Life in a metro!

- So where do you live?

I live near Davis Square. Its about 3 miles away from work!

- Oh that's great. Sounds like a short commute!

Yeah! It takes about 40 minutes!

- !!!!

My average day in the new city starts exactly like it used to in the past 5 years. However about an hour later, I do something new! I WALK!!!! I walk a little less than 10 minutes to get to the public transportation! And then I take the metro for 10 minutes (in which I READ the metro). Then after a stop at Starbucks for my daily dose of Tall Americano, I WALK another 10-12 minutes to work! The silver lining you ask? I can eat/drink anything and however much I want!! ;)

All said and done, inspite of my incessant whining about having to walk and take the public transportation, I would have to admit that Cambridge is probably the next best thing to DC. My Nostal(DC)ia is here to stay! But I have certainly discovered some interesting places around here!

Punjabi Dhaba (Inman Square): Tons of people have already raved enough about how awesome this place is! I strongly resist going here! Because I have a strong feeling that I am going to get sick of it very soon. And yet, I find myself here atleast twice a week!

Miracle of Science (Central Square/MIT): Good bar. Great food! You have to stare at a periodic table to find the menu!

Zuzu bar (Central Square): Great middleastern food! Their veggie platters are amazing!

Chutney's (Harvard Square): Indian food's answer to Chipotle! They roll some curry into a roti and actually ask you if you want rice rolled into it as well!

Kinsale (Boston): One fine Tuesday, when I was missing the Roustabouts, I looked around to see if anyone would play the fiddle around here! Lo and behold, I found the Celtic Clan playing at the Kinsale. I went there and befriended Frank. He was so pleasantly surprised to see me again the following Saturday that he bought me a drink just for coming back! They were pretty good!

Commons (Boston): My replacement for the DC National mall. A good people watching place!

Tealuxe (Harvard Square): It was raining heavily in Harvard square and I did not have an umbrella! I don't think I would have gone in otherwise! I loved it. Very interesting people watching place! And if you are the exotic tea kind of person, this place is a must have on your list of places to go!

Sam's Cafe (Boston): Good patio bar in the Faneuil hall marketplace. I am so not looking forward to the winter!!

Harvard Radcliffe theater (Harvard Square): I saw The Real Thing here! I want to say the performers were probably students at Harvard. But I can not be too sure about that! They were certainly a talented bunch. Great play. I am going back to this theater for the next play!

The New Hampshire liquor store: Did I mention that I miss driving? I found a solution to that problem! I found an AWESOME liquor store just after a $1 toll on the highway north of Boston. About 45 minutes away! Yeah yeah you can drive back home and THEN drink! :D

Some remaining things on my list: MIT museum, Fully Committed, Sam Adams Brewery, Black Rose, Central Square theater ..... Who wants to go with me?? Can someone find me a good idli place and freshly squeezed orange juice??

Phone Woes!

Most people who know me are quite familiar with my rant about how I detest voicemail. We can get into a tedious discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using voicemail but this post is not at all about that. Its about the idea of intentionally not picking up the phone when you clearly see someone calling. I find this idea very disrespectful to the caller. It goes against the basic theory of courtesy or, for the need of a better word, consistency! If you're checking the caller id and not picking up the phone, the obvious implication is, had it been someone else calling, you would have picked up. As an analogy, if someone rang the doorbell to your house, would you just look through that viewhole thing and not open the door?

The analogy opens up a can of worms. It points toward the evolution of the mediums of communication and how humanity has developed innovative strategies of ignoring messages. The basic idea is that you can ignore any message as long as YOU think that it is not obvious to the other person that you are ignoring them.

Letters (Snail mail): They are hand written! They are personal! They have plenty of room to say everything you want to say! The lead time is HUGE! So what was relevant 3 days ago (when you wrote the letter) is not relevant anymore! AND, they got lost quite often. So we needed a more reliable instant medium!

