A road trip across the continental United States is one of
the most exciting things one could ever do. And I embarked on just such a
voyage this week. As I see it, a daily record of places I visit and how they make
me feel is a great way to document this for the future. So here is the first
one of quite a few to come.
From my haunt in Berkeley, I traveled to Santa Clara where
my truly interesting and talented roommate, Aravind Gayam’s, friends live and
work. They are all engineers working in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley
after having graduated from the University at Buffalo, NY and a few other
universities in the US. So this is a large group of around 10 Indian engineers
in their mid-20s on a once in a lifetime trip across the US. Their friends flew
into the bay area from Philadelphia, Fairfax and Wisconsin to start off from the
west coast toward the east.
So we started bright and early on the 27th of
December towards Santa Barbara. En route lay the Big Sur, the most beautiful
drive I’ve ever experienced with the cold, blue pacific in its various hues on one
side and a rugged mountainous terrain on the other side as the road wriggles
up, down and sideways to just stay within the comfort zone. There were great picture
opportunities here.
A word about traveling long distance on the road. The
minimum you need is a big, gas-guzzling SUV. An RV is the best option, but also
really expensive. The group is in two SUVs, one larger than the other but both
very comfortable. I haven’t felt the effects of a long day on the road but its
early days yet so things might change.
Bidding goodbye to the Big Sur, we drove to the beach town
of Oceano that’s home to Pismo beach. The guys wanted to ride ATVs on the sand
dunes here. I got some good rest in the car. We had dinner early in the
evening, at a surprisingly good Thai place called Divine Thai in this small
beach town and then drove down to Santa Barbara with the music completely
dominating conversation in contrast to the day.
As I write this we are on the road to Los Angeles after a
good night’s sleep. California truly has magnificent weather; there is rarely
an ugly day without sunshine. While the Indian monsoon has its own intense magnetic pull that I miss, the California experience is quite
easy to get used to. It is always nice out here. That shall not be the case in
Denver, Colorado where we are headed in a few days.
It was a great start to a promising journey. Although I’d
been to the Big Sur before it never ceases to evoke wonder and amazement. The
nature of road trips, especially ones with many people, is to offer fleeting
glimpses of beautiful landscapes rather than build familiarity with places
you’d want to stay at for a length of time. I must confess that I’m prone to
taking everything in slowly rather than rushing through multiple ‘tourist
spots.’ Still, it is a trade-off that I’m willing to make given all that I’ll
be able to see.
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