minutes I found I am driving by the sea side. Just before entering the beautiful Monterey town I noticed the exit to highway 218. I was not going to take it. Not this time. But this goes to the famous Laguna Seca tracks where MotoGP happens every year. I am planning to visit next year MotoGP here. I also have a dream of riding my motorcycle on this track.
Monterey is a beautiful beautiful sea town. Looked to be a perfect vacation place for spending some days doing water adventures. From top of a hill, from the highway, I saw thousands of people enjoying boat riding, yachting, sailing in the Monterey bay. The saturated blue color of the bay vanished in the horizon. I pulled my car out of the road and enjoyed the beauty for few minutes. I could not afford more time. Few miles from Monterey and I was driving right beside the sea. By this time CA1 has taken the form it is famous for.
July 12, 2009
March 24, 2008
Adventures in US (Part 1) : The arrival
Prafulla was trembling like a miserable old lady. I could almost feel the lines that were going through his mind.. "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna". His eyes were blinking very fast, and I am sure, so was his heart. There was no reason for me to be worried from Praful's situation, except that he was driving the car on 101 highway, first time, and I was the backseat passenger. I was holding my breath. My hands were over my eyes and every few minutes I was making a small opening between my fingers to peep out on the road. Only to get scared and close it again.
About an hour back the world appeared to be a very safe place. My flight dropped me, safely, in SFO airport at sharp 6 pm. First time I landed in United States of America. First time I landed in a foreign land to be more specific. Everything appeared surprisingly easy. An Indian helped me to make a phone call to my dear friend Prafulla who immediately confirmed me from Sunnyvale that he will reach the airport in half an hour to pick me up. I successfully passed the exit interview and came out of the airport with an I94 stamping on my passport. Climate was cold and windy. Few minutes later Prafulla arrived with his big welcome smile and buddy Chetan. We happily started towards Praful's car which was parked in the airport parking area. Adventure started..
First we got confused with the elevators. We took the wrong one and landed in the basement. It took us few trial-and-errors to take the right elevator and arrive at the correct floor where Praful's Honda Civic was parked. It was here that I came to know about few not-so-encouraging facts of our trip home.
No parking area ever looked so complex. There were multiple exits going to multiple directions from each floor with complicated description written on top of every exit about where it takes to. Again trial-and-error. To my surprise, and fear, I noticed that two cars were actually following us. They depended on us to take them out of this maze. Prafulla got some more people to rely on his smartness. Poor Praful! I can't write the words the drivers of those cars would have uttered for him, after they found that we guided them back to the same floor after making few rounds, up and down, in the building. It took us around half and hour to solve the puzzle and come out under the starry sky.
Hah! Finally we were on road. I felt relaxed, but not for long. In few minutes the hand-held GPS device on Chetan's hand took us to the 101 highway.
I never experience an adrenaline rush like this before. A huge highway with 7.. 8.. 9.. god knows how many lanes. Each lane carrying extremely fast moving cars, each one running for their life. I saw our meter showing 80 miles/hr. My Indian mind calculated it to be around 128 km/hr. Oops! My heart started beating faster. Speed of the cars surrounding us also added to my uneasiness. Specially the ones overtaking us making it look as if we were driving at 10 miles/hr. The only question that was circulating in my mind was.. "What iff..?" I repeatedly tried to imagine the situation after some "What iff..?", and every time I ended up with results more than escape velocity of earth.
Things didn't improve when my driver friend confidently announced his correct feelings about the situation.. "Mujhe dar lag raha hai yaar!". I clearly remember, my heart stopped for few seconds. I remember Chetan trying to console and encourage Prafulla for about fifteen minutes.. but none of his words entered my heart. All his words grew wings and were flying over my mind, I was already in a dream world.. beyond comprehension.
I woke up with a sudden scream from Chetan, "Breaaaak!". Praful did correctly. And our car just missed hugging another car coming from the right lane, by few inches. Apparently, the car did not show indicators while changing lane. Whose fault was it? How does it matter. There could have been no one alive from either car to tell that anyway. Thus, we narrowly escaped one "What iff?".