Telephones: The accepted etiquette was to pick up a phone whenever it was ringing. Moreover in most phones those days, it was easier to answer the phone than to find the switch underneath to turn off the ringer. What if you are not at home when the phone rings. And you obviously can't return the call if you don't know who called!

Answering machines: Now people could leave "voicemails" in home phones. AND it went directly to speaker! Well maybe you were not at home and when the guy who set up your answering machine was explaining how to use it, you were thinking about what you were going to have for dessert! And of course there is limited memory in the answering machine. So the voicemail box was full!

Pagers: You have them with you all the time. You can beep someone and they have to call you back at the earliest convenience. But you can always be far away from a phone and it may be absolutely impossible for you to get to a phone!

Cell phones: They are also with you all the time and you can speak into it as soon as you answer the ringing. But incoming is not free. So it is strictly for emergency use only!

Free/Dirt cheap incoming: And the excuses continue! "I had no reception! My phone battery died! My phone was in the other room and the ringer is so feeble that I couldn't hear it!"

Because of the presence of multiple modes of communication in today's world (Instant messengers, Emails, Fixed line phones, Cell phones, Facebook, Twitter.......), there is an unwritten hierarchy of the mode of communication based on the urgency of the message that needs to be delivered. My boss once told me if I really wanted to get something done, emails don't work. I had to call and yell at them! There is also some kind of acceptable norm associated with instant messengers! Apparently it is OK to not respond to instant messages (I obviously disagree) even when it is obvious to the sender that the computer on which you are logged in is in active use! So you obviously saw the message because most messengers flash on your desktop. In my opinion it is very hard to miss it (we can reserve a discussion on whether that's true or not for later)

DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT about communication mediums! I may not be too consistent with the chronology of means of communication and I may miss several of them here.

DISCLAIMER #2: The original intent of this post was to inform everyone that I have no cell phone reception in my lab. So I won't be ABLE TO answer phone calls during the daytime on weekdays. Please leave voicemails :D

nostal(DC)ia

I move to Boston next week. After spending just about 3 months shy of 5 years in the suburban Washington DC, the capital of United States. Well alright, I never really lived in Washington DC and I probably visited the city only once in a month or two on an average. But needless to say, I have created some very long lasting memories in the last 5 years. A lot of friends have been asking me to name a few places that I would particularly miss in DC. I try to name a few and then the list grows so long that I have had to give up on every occasion.

I moved to this area in August 2005. For the first year or so, I hated this place (aptly represented by the first post on my blog). Eventually I made my friends and started enjoying myself to some extent. But my love for the city didn't quite develop until I had spent about 2 years here. Since then, every new place I visit has been a discovery. Today, while returning from my most favorite drive (to and from the Chesapeake bay bridge near Annapolis), I realized how much I am going to miss it once I move. I then decided to get over my restraining order and list my top 10 things to do in DC. So here goes:

10. Cornerstone: Our most favorite friendly neighborhood bar in College Park! Most waitresses here remember me and my colleague Wojciech so well that on more than one occasion, we have gotten our drinks even before we placed the order. Its hard to point to the reason. I don't know if it is our regularity or out tipping style that got us there. Either way, cornerstone is one of those places that will be sorely missed...

9. The National Mall: Yes! It is the indeed the most touristy place in the entire city. But it is also one of the best people watching places during the summers. I have spent numerous days during the spring just hanging out all by myself with a book in my hand and lying on the grass. (The book was obviously hardly being read). Cherry blossom is a wonderful time to be here too. It is one of those rare occasions when you can actually walk a part of the mall with a beer in your hand. Two words! Positive energy!

8. Hot Breads: I know three outlets for this popular chain in the DC area. But my favorite is in Herndon, Va. One of those rare indian "fast food" outlets. It is an excellent place to get idlis on a Saturday/Sunday morning. It will fill you up just about right so that you are satisfied while not feeling too stuffed. AND, it has one of the best mango lassis in town!

