It all started with Shweta discovering the route from Colorado to Mt. Rushmore. Thanks to her we would not have had a time of our lives so far.
FRIDAY:
After a hectic day at work, we met at BEACHES – a bar at the Portland International Airport for a happy hour before we took off to Denver. Downed a couple of Rum shots and ate some tasty snacks, were ready to leave, waited for the check, surprisingly the waitress says “You are all paid up” :- ) we insisted for her to verify, but in vain. We got lucky for the first time on this trip.
FLIGHT:
Boarded the flight, an Airbus 319, excellent take off, nicely cruising at 41,000 ft, I would say one could not ask for more. There was this option of cable TV which we had to pay $6 each. Out of the blue, the attendant comes and swipes the card and says we four have already paid for this! Our luck seems to be growing – 2nd time. As we were approaching Denver flying over Rocky Mountains, the pilot announced strictly to wear seat belts as we could expect a lot of turbulence. We assumed it was just a precautionary warning and were settling down. The plan nosedived(almost) and took off again something very similar to a roller-coaster ride – the difference - we were in thin air at 41,000 ft ! The turbulence was for 8-10 mts, when it ended – the captain announced – YOU GUYS THOUGHT THAT I WAS KIDDING :- ) All our heartbeats were racing like a Schumi’s Ferrari. Got lucky – 3rd time.
CAR RENTAL:
After a long queue for the rental car, we had a free upgrade from a full size to a SUV :- ) we are too impressed with our luck. One of the four is carrying some luck, remains to be seen who the one is. (Shweta is claiming to be the lady luck)
DRIVE TO MT. RUSHMORE:
The total drive is around 380 miles one way. I took over the reins as the speed limit is 75 MPH. Frankly I had completely forgotten speeds beyond 60 MPH after we moved to the west coast. Mid way when I offered to fill in gasoline for the car, Sudip resisted saying it is costly, wonder why he said that and wonder why I agreed to fill it up later. After 10 mts, the vehicle comes to a complete stop just 2 miles before the gas station! The road is empty with no one to help us. There was a truck standing by with a lady using her phone. Our JUGAD Sudip went and explained the situation. She called her husband who was near the gas station and requested him to bring a 5 gallon haul of gasoline. As luck was on our side, we got the gasoline, continued to gas station to top it up and move on. At this point the GPS was indicating 90 miles to destination; I offered the drive to the other drivers wanting to take a nap before we hit the Mount. Everybody except the driver was supposed to be sleeping. All of a sudden, I see we are spinning, Shweta is over me, the navigator is speechless, the driver is desperately trying to control the car as he had dozed off for a second and almost went down the trench, he came out successfully on to the road, took us all for a spin again by jamming the brakes hard, ABS is in place by now, vehicle comes to a bouncing halt facing the other side of the road! Lucky for us there was no other vehicle coming in, else I would not be writing this email to you guys. The Driver had his legs cramped, navigator hurt his finger, myself ended up with a sprained shoulder, Shweta was in a trance and could not believe it happened to us. Thanks to God above, most importantly the driver who recovered, controlled/composed himself and the car bringing it to halt in a upright and not upside down position :- ) Lucky again …
Mt. RUSHMORE:
I would not say that the monument took us into a complete rapture, but yes it is indeed a great piece of sculpture. We all had a good time with the snaps and wound up. Contemplating whether to take the drive back or not, we decided to go back to Denver; the more confident drivers completed journey backwards.
ROYAL GORGE BRIDGE and SKY DIVING:
The Royal Gorge Bridge is 1200 ft high built bridge. An absolute wonder to human eye I should say. Our JUGAD had plans to sky dive piggy backing on a trained jumper. It was quite a sight to watch a 150 kg sack bag falling out of the sky from a 10,000 ft, the trainer accompanying him was doing somersaults and finally both landed with a huge thud making a big hole in the landing area : - )
PIKES PEAK & GARDEN OF GODS:
On our way back, we did the museum of RARE and BIG INSECTS, moved on to see Pikes Peak. Unfortunately the roads were closed at 6 pm, we reached at 6.30 pm. Later we came to know that the weather was extremely dangerous with thunder storms and lightning on the Pikes Peak drive. Lucky again!!!! We went into Garden of Gods which is made of natural formed rocks and some spectacular view points. Our photography expert Ravi had a field day capturing all the good looking stones and also captured a beautiful rainbow as well.
Returned to Denver and watched DELHI BELLY, the latest Indian made English flick. An absolute entertainer with SUDIP errr NITIN (character of that movie) being the complete winner. Please watch this movie and compare NITIN with our SUDIP. You will know what I am talking about. After that we had dinner at 1.30 am in a Mediterranean restaurant which is surprisingly doing business till 4 AM in the morning everyday!
ROCKY MOUNTAINS:
Our final day began with a good breakfast at I-Hops and drove down to Rocky Mountains. There is a 50 mile road called TRAIL RIDGE ROAD which is scenic with a lot of small falls and the Ice still trying to melt on either side of the road. We drove about 13,000 ft, highlight of the drive being the unguarded sides of the road - don’t you dare look on your right or left side while driving, the mishaps can never be imagined and possibly fatal. Survived the drive safely and hit a Nepali cuisine which is nothing but an Indian cuisine joint. Had our stomach full and headed back to our final flight back to Portland.
RETURN FLIGHT:
This was very dreadful again, as usual the Denver weather over the Rocky Mountains was very rough and vibrating the whole plane. Finally it settled down at 40K ft altitude and cruised well into Portland. I guess ATR flights are not my cup of tea as it sends lot of chilling shivers down my spine and stomach was rumbling all along the flight making bigger noises than the snoring of my co-passengers and turbulence of the plane.
Finally landed, took a cab and reached home to sleep like a log on Monday night.
