I have been thinking for long time on starting a blog. My recent trip to New York served an icebreaker to start a blog. And perhaps this is my first blog!!! Hope you enjoy reading it. Feel free to leave a comment.
I wanted to visit my friends in New Jersey and go along with them to see New York. I was planning to take a flight to Newark international airport over the weekend. Spring has started and the flight tickets were quiet expensive. The only option I was let with was to drive to NY. I was searching on internet for distance and route to drive. According to Google maps my friends place in Jersey was 701 miles (1128 kilometers) and it was about 11 hours 8 mins drive from Knoxville. I calculated on the gas (petrol) prices and the cost to travel for my trip worked out to be 70 percent cheaper than flight tickets.
Preparing for my trip: I worked hard to complete my project tasks for the week. The week went pretty fast. My plan was to start around 5.00 AM on Thursday morning. On Wednesday after my work, I went to Walmart and got lot of snacks, water and soft drinks. I had to buy all these to make sure I do not sleep while I am driving in the car J. I was really tensed on Wednesday Night. This was my first long drive in US. And also I will be driving alone for 12 hours. With all these thoughts running in my mind I slept for about 4 hours only.
I woke up at 4.30 AM as planned and it took me one hour to get ready. I finally started at around 5.45 AM. When I started my car, I was feeling tensed. But I was free from tension as I moved my car out of my parking lot. I had 10 CDs with Telugu, Tamil and Hindi songs to kill my boredom while driving.
I was always scared of driving along with the trucks on the highways. The trucks were gigantic and atleast 70 foot in length. I was feeling anxious every time I overtook a truck. Another thing I was worried about was, when a truck moves to the left most lane to overtake another truck. When you see in your back mirror you feel as if an elephant is chasing you. But soon I got confidence and was driving in comfort. Other think that helped me while driving was cruise control settings (that will hold the car at the chosen speed without having to accelerate). I was not aware of this till my friend explained on this over phone. I was searching for manual in my car to read about cruise control. This was a rental car and the manual was missing. Anyhow I learnt on how to use it as it was clearly written on the buttons. I had to experiment on it on the way with wild guesses and to my surprise everything worked as expected.
In the first six hours of drive I had already taken 5 breaks. Every break I took was delaying my reach in Jersey by 15 mins. I decided to take only three breaks including one for gas (petrol) for the remaining 6 hours drive. This worked out as planned and I was 18 miles away from Jersey. I made a small mistake here, I took the wrong exit and was on the highway to New York instead of the highway taking me to New Jersey. I called up my friend to direct me over phone (as I did not have GPS). As he was not in front of computer he was not able to help me. Soon I took one exit and stopped my car at a mall and asked a gentleman about the route to Edison, New Jersey. I got the required information and started again. I called my friend to say I was fine and will reach in 30 mins. I drove to the NY highway as instructed by the gentleman. And in 2 miles there was an exit to New Jersey highway. I was very relaxed and followed my map to reach my friends place.
I reached a place very close to my friends apartment. I was not able to locate his apartment. I parked my car near an Indian restaurant and called him up again. He said I was in the distance of 2 mins walk from his place. He soon walked down to the Indian Restaurant and guided me to his house. I was feeling safe and relaxed. I called up people to inform that I reached safe in New Jersey. I reached the place around 6.30 PM (After 12 hrs of drive!!!). I was proud that I made a succesful long drive.
I will write about my experiences in New York in my Next Blog. Thanks for spending time reading my blog. Do leave me a comment.
I wanted to visit my friends in New Jersey and go along with them to see New York. I was planning to take a flight to Newark international airport over the weekend. Spring has started and the flight tickets were quiet expensive. The only option I was let with was to drive to NY. I was searching on internet for distance and route to drive. According to Google maps my friends place in Jersey was 701 miles (1128 kilometers) and it was about 11 hours 8 mins drive from Knoxville. I calculated on the gas (petrol) prices and the cost to travel for my trip worked out to be 70 percent cheaper than flight tickets.
Preparing for my trip: I worked hard to complete my project tasks for the week. The week went pretty fast. My plan was to start around 5.00 AM on Thursday morning. On Wednesday after my work, I went to Walmart and got lot of snacks, water and soft drinks. I had to buy all these to make sure I do not sleep while I am driving in the car J. I was really tensed on Wednesday Night. This was my first long drive in US. And also I will be driving alone for 12 hours. With all these thoughts running in my mind I slept for about 4 hours only.
I woke up at 4.30 AM as planned and it took me one hour to get ready. I finally started at around 5.45 AM. When I started my car, I was feeling tensed. But I was free from tension as I moved my car out of my parking lot. I had 10 CDs with Telugu, Tamil and Hindi songs to kill my boredom while driving.
I was always scared of driving along with the trucks on the highways. The trucks were gigantic and atleast 70 foot in length. I was feeling anxious every time I overtook a truck. Another thing I was worried about was, when a truck moves to the left most lane to overtake another truck. When you see in your back mirror you feel as if an elephant is chasing you. But soon I got confidence and was driving in comfort. Other think that helped me while driving was cruise control settings (that will hold the car at the chosen speed without having to accelerate). I was not aware of this till my friend explained on this over phone. I was searching for manual in my car to read about cruise control. This was a rental car and the manual was missing. Anyhow I learnt on how to use it as it was clearly written on the buttons. I had to experiment on it on the way with wild guesses and to my surprise everything worked as expected.
In the first six hours of drive I had already taken 5 breaks. Every break I took was delaying my reach in Jersey by 15 mins. I decided to take only three breaks including one for gas (petrol) for the remaining 6 hours drive. This worked out as planned and I was 18 miles away from Jersey. I made a small mistake here, I took the wrong exit and was on the highway to New York instead of the highway taking me to New Jersey. I called up my friend to direct me over phone (as I did not have GPS). As he was not in front of computer he was not able to help me. Soon I took one exit and stopped my car at a mall and asked a gentleman about the route to Edison, New Jersey. I got the required information and started again. I called my friend to say I was fine and will reach in 30 mins. I drove to the NY highway as instructed by the gentleman. And in 2 miles there was an exit to New Jersey highway. I was very relaxed and followed my map to reach my friends place.
I reached a place very close to my friends apartment. I was not able to locate his apartment. I parked my car near an Indian restaurant and called him up again. He said I was in the distance of 2 mins walk from his place. He soon walked down to the Indian Restaurant and guided me to his house. I was feeling safe and relaxed. I called up people to inform that I reached safe in New Jersey. I reached the place around 6.30 PM (After 12 hrs of drive!!!). I was proud that I made a succesful long drive.
I will write about my experiences in New York in my Next Blog. Thanks for spending time reading my blog. Do leave me a comment.
8 comments:
How can u even think of sleep with Rajani saar for company :)
Nice to see your Blog and read about your trip, Our Guys are Rocking where ever they go what ever they do :) Keep it up.
good blog buddy. keep up the good work.
aswin
nice blog hari ... good start... keep them coming
Wow..really amazing to read your blogs. I come to know the experience of your lonely trip till u reach New Jersey...Simply great. I can't imagine writing like this myself.
ur experience thrilled me ... i enjoid reading ..looking forward for ur next blog
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