7. Zoo Bar: One of my most favorite live music places in town. Wojciech introduced me to this bar about a year ago when one of his friend's band, The Roustabouts, were playing here. Since then, I have gone there on quite a few Saturdays. Finding parking nearby has been one of my pet peeves. But in the past few months, I have overcome my fear and have been religiously going every third Saturday when The Roustabouts are playing. I go there again tomorrow evening!

6. Bethesda downtown: One of my most favorite places to hang out on a regular weekday or on a lazy weekend! There is loads to do here. You could watch a movie in Betheda row, hang out at Barnes and Noble, have coffee at Le Pain, have a drink and listen to some live music at RiRa-The Irish Pub, have dinner at the Thai corner or just simply walk around! There is always something going on to keep you entertained. The most favorite part of my visit here used to be finding quarters for parking in my most favorite parking spot (just opposite BNB).

5. Eggspectations: Eggs are obviously the most preferred breakfast item that can ever be invented! I can not recount the number of consecutive weekend mornings we have shown up at my most favorite Brunch place! The freshly squeezed orange juice that is served here could very well be the best thing that has ever happened to mankind on a hungover weekend morning!

4. Georgetown: Brunch at eggspectations has been followed up by beer in Georgetown water front almost every single time. This place is super lively during the regular spring/summer months and has been extremely inviting during every single trip my friend Vivek has made to this area. My cousin Aiswarya has been pestering me to take her to the Bubble tea place in Georgetown ever since she once accidentally heard about its existence from me! Unfortunately that opportunity has not presented itself yet! I am not too hopeful about that happening anytime soon! Apart from that, there are some very amusing "corona" stories that we have immensely enjoyed on warm sunny weekend days!

3. Beltway: Nights, after 11 pm! Between exits 34 and 30! The best possible drive in the city! I have spent numerous evenings driving back home from my friends' place in Rockville. The overall drive (total 10 miles) takes about 20 minutes. Out of which 6 miles are on the Beltway. Those 6 miles have almost always taken not more than 5 minutes! Loved every minute of it!!!

2. Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis: No explanations required! I have already dedicated an entire blog post to this topic!

1. The lab: During the last year of my undergrad, I spent countless nights in the CAM lab. I still cherish those nights. I remember when I used to show up at 9 pm, make a few local phone calls to my cousin Aiswarya who was then in Bombay and then start working and continue till 5/6 am! I used to think that it would be impossible to up that! Along came the erstwhile Manufacturing Automation Lab, now called Advanced Manufacturing Lab. This place has been my most reliable companion on so many long nights for the past 5 years of my life. The restless marches up and down the lab aisles at 2 am while writing some paper, the sound of the compressor turning itself on to replenish the air supply for the pneumatic tool changer on the CNC machine, the continuous humming sound of the vacuum pump which when turned off makes the place eerily silent, the plastic bottle which was used to keep the building door open when I stepped out of the building for a stroll late into the night.....

The one thing that strikes me the most is that apart from my love for my work/lab, most things worth remembering about the city I have lived in for 5 formative years of my life revolve around either drinking or driving. I guess I should be fine as long as they don't both happen together...... ;)

The Heart and Soul of Indian Ocean!

Indian Ocean's music has some very good memories associated with it for me. The first time I got introduced to their music was in my first year at IIT Bombay. I don't recollect whether it was because of the repeated, torturous reference to the Rewa river or the awesomeness of the song itself! But during the 2001 Hostel 3 PAF, Nimaad, I fell in love with Maa Rewa. Subsequently, I got my hands on a cassette of their popular album, Kandisa. I went to Delhi later that summer to visit my parents and my grandparents. I must mention here that when I go to Delhi, I am welcomed by a home filled with the smell of incense sticks, continuous playback of M.S Subbalakshmi reciting the Vishnu Sahasranaman or Swami Sukhabodhananda making a living for himself on Aastha Channel. Every now and then, some songs of Maharajapuram Santhanam would be played to cleanse the house of all the spirits. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about playing my Indian Ocean album in this atmosphere. After some deliberation, I convinced myself. I played Kandisa. Noone objected. Afterall I was on a vacation. The consensus was that I could have my way for the few days I was going to be there. After the cassette had been played a few times, my grandmother asked me, "Hey Arvind. What is this song you keep playing". I thought to myself, she's probably had just about enough of my stupid nonsensical music and she has finally decided to put her foot down. But much to my surprise she actually really liked it. And so did my grandfather and my mom. Kandisa was played a lot for the rest of the summer of 2001.

