Road Trip
| People Visited |
| Key: |
Relatives |
| Tufts Alumni |
| Other |
|
| Boston |
|
Noah Wollwick |
|
Russ Burman |
Josh Blumenthal
Poonum Agrawal
Kyong Kim |
| Angie Tseng |
|
| Parsippany, NJ |
Neerav Gandhi
Anita Krithivas
Sumon Das
Ashish Shah
Sam Pankiwala
Rekha
|
|
Port Jefferson, NY
(Long Island) |
Haroon Zaveri
Sabiha Zaveri
Zahabia Zaveri
Hussain Zaveri
Mustan Faizullabhoy
Zenobia Faizullabhoy
Alefiyah Faizullabhoy
Umme Faizullabhoy
Ali Dhoon
Zenab Dhoon
Hussain Dhoon
Rizu Dhoon |
|
| Brooklyn, NY |
Noriko Harada
Zain Deane
Ethan Ganc
Gabe Wang
|
|
| Washington DC |
|
|
| Richmond, VA |
Hasmig Schein
Christine Schein
|
|
| Savannah, GA |
Alefiyah Basrai
Kaishoon Basrai
Zavera Basrai |
|
| Atlanta, GA |
| April Simmons |
| Abizer Tyabji |
|
| Dallas, TX |
|
|
When I initially made plans for this trip, it was simply going to be the memorial
day weekend in the New York area for Neerav and Anita's wedding. However, having
a bit of spare time (being unemployed and all), I decided that I would visit the
East Coast properly.
On Wed. the 23rd of May I took a Delta red-eye to Boston (through Atlanta... it
was a last minute ticket, bought with frequent flyer miles so I didn't get an
ideal routing).
I haven't been back in Boston in a long time and I had a fantastic time. Noah
got me from the airport at the crack of dawn on Thursday and I hung out with him for the couple
of days that I was in town for. Since he was also an unemployed bum, I mean in
semi-retirement, he didn't have the inconvenience of work to get in the way of
us hanging out.
 | Best Couch - Noah Wollowick, it's pretty impressive how a really nice couch dresses up a room. This ain't no crack-house no more! |
Our days were chill, and the nights raucous.
For the first couple of days, we milled around Boston, went to the Galleria and
took a couple of recreational rides on the ferry. Then we went up to Newbury Beach
with Josh and hung out up there for the day. We hung out on the beach, took a
bay tour and had an extended lunch at a place on the wharf.
At nights, Noah and I met up with some combination of Poonum, Kyong, Russ and
Josh at the new and improved Davis Square and the North End (not North Beach I
am told!). There we frequented various drinking and dancing establishments. On
the last night we met up with Angie who tried to ditch us in Harvard Square.
At the crack of dawn on Sunday morning, Noah dropped me off at the airport where
I picked up my rental car from Budget. Since the rates were identical for compact
and midsized cars on one-way trips, I scored a Nissan Altima. It wasn't a cheap
American car, it had a CD player and automatic windows/locks. I was very happy.
On my drive down to Jersey, I realized that I should've brought the headset to
my cell phone as I nearly killed myself trying to talk on the phone and maneuvering
through the trucks that blockaded I-95 at the same time. Anyways, I arrived in
Parsippany, NJ by 1:30 pm so I had a little time
to relax and get dressed before the wedding which started at 3:00 pm.
|
Most overpriced hotel - Parsippany Hilton. It was a decent place but
those rooms were not worth $250! They were barely worth the $99
wedding rate that they offered but I was quite happy paying the $55 rate
that I got from Priceline (thanks Noah!).
|
The wedding ceremony itself ran a little long but any stories that I may have
dozed off are vicious, unfounded, rumors without a shred of truth! After the ceremony
I met up with the entire senior year 359 Boston Avenue house - Ashish, Sumon,
Sam (and Rekha rounded out the Tufts contingent) as well as an array of others.
The next part of the wedding confused me a bit. We all seated ourselves in the
ballroom and after the standard introductions and speeches, the MC launched into
Neerav and Anita's "first dance", after which the dance floor was opened
up for all. In my previous wedding experiences, dinner has always preceded the
dancing so I thought that someone at the Hilton screwed up the dinner and was
stalling. This was not the case and it turned out to be a very good thing for
everyone to get a little dancing in before we ate because I felt like I had a
huge rock in my stomach after we ate (the food was great, just heavy).
After the festivities ended, Neerav and Anita met up with the Tufts contingent
and I in a hotel room upstairs and we hung out till the wee hours of the morning.