Somehow, the sudden incident worked in a very positive way on Praful. Taking few minutes from his driving, Praful patiently elaborated the genealogical ancestral chart of the rival driver's family with unmentionable words and he got unanimous support from his passengers. Once done, he appeared relaxed. He appeared bold. He slowed down his speed. I too felt better.
Soon after, the GPS indicated the approaching home. Home, never felt so safe.
About an hour back the world appeared to be a very safe place. My flight dropped me, safely, in SFO airport at sharp 6 pm. First time I landed in United States of America. First time I landed in a foreign land to be more specific. Everything appeared surprisingly easy. An Indian helped me to make a phone call to my dear friend Prafulla who immediately confirmed me from Sunnyvale that he will reach the airport in half an hour to pick me up. I successfully passed the exit interview and came out of the airport with an I94 stamping on my passport. Climate was cold and windy. Few minutes later Prafulla arrived with his big welcome smile and buddy Chetan. We happily started towards Praful's car which was parked in the airport parking area. Adventure started..
First we got confused with the elevators. We took the wrong one and landed in the basement. It took us few trial-and-errors to take the right elevator and arrive at the correct floor where Praful's Honda Civic was parked. It was here that I came to know about few not-so-encouraging facts of our trip home.
- This trip, which was going to be my first highway experience in US, was also going be the first highway experience of my friend Prafulla, and as a driver.
- Chetan was the only one having valid driving license among three of us, but he wont take the driving seat.
- Prafulla appeared four times for the California driving license test only to fail each time.
- If we were caught by "mama", red handed, my two friends will pay heavy fine and I would be deported back to my home country, not very respectfully.
No parking area ever looked so complex. There were multiple exits going to multiple directions from each floor with complicated description written on top of every exit about where it takes to. Again trial-and-error. To my surprise, and fear, I noticed that two cars were actually following us. They depended on us to take them out of this maze. Prafulla got some more people to rely on his smartness. Poor Praful! I can't write the words the drivers of those cars would have uttered for him, after they found that we guided them back to the same floor after making few rounds, up and down, in the building. It took us around half and hour to solve the puzzle and come out under the starry sky.
Hah! Finally we were on road. I felt relaxed, but not for long. In few minutes the hand-held GPS device on Chetan's hand took us to the 101 highway.
I never experience an adrenaline rush like this before. A huge highway with 7.. 8.. 9.. god knows how many lanes. Each lane carrying extremely fast moving cars, each one running for their life. I saw our meter showing 80 miles/hr. My Indian mind calculated it to be around 128 km/hr. Oops! My heart started beating faster. Speed of the cars surrounding us also added to my uneasiness. Specially the ones overtaking us making it look as if we were driving at 10 miles/hr. The only question that was circulating in my mind was.. "What iff..?" I repeatedly tried to imagine the situation after some "What iff..?", and every time I ended up with results more than escape velocity of earth.
Things didn't improve when my driver friend confidently announced his correct feelings about the situation.. "Mujhe dar lag raha hai yaar!". I clearly remember, my heart stopped for few seconds. I remember Chetan trying to console and encourage Prafulla for about fifteen minutes.. but none of his words entered my heart. All his words grew wings and were flying over my mind, I was already in a dream world.. beyond comprehension.
I woke up with a sudden scream from Chetan, "Breaaaak!". Praful did correctly. And our car just missed hugging another car coming from the right lane, by few inches. Apparently, the car did not show indicators while changing lane. Whose fault was it? How does it matter. There could have been no one alive from either car to tell that anyway. Thus, we narrowly escaped one "What iff?".
Somehow, the sudden incident worked in a very positive way on Praful. Taking few minutes from his driving, Praful patiently elaborated the genealogical ancestral chart of the rival driver's family with unmentionable words and he got unanimous support from his passengers. Once done, he appeared relaxed. He appeared bold. He slowed down his speed. I too felt better.
Soon after, the GPS indicated the approaching home. Home, never felt so safe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