After that summer, I moved on to some other music because I had had a little too much of Indian Ocean by then. But later in December 2003, at Mood Indigo, I got to see them perform live for the first time in my life. All the love for Indian Ocean got rekindled. I went on to download their previous albums, the likes of Desert Rain and Indian Ocean and got into the world of their music all over again. Needless to say Kandisa still remained my most favorite album even then.

In September 2008, Indian Ocean came to DC. I roped in a few people and went to see them perform live once again. I LOVED this concert. This was the first time I noticed Asheem Chakravarty, their lead percussionist and tabla player. I realized that he was the magical voice behind many of their songs. Especially the vocals in one of my most favorite songs, Khajuraho. I was fascinated at how he could sing while also playing the tabla. A rare feat among musicians, I learned later. The thing that was most jaw dropping was how he got some very interesting sounds out of the guitar. Asheem knew exactly the right chords to strike. Well that doesn't seem to be a very unique feat for a musician, does it? Well the difference was that he was not using his fingers to play the guitar the traditional way. Rahul Ram, their Bass guitarist, held out his guitar and Asheem played it as if it were a tabla. I wish I had a recording of that performance. Words can not describe it.

I clicked on a link today. A video news clip on Indian Ocean. This was about their latest movie: Leaving Home - The Life & Music of Indian Ocean. Three of the band members were on the interview doing a "live jam session" much to the amusement of the host. Asheem was conspicuously absent. I wondered what happened. I later learned that Asheem Chakravarty passed away on 26th December 2009. I felt some very weird emotions. I was filled with sadness, hurt but most of all guilt! This happened over four months ago and I found out now. How could I not care enough? My brain came up with million excuses for why I may not have gone through the news on 26th December 2009. But none of them seemed to matter! I still feel miserable. I feel ashamed of calling myself a fan. I don't know what I could have done by knowing about this four months ago. Obviously nothing! But, I might just have been spared of the guilt!

Some voids can obviously never be filled. Rest in peace, Asheem Chakravarty!

Very "Enterprise"ing

A lazy Monday evening at 8 p.m!

Sally: Hi. Is this Arvind A...n.....a....n...tha.....nayaranaranraananann?

Arvind: Yeah that's me!

Sally: Sorry for mispronouncing your name. This is Sally from Enterprise.

Arvind: Hi Sally! That's fine. Don't worry about it.

Sally: I am calling to ask you a few questions about the recent rental experience you had.

Arvind: Can you please remind me of the period of this rental?

Sally: This was on March 12th in San Fransisco

Arvind: Well! I was nowhere near San Fransisco on March 12th. There seems to be a mistake.

Sally: I apologize then. Thanks for your patience. Byebye

Arvind: WAIT!!!! I just want to make sure what this is about. I want to make sure there is no credit card fraud here.

Sally: I understand sir!

Arvind: Can you give me the confirmation number on this rental?

Sally: Certainly. The number is #$%#@. And the telephone number of the rental location is ##$-T%$#-%#@#.

Arvind: Thank you sally.

Sally: Byebye

A few minutes later.......

Jamie: Thank you for calling enterprise san fransisco. How may i help you?

Arvind: Hi Jamie. My name is Arvind Ananthanarayanan and I wanted to get a confirmation about a recent rental activity. I got a call from one of your employees about a rental i seem to have completed in san fransisco on 12th march.

Jamie: That is weird. What did you say your name was?

Arvind: Don't worry about that. I have a confirmation number. That would probably be more helpful. Here it is ..........

