Houston...We have a problem!!

The weekend was spent travelling.

My roomie and a few other friends were planning a hiking trip to grandcanyon over the weekend. Their main aim was to hike all the way down to the Colorado river which was like 7.5 miles from the top of the hike..and then make it back the same day.

I wanted to go, but one part of me dint want to, as well.

My main grouse was that, ppl should stick together, and not just go on their own.

It being a very risky climb on the way up and wanted ppl to look out for each other.

A couple of guys in it were fast climbers and dont have the patience to wait for the guys tht are not able to keep up with the pace set by others.

In any case, everybody was like " If anyone cant continue, they just drop out and go back and the others can continue"

I was not ready with it, and decided against going.

I need not have worried, everyone managed to complete the full stretch, and it looks like a sunday and a monday still aint enough to recover..

But itz a very good exp, I was just feeling bad that I missed out.

Anyway, one door closed and another opened..

My colleague wanted to go to houston all of a sudden on fri evening..and we decided to drive all the way from phoenix.

Around 1200 miles, each way:-), guess it took us around 16 hrs to go there..

We went all the way to the Harbor and got a chance to look at any of 'Rita's' damages, if any.

Houston, was and is still', a maze of concrete bridges. I m not sure as to when they will put an end to the construction..

There seems to be a maze of them and it seems the construction engineers relish the site of one bridge jutting out on top of each other like a pack of cards..just like any of your Lego construction toys that you would have had., as a kid.

I sometimes get the feeling, that If you let these guys build your home.,they will have a direct walkway from your kitchen to your living room then an overbridge from he kitchen to the batroom and one more from the living room to the bathroom. As if thts not enough, your bedrooms will have individual bridges from each of these above rooms.

Boy..all those concrete structures and the effort it takes to build them.. not to mention the hardship it puts to the traveling public..is enormous.

I can seriously feel, how ppl must have felt while trying to flee from 'Rita'. It would have been better to stay put @ home during the time..

While there in Houston, got a chance to go that Balaji bhavan that everyone were
raving about as the best Vege place of late. For the first time ever, got hold of a Pav baaji Dosa..

Yessss.. dont blink..thts the name..

I was apprehensive, with good reason too..as everytime that I select a dish that I havent tasted before, it ends in disaster..and I end up getting ridiculed for my choice. But this time, it was awesome.. and more importantly the price was just about right.

Next time when you folks go to Houston, make it a point to go there..

Any way coming back to the trip, we had to stop at an immigration checkpoint on the way. You are forced to do it, even when you dont cross the US border..

Kinda stupid, because, u never get to know that such a thing is possible. Why on earth would anyone expect something on US soil, when you dont cross the border at all, is the question everyone will ask..and Rightly so.

The place in question was ElPaso,Texas and you have to pass that town to get into Texas when driving from Phoenix. that stupid jerk @ the outpost..had a look at my papers, and got hold of one line where the heading was a bit bolder than the other places.

All he asked was.." Why is it like this. Do you have any other papers"

Here was a gent questioning my valid papers given by the US govt on the pretext that one of the headings were in bold text. I was so perplexed that I did not know wat to say.

My friend luckily had a older copy and it was the same in that as well. We then managed to convince him, that this is how the US authorities do it and that we did not fudge it. He finally let us go.

Another funny incident happened right after this..a couple of hrs later..actually.

The speed limit in Texas was 75mph and I had set it to cruise at 80. I would have gone faster, if not for the fact that only recently had I exptied my wallet, at one obscure town on the way to Niagara falls, in NY.

The cop there had caught me for over speeding and had emptied $600 in just fines.

I was wary of getting another one and decided to play safe this time..as the incident was still fresh in memory..:-) and so imagine my surprise when a cop caught me this time..for being just 5 miles about the speed limit.

We were just having a conversation in the car that in Tx the cops are so f**King
M*r*ns that they will catch u even if u are just 6-7 miles above the speed limit.

and voila, the lights flashed behind me..

I had no insurance on the car, as it was my friends' car and we were wondering what the heck did he catch us for. He came over and said, " you know why I caught you."

"NO, Officer"

" you were going on 85. on a 75 stretch"

I just lost it right then and there... "NO WAY. I have set it on cruise., for the past hr or so...and I've not even accelerated at any time since then."

I just stopped short of saying he was lying..:-)

He kept repeating his, and I, my lines..

He finally got tired and asked me to step out..

He must have been totally thrown of balance with the way I talked, cause I knew for a fact that this time I never speeded, and wanted to avoid another ticket at all cost, and in all that hullaboo, he forgot to look into the insurance papers., luckily :-)

So I stepped out, and he asked me where Im going.

" We are going to meet a friend of my friend."

I then told him where we are driving from and when we are going back. He was so shocked that we were driving non stop for 16 hrs just to see someone for a couple of hrs then and then head back again..

"Are you crazy. You are just going back immediately today after seeing him"

I had by now started enjoyin this. and was amused at his expression. He just could not believe it and went and asked my friend about it, who basically said the same thing except that the person we were going to meet was his brother., while I had said, friend'.

SO he came back to me and said, "so this guy you are gonna meet, is he a friend
or a family member. "

" I guess family member, a cousin probably."

" so in few minutes itz changed from friend to family member to brother"

I was cornered. All I could do was, give a shrug of the shouders and a none too convinving smile..

"Do you have anything ilegal in the car trunk."

me: " Nope. nothing at all. YOu are free to check, if you want to"

"Can I "

" Im sure you can, officer. I dont see why" I said, tongue in cheek and then biting it immediately after I said that.

I sensed I'm pushing it too far..

Guess, at that point,he just got fed up, gave my license back and said.. "Drive safe man" and pushed of.

We finally managed to meet his friend..oopz cousin...nay nay..brother..;-) who again was astonished that we drove this long to just meet him.

The drive back was eventless..and I guess thats all we wanted..:-)