Naresh P. Cuntoor
Coast-to-coast Roadtrip
Academic
Personal
Number of days: 13
Distance covered: 7611
miles
Number of states visited: 24
Laying, ahem, territorial
claim atop Monarch Pass at 11312 ft: Priceless!
On this trip
States visited so far
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travel guide
Day
1: DC-MD
Day
2: MD-WV-PA-OH-IN-IL-MO
Day
3: MO-KS-CO
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4: CO
Day
5: CO-UT
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6: UT
Day
7: UT-NV-CA
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8: CA
Day
9: CA-NV
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10: NV-AZ
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11: AZ-NM
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12: NM-TX-OK-TX
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13: TX-LA-MS-AL-GA
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14: GA-SC-NC-VA-DC-MD
I have wanted to do this for a couple of years now - drive coast to coast. The travel gods, it seems, have designs of their own and have thwarted plans the past two summers for one reason or the other. Or may be I was waiting for the perfect alignment of stars! In any case, I decided to go for it over an extended Christmas week this winter.
Gautam flew in from Los Angeles in the afternoon. After a whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C. (read: hitting most of the Patel points for a point and shoot), we headed to Dulles airport to pick up the rental car. Thanks to the upcoming holidays, traffic on the beltway was unusually light - relatively speaking, of course. We got back home, I tossed a couple of clothes in the bag (14 pairs of undi banians, but who's counting?!), tossed in some food to quiet our growling stomachs, and about an hour before midnight headed westward.
Day 2: December 24, 2004 : PHOTOS
The plan was to just keep driving with a minimal number of pitstops until we hit Colorado where the prettier parts of the country starts. The snowstorms in the Ohio river valley, however, checked our speed considerably and we crawled across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. I quickly lost count of the number of SUVs and trucks overturned in the fresh snow. The median and the shoulder was littered with recent accidents all along I-70. Around tea-time, the gateway arch welcomed us into St. Louis, MO as we crossed the Mississippi river.
Here's a bird's eye view of St. Louis as seen from atop Gateway arch. (More pictures here).
In spite of the snow delays earlier in the day, it was still 6p. Though we had planned on camping in St. Louis overnight, we decided to keep driving across Missouri state and reach Kansas city. The good thing about crossing time zones westward is that you gain an hour! On my way back, changing time zones would mean losing an hour each time. For now, at least, time was waiting for us!
Day 3: December 25, 2004: PHOTOS
Christmas day meant all the museums and similar attractions would be closed. So we resigned to a boring drive across Kansas today. The roads in Kansas are straight (no pun intended) for miles together. Its a scenic drive if one considers scores of adult video stores lining the road, scenic! To keep the day a wee bit interesting, we drove off the interstate and soon found ourselves on unpaved road. If it were my car we were in, this would be the point we would turn back onto the freeway. But, hey, lets enjoy life's little pleasures! We drove for some 15-20 miles on unpaved, gravel road in the middle of nowhere leading to nowhere, kicking up a great deal of dust off the road! Thanks to Gautam's cellphone, we kept ourselves amused by chatting with Devjit probably every couple of hours. A typical conversation went something like this. Me: Yen samachara? (translated: whats up?), Devjit, with a shrug: Err.. its been an hour since you called last. Me: Hmm.. yeah I guess so .. why don't you fly to Denver and meet us there? Devjit: Hmm.. Lets see.. hmm.. let me check .. And thus it went for the better part of the day. Ultimately, work kept him grounded and we would see him in Sunnyvale as originally planned.
A little later, we'd chat with Sowmya who was in Las Vegas - we'd visit the same places, separated in time by a couple of days! She's been here in the US for a few weeks now - newly married :) I'm sure Mahesh and Sowmya could've done without our phone calls, but hey - we are like this only!
It was almost dark when we crossed into Colorado and a full moon ushered us into the mountain states. (see the photos here). We met Ajay, Ritu, Sari and Maneesha at a Dave & Busters in Denver, CO to indulge in a bit of gaming at the arcade. I have to confess - I enjoyed racing like the guys in Star wars (though I sucked at it!), flying a plane (though I couldn't land in time), and testing my reflexes at a blinking lights thingy. It was all good. Ritu and Maneesha picked up a couple of ahem, cute, teddy bears (or some such).