Jamie: Yes. You seem to have rented a PT Cruiser on 12th March.

Arvind: You see, I live on the east coast and I have not been outside a 200 mile radius in the past 3 months. So this doesn't seem right.

Jamie: Can you confirm your driver's license number?

Arvind: Sure. It is .......

Jamie: And the last four digits of your Amex card?

Arvind: Are you kidding me here???

Jamie: Oh. there seems to be a mistake. The person whose credit card was charged doesn't have your name. So you should be fine. We probably got the drivers license number off by a couple of digits and the person who entered it did not bother to verify the name on the rental!

Arvind: Wow! Can you give me your name again so I can reference you if and when I find my credit card charged.

Jamie: Sure. My name is Jamie and don't worry your credit card won't be charged.

Arvind: Thanks Jamie. I would love to take your word for it. Byebye.

So am I just going to get some random speeding tickets here or am I missing the big picture here? That's it. I had my Tyler Durden moment!

Tiponomics

Mr. Pink: Uh-uh, I don't tip.

Nice Guy Eddie: You don't tip?

Mr. Pink: Nah, I don't believe in it.

Mr. Pink: I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job.

Anyone who shares my love for Quentin Tarantino's movies will immediately be reminded of this dialogue as part of the opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs. To say that I found the concept of calculating the tip in a restaurant/bar (as a percentage of the check amount), ridiculous, would be playing it down. When I was in undergrad in India, we tipped a standard Rs. 5 on every check irrespective of the check amount. In our regular restaurant, we would tip Rs. 10. This was enough to ensure that the seven/eight of us got a table on a jam packed friday evening in the most popular restaurant across the street from campus. After moving to the United States a little less than 5 years ago, I was familiarized with the concept of tipping around 10-15% of the check amount during one of my initial escapades from the travails of graduate school. Eventually I got used to calculating the tip as 15-20% of the check amount. I remember being very proud of myself for being a "generous tipper".

This was until I started going out with another colleague of mine, Alan. Alan used to tip 40%, sometime 60%, of the check amount. This made me feel very uncomfortable. Suddenly, "I" was the cheap guy. That is obviously not a very desirable trait to possess. Especially not if you want to sustain a healthy camaraderie with your regular drinking buddies. So I just played along. Everytime I used to go out with Alan/Wojciech I let them put out the tip first so that I knew what to do. But the economics of tipping still evaded me.

Wojciech and me are now treated as regular customers in our popular neighborhood bar in College Park. Everytime we go there, we are greeted with an extra wide smile, we get the best waitress, and we get our drinks in Glasses even if everyone else is getting them in plastic cups (anyone who has ever had beer knows how much that matters). Based on our tipping style, we managed to create a "brand" for ourselves as customers. Now to sustain our brand value, we HAVE to continue to tip generously. However we do get away with the occasional stinginess!

Now all this got me to thinking! How does one come up with the tip amount? Based on my experience here, I have come up with this pattern, an algorithm, to calculate my tip amount. I now calculate the tip as a non-linear function of:

1) My regularity at the restaurant/bar.

2) The check amount.

3) The amount of time I have been sitting there.

4) The tip has to exceed a predesignated "minimum tip amount". However a higher check value can be used as an excuse for a smaller overall percentage of the check as tip. As long as it is greater than 15%.

5) The friendliness of the waitress. (Although "some" waitresses don't even have to smile)

Now the above rule is applicable to the customer. What about the waitresses? Their side of the story is also, quite obviously, driven by economics. Most waitresses get paid a fixed hourly rate. So the best working hours for the average lazy person would be the off peak hours. But any waitress who wants to make the most of the job would want to pick up the peak hours for her shift. Now this is just stating the obvious isn't it?

