There are places I remember ...

Last week, Me and Abhi went on a road trip. We drove around 2000 miles and through 5 states- DC, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Abhi came from LA to Baltimore on thursday evening. I left office around 4. Picked him up at the baltimore airport around 6 and left to Baltimore harbour. We spent time in the harbour and downtown till 9 and came back home around 11.. Watched cricket for a couple of hours and then went to bed. Friday morning, I had to go to work for a few hours. Came back early afternoon, rented a car (a govinda color chevy ;)) and went to DC for a few hours.. Came back to Amma's kitchen, had a masaal dose + bonda and back to home.. We also did some shopping for the trip.. Saturday morning, I packed some puliyogre and we left around 6 am. We reached River Gorge Bridge (West Virginia) through Virginia and Maryland around 1 pm.. It is the second or third largest steel bridge in the world, but more than that it is a really beautiful place.. We hiked thr for a few hours and left by 6 pm..

We reached Smokeys around 10 PM. It encompasses the entire border of North Carolina and Tennessee.. We rented a room as the weather was definitely not conducive for camping. The next morning we left around 6 am, We hiked a number of trails, the longest was 10 miles and probably the toughest.. It was a dense forest and we had almost lost our way !!Though it would have been more scenic had we gone in Fall when the trees are colorful and the leaves are falling all around you, the smokeys are truely breathtaking.. It was a long day but a really good one.

Next day we hiked a couple more trails and left Gaitlinburg (the place where we were staying) around 11 am.. It was ABhi's birthday.. It was raining .. and We had the most beautiful drive of our lives through the Smokeys on the North Carolina side.. Words can't describe the beauty (neither do the pictures do justice). We took a detour to go through Blue Ridge Parkway, again a beautiful route.. We reached Virginia Beach, our next stop at 12 in the midnight and I had set a record driving nonstop for 12 hrs except for a couple of pitstops for food/fuel !!

We got into a motel which was facing the Atlantic ocean, a few hundred metres away from the beach !! Spent the next day around VA beach and Norfolk and headed back home late in the evening.

The entire trip was wonderful. This post by no means can explain the joy we found trekking, driving and just gazing at nature's beauty. We had made it a point to go through all the scenic routes, parkways and byways. We had some great music and huge bags of churmuri (aka bhelpuri) to accompany us all the way !!

We took quite a few pictures barring days 1 and 2 in Baltimore and DC where we didn't carry a camera. We managed a few good ones though it was a little tricky to get shots in the smokeys with the haze. You can find them here. I need to find a better photo sharing app. Wasn't really happy with flickr, zooomr or snapfish.

Current Music:

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain.
All these places have their moments
Of lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I loved them all.
.....
.....
.....
And I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them.
In my life I loved you more
In my life I loved you more

John Lennon(Beatles)