Day 4: December 26, 2004: PHOTOS
You begin to get an idea why the Pet shop boys urge you to "Go West!" as you drive across Colorado. After the rather plain, plain states, the Rocky mountains were certainly a welcome change! We checked out the Royal Gorge bridge, billed as the highest suspension bridge in the world. For a different view of the bridge, the rickety inclined railway took us to the bottom of the gorge (brrr.. freezing down there). Thanks to Ajay who did all the planning! Had dinner at this funky place called Elephant bar in Colorado Springs. High marks for originality in ambience, and for food (starting to sound like a restaurant critic, aren't I?!). Minor detail: Ritu and I had ordered the same dish. Both of us found out that we'd got more than we could chew!
Day 5: December 27, 2004: PHOTOS
Walking across a frozen lake, talking to guys lazing around with ice-fishing as the excuse, ooh-aahing at the mountains all around, peering down the black canyon of Gunnison - yeah did all that as we made our way slowly across Colorado. Standing in the middle of the lake after walking across it for half a mile, if you listen closely, you can hear the mountains singing - or was it the Sound of Music soundtrack "the hills are alive with the sound of music" running through my head?
Spent the evening in Colorado National monument taking in the breathtaking views and hardly noticed the passing hours. As it grew dark, it seemed like ours was the only car up the mountainous roads, rest were mostly SUVs and pick-up trucks. A little scary drive down the mountain roads later we were crossing the state line into Utah, or what seemed like great big nothingness - no services (gas or food or lodging) in sight for miles! Hoping things would turnaround, we headed to a town called Moab. Turns out Moab is a decent sized town with cheap motels and the like. Within minutes of settling into the room, Gautam managed to set off the fire alarm (no, we weren't cooking chapathis!). Actually, it wasn't his fault - the heater conked out and the super-sensitive alarm was triggered by the fumes from the coil (?).
Day 6: December 28, 2004: PHOTOS
In all my ignorance, I had thought that there wasn't much to see or do in Utah. Boy, was I wrong! A couple of days ago, Ajay made a passing reference to Arches National Park when we were bidding adieu in Denver. Thought we'd check it out for a couple of hours today. Ended up spending most of the day there - staring at the mysterious arches, hiking to the delicate arch, etc. Around sunset, we drove along the road that runs parallel to river little Colorado. Very scenic.
Day 7: December 29, 2004: PHOTOS
Don't know why, but the weather gods sure looked pissed today! Starting in foggy conditions and almost zero visibility in UT, we crossed the state line into Nevada when the weather turned real nasty. Devjit had been communicating weather reports from Nevada and further west - thanks to the miracle called cellphones! It looked like we'd run into a winter storm pretty much any route we took west. So, we decided to keep going on US 50 that we had been following for the past two states. Across Nevada, this road is nicknamed the "loneliest road in America." Throw in a crappy winter storm and the road becomes even more lonely! Long stretches of the road was unploughed and it made for some challenging driving, especially in the mountain passes. Driving today was a surreal experience. Everything around you in covered in white. How do you know where the road is? Look at the vertical poles that are erected along the sides of the road!
The nice thing about being the only ones on the road is that there is no one to check the chain law that was in effect - not even the cops. So we chose to ignore the law and kept on driving. Maybe we could play dumb with the officer if stopped, we thought. For the unfamiliar reader, when there is too much snow on the roads, the highway authorities activate the chain law. We have to drape the tires in chains (a lot of fun that is, in the freezing cold!) for traction.
The weather improved halfway across Nevada in the afternoon hours, and we zoomed across trying to make up for lost time (never mind that we had lost too much time!). Here's where we went the fastest, crossing 100 mph! Hurrah to no cops being around!
It was fast becoming dark as we approached the Sierra Nevada mountains where the weather was bad again. According to our personal weatherman Devjit, snow restrictions were in effect both along I-80 and US 50 - the two options to cross the mountains in that area. I-80 seemed a worse alternative, plus it was a deviation to the north anyway. So, more US 50 it is! Once we reached Lake Tahoe, we had second thoughts - we had been on the road since 7am, it was dark now, and they had chain restrictions in effect. Should we cross the mountains now or spend the night here and hope for better weather tomorrow? Decisions, decisions! We even booked a room paying an arm and a leg at a super 8 motel! On third thoughts, may be we should buy chains and keep going. I mean, they were saying the weather would only worsen over the next few days.