A not so obvious observation for me has been the appearance of the waitresses. On an average day, most waitresses dress comfortably. However on a peak night (Friday/Saturday), a LOT of effort goes into the appearance. The clothes are more appealing, the make up, more liberal and the blouses, lower cut. Now why not do this every night? Of course the comfort level and the effort that goes into dressing primmer are both good arguments. But there could also be this deeper rationale that goes into the "dressing optimization" routine. Remember, there are bonus points for friendliness. On an average day with not too many customers, they can get their bonus points simply by being more frequent in refilling your cup of coffee or your beer. Or for that matter they could simply spend that extra minute talking to you. However on a busy night, they don't have the luxury of providing that "excellent" service. They are pressed for time because of the sheer volume of customers that need to be served. So the appearance is simply used as a means of getting those highly desired bonus points for friendliness! Make sense?

Coming up next: Astrology

My Great American Road Trip

4 people, 7 days, 3123 miles!

We finally did it! We drove from Baltimore to Las Vegas this Christmas break. Yeah! I know! Las Vegas is not really the other "coast"! But it is across the "country" all the same! So I think I can get away with calling it a "cross country road trip"! :D We started driving on 12/24/2009. A day by day account of the trip follows:

Day 1

Start: BWI

End: Morristown, TN

Miles covered: 479

We picked up our rental at 12.30 from BWI. It was a standard SUV. A Mitsubishi Endeavor. Then after lunch at home and a stop at Patel brothers for some "essential" groceries, we hit the Beltway at about 3.00 pm. I was driving the first shift. Our goal was to get to New Orleans by the end of Christmas day! Being Christmas eve I was expecting the roads to be pretty busy. But surprisingly enough we got out of the city without experiencing much traffic. I was driving at 50-60 almost all the way to the outskirts of the city. (After that the speeds obviously rose up to about 80 mph). After dinner at Salem, VA in a Chinese restaurant called Schezuan, we called it a night at around 11.00 pm in Morristown, TN.

Day 2

Start: Morristown, TN

End: Slidell, LA

Miles covered: 614

After breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road at about 10.00 am. Ragini drove for most part of the day. Our first stop today was Chattanooga, TN for lunch. This was a nice little town with a river front and a couple of bridges. Being Christmas day, the only place that could possibly be open was something asian. So we had a Thai lunch which was surprisingly pretty good. The next stop was Birmingham, AL. The town was CLOSED. There was not a SINGLE soul on the city streets. We gave up! Finally after driving a little outside the city, we stopped for gas. Gas mileage on our SUV was HORRIBLE! We would be lucky if we got anywhere near 18 miles to a gallon. Having another 2500 odd miles to go from here we were already feeling the big hole in our pockets (and the ozone layer?) Amogh took over the driving from here. At around 8.00 pm (Central time) we stopped at Slidell, LA just before New Orleans (30 miles) and had dinner at Waffle house. This place was proud to serve on Xmas day. Apparently it was part of the Xmas celebration to have dinner here or so they claimed. That was the first true blood white american person we interacted with in the two days since we left DC.

Day 3

Start: Slidell, LA

End: New Orleans, LA

Miles covered: 32

Started from Slidell, La and drove through the twin span bridge. Beautiful! My bridge count was now up by one. In 45 minutes or so, we reached New Orleans and walked for a good 4 or 5 hours from then. We saw the french quarter, visited the river front, saw the HUGE discouraging line outside Cafe dumonde and had a croissant with grilled veggies for lunch (Being a veggie sucked in New Orleans. I really wanted to have the cajun red beans with rice but it comes with the meat in it!) New Orleans was a fun town with a lot of French architecture, shops selling funny paintings, t-shirts and so on! The French market here sort of reminded me of Sarojini Nagar market in Delhi. Subsequently we went wine tasting at this place called WINO. They had an interesting way of tasting wines. It pumped wine out of the bottle into the glass at the touch of a button (measured 1/2/4 oz and poured into the glass). Then after a middle eastern dinner, we went to a Blues bar and a Jazz bar. Blues was awesome but Jazz was kinda boring. But the Jazz guy started using a funnel shaped device covering the mouth of the trumpet. Some interesting sounds and some nerdy remarks and conversations followed (on how the funnel shape was influencing the sound waves coming out of the trumpet)

Day 4

Start: New Orleans, LA

End: Denton, TX

Miles covered: 582

It was finally my turn to drive again. After breakfast in uptown New Orleans with Ragini's friend we drove through a quite up class neighborhood of New Orleans before heading out. On our way out we drove through the longest bridge in the world which is fully on water. The pontchartrain causeway. At a length of 26 miles it was just an endless waterbody. The water rose right upto the horizon. It took us a good 25 minutes or so to get past the bridge. Initially it was beautiful and exciting to see so much water but it quickly became boring and monotonous. From here on, I drove a straight 8 hours or so to Dallas with a 10 minute gas break. The traffic was pretty heavy. So I had to find the "rebellious" drivers who would "show me the way". It was interesting how they sped away from me as soon as they realized I was following them. My first catch was a pair of Ford trucks who were cruising along at 85 mph and then sped away at about 100 mph as soon as they realized I was following their lead. Then I realized that I had to keep the illusion going that I am not really "following" the next rebellious drivers. With some lane change moves, I was finally able to convince this Mitsubishi Eclipse to lead me for a while at 90 mph. Finally after an Indian dinner at Dallas, TX, we called it a night at Denton, TX.

Day 5

Start: Denton, TX

End: Santa Fe, NM

Miles covered: 702

Starting at 10.00 am, we stopped for a Mexican lunch at Oklahoma City at about 12.45 today. Thanks to empty roads with 70 mph speed limits (where Vivek and Ragini mostly drove at 90-100), time zone change to gain an hour and our lack of desire for drinking water, we made it to Santa Fe, NM which was 700 miles away from where we started, by dinner time. The horizon during the drive was all farm lands for a long time (I realized that the FM highway numbers in Texas mean "Farm to Market"). Subsequently it changed to desert and mountains in New Mexico for the last 200 miles or so till Santa Fe. Santa Fe was a promising looking town where we were able to find an awesome Italian restaurant called Andiamo for dinner. This was among the better Italian foods I have had. Good stuff!

Day 6

Start: Santa Fe, NM

End: Flagstaff, AZ

Miles covered: 383

We started the day by visiting the Cross of the Martyrs which is a point on the top of a small hill. The trail to the top was covered with snow which made the hike up interesting. Subsequently visited two churches and the plaza at Santa Fe. The indians at Santa Fe had some very exciting talent to showcase. Clay sculptures, bracelets and necklaces made of shells, corn and so many other fascinating works of art made the whole city tour quite worthwhile. Subsequently went to the Railyard which was the one thing I was really looking forward to. But that was disappointing because there was nothing much to do over there. Subsequently got to check out the photographs of Lisa Kristine which seemed extremely impressive. She seemed to have spent a lot of time capturing some very interesting shots in India/Nepal/China etc. Finally ended Santa Fe, NM at 3.00 pm after lunch at Tia Sophia. They had really good food and they had this bread called Sopaipilla which was exactly like the Bhature. Amogh then got us to Flagstaff, AZ by 8 in the night. This was another interesting town where we found a pretty good brewery for dinner.

Day 7

Start: Flagstaff, AZ

End: Las Vegas, NV

Miles covered: 362

After a good breakfast at the motel, we started driving towards grand canyon at 10 am. It was again my turn to drive. It was snowing big time all the way there. We couldn't get to any "views" there so drove out of there and decided to go to hoover dam and spend some time there. On our way there, we got stuck in big time traffic which took us about 2 and half hours to get past an 8 mile stretch through Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam looked like a very interesting place. But it was already pretty late in the night. So we decided to come back here to check it out on the 1st (which we did) Finally at 8 pm Pacific time, our cross country trip came to its end in Las Vegas, NV on 30th December 2009. One day before planned.

Interestingly enough, at the end of the trip, NONE of us were tired of driving.....