Paying twice the usual price, we bought the chains (which are now starting to rust in my closet!) and ploughed on. More snow that turned into an obscene amount of rain and high winds ushered us into San Francisco. First stop in SF: Golden Gate bridge - yup, we had made it all the way across the country! It was around 2am when we reached Devjit's place in Sunnyvale at the end of a very long day!
Slept in today. Had brunch in Saravana Bhavan - great food, excellent coffee! Later, met Supriya after so many years! She resides in San Jose with her husband, Sumanth. Seems like just yesterday when there was talk of a watermelon monkey in town! (Only the Gang will know what I'm talking about ;) Had dinner at a Singaporean place.
Drove overnight to Los Angeles. Devjit canceled his air ticket and opted the roadways with us. Southwest makes it easy to reschedule trips without penalties - see, even they know that flying on Southwest is something that can wait - till the next lifetime!
Day 9: December 31, 2004: PHOTOS
Another lazy morning - this one at Gautam's in Irvine, CA. After a late lunch, we made our way with a million other people to Las Vegas. Bumper to bumper traffic all the way - at 80 mph. For the Los Angelenos, a typical day!
Day 10: January 1, 2005: PHOTOS
From Las Vegas onwards, it was me, the car, and the road! The first day of the year saw me in Grand Canyon. Spend the entire day there staring at the deep gorges, temple-like mounds, and the sun painting canyons in different pastels as the day wore on. It is a popular tourist attraction and during summer is sure to be teeming with people. Today, though, there weren't many people and I could sit and admire nature's beautiful creation for as long as I wanted.
As darkness approached, I made my way down to Phoenix and bunked there for the night.
Day 11: January 2, 2005: PHOTOS
A meteor crater in Arizona. Later, a native American place. The former filled with silence of a thousand years. The latter, carrying the lingering chants from hundreds of years. Hauntingly beautiful. Both. By the time I crossed the New Mexico state line, it was starting to get dark. For the want of time, had to skip a visit to Los Alamos. Sorry, Adam!
Day 12: January 3, 2005: PHOTOS
Driving eastward across New Mexico, the mountains gradually grow smaller and give way to the plains. Before long, I could hear 'howdy's' in Texas and later in Oklahoma. Strangely, as you leave mountain time zone and enter the central time zone, the speed limits decay from 75 to 70. Later, as you climb north in the Eastern time zone, it further slows down to 65. Along parts of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, I jumped off I-40 and took the historic US 66, the legendary road that runs from Los Angeles to Chicago. Saw a couple of route 66 museums along the way in Oklahoma.
Reached Dallas, TX at night where I stayed at Mukunda and Smitha's for the night. Proper anna-huLi-palya after a couple of days! We were chatting and the conversation turned to schools. Me: So, Smitha, where did you do your undergrad? Smitha: BMS (that's a college in Bangalore). Me: Which department? S: Electrical. Me: Oh! Know MNV? S: Oh yeah... Me: He's my uncle. S: Really?! Mine too! Umm.. do you have a cousin in med school in Imperial College, London? Me: Hmm.. oh yes, Kanthi's daugher. And so we went back and forth finding out how we were related! Small world, huh...
Day 13: January 4, 2005: PHOTOS
Now that we were related and all, how could Smitha send me without breakfast and such? How could I refuse? We all had uppittu though Mukunda was late for work (good thing his boss isn't in town this week!). And I set sail around 10 am. Crossing the Mississippi river eastward in the afternoon.
Reached Namrata and Adi's in Atlanta at night. Was great catching up with Namrata after a while - I guess I miss our chats over numerous cups of cfar tea/coffee!
Day 14: January 5, 2005: PHOTOS
Ok. If you noticed the little counting discrepancy, you'll get a signed copy of my yet-to-be-written book! I began by saying it was a 13-day roadtrip. I lied - it was 14 days long. 13 days has a better ring to it, don't you think?!
Stopped at Charlotte Douglas airport around 4p and sat watching planes landing for a few minutes. They switched landing ops soon though. Too bad. Pretty much an uneventful drive from Atlanta to back home - except for a close call with a cop. Somewhere in North Carolina, after dark, I cut off a cop car (without realizing it was cop car, obviously). Hey, I didn't want to lose my cruising speed again! May be he was bored or had bigger fish to fry, he didn't seem to mind! Phew!
Around 11p, I pulled into the parking lot near home and glanced at the trip meter. It read 7611.5 miles.