[Pictures from Neerav and Anita's Wedding]
Incorrectly assuming that the trip from Parsippany to Long Island was only a 45
minute drive I slept in much later than I should have the next morning.
| Most complicated bridge - George Washington Bridge |
<rant>
When I cross a bridge 'round here in the bay area, I simply get on the bridge
and cross. Simple as that. No questions asked. When I tried to cross the George
Washington Bridge, it started asking me all sorts of questions which I had no
idea. First the lane split into an "express lane" and "non-express
lane", then it split in to "upper deck lane" and "lower deck
lane", then into "through lane" and "non-through lane"
making this bridge crossing way more complicated then it needs to be. I
had only a vague idea of what these questions meant and no idea as to their impact
on my journey.
</rant>
In any case, at some point I answered (at least) one of these questions incorrectly
and found myself wandering through Harlem. Not knowing the New York area very
well and having only an anemic map of the city I was extremely confused as I thought
I was on Staten Island (not Manhattan). Anyways, after making some frantic phone
calls to some family and friends in the area, I figured out where I was and managed
to make it to Port Jefferson on Long Island.
|
Most aptly named island - Long Island, it took me a long time to
cross, and I only went halfway... |
It was a lot of fun meeting the next day and a half with the small clan of assorted
relatives that lived there (1,
2,
3).
They showed me around the bustling metropolis that is Port Jefferson then we had
a big barbecue in the evening. That night we hung out, killed bees and decided
where Alefiyah would live. It was like our late night Surat sessions in the Kheyroolla
house, except everything was in English.
d.JPG)
The next day I made my way to Brooklyn and hung
out with Noriko, Zain, Gabe and Ethan at Noriko's luxurious new pad. We ate dinner and then took a driving tour of Brooklyn Heights.
| Nicest unmarried person's bathroom - Noriko Harada |
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|
|
My first parking ticket
|
Considering all the trouble that I had getting into New York, I was really psyched
when I managed to flawless maneuver my way all the way out of the city back onto
I-95. But, (there's always a but) as it turned out I ended up on I-95 North
for about 45 minutes before I realized that I had been going the wrong way. At
that point, just wanting to get the hell out of New Jersey I took a one hour detour
and jumped on I-80 and went west before I jumped South onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
It was a great day to drive and wasn't going to be able to salvage any daylight
to see anything in DC anyways.
| Highest toll that I've ever seen - Verrazano Narrows bridge,
$7.00! |
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|
|
Most expensive parking ticket that I have EVER received
- $100!! Who would've thought that the most expensive anything
would not come from New York! |
|
Arsala took great care of me for the two days that I ended up spending in Washington
DC. During the days I took the metro downtown and checked out the various
sites.
The night I arrived, Arsala took me out to a great Ethiopian restaurant nearby
her place. The second night Arsala took me to a dinner party with a bunch of her
crazy friends. It was quite the change from the parties around here. It was really
nice being around people who didn't keep daily tabs on the Microsoft case or just
are not interested about the latest B2B dot-com to go out of business. We hung
out, drank wine and talked of non-technology related issues. We topped the evening
off by watching The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover. That was a little
disturbing. Anyways, after the party I helped Arsala's roommate Marinella transport
a bed. It's funny how both times that I have visited DC, I have ended up moving
furniture...
Well, I left DC on Friday afternoon in the pouring rain just as rush hour was
beginning. As a result, the drive to Richmond that
should have been under 2 hours instead took a good 4 hours. Anyways, I finally
got there and met up with our old neighbors from Edina, MN, the Scheins.
|
Most changed - Christine Schein, 'cause, well she's not 7 anymore... |
I had a lot fun meeting up and chatting with them again. Because me late arrival
screwed up the dinner plans we ate in. The next day I slept in and made use of
their laundry machines.
|
Most rules in a bathroom - the Scheins. Christine really laid down the
law here, there were rules regarding everything... the towels, the
shower curtain, the door, the floor mat, the toilet... |
Then I took a short driving tour of Richmond. It's not New York City, but any place
with a Wonder Bread Outlet Store can't be all bad.
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In the evening I met Mrs. Schein's crazy friend Cindy and her other crazy friend
Vanessa and went to a Greek festival and ate Greek food and drank Greek wine.
Afterwards we hung out at a bar listening to a local band. The whole evening was
rather surreal.
The next day while leaving Virginia, curiosity got the better of me and despite
Christine's warnings I went to check out Colonial Williamsburg.
<rant>
This place was clearly generating an obscene amount of money and all aspects of
it were dedicated in some way to perpetuating this. The attempt to disguise this
by branding the park as an "educational facility" was just offensive.
The park was clearly rolling in money. The visitors center was covered with expensive
computer and audio/video equipment that was adding dubious value. The fact that
they could afford some 15 large screen plasma monitors (about $20,000 worth) for
mundane tasks that simple cardboard signs could have performed just as well, is
a prime illustration.
This place had an utterly confounding pricing structure with a wide range of plans
that made no sense. The fact that you can enter the town for free is not mentioned
anywhere. Next, in order that people don't figure this out on their own the park
employs evil little old ladies (I call them vultures) whose job is to act sweet
and get confused people to spend as much money as they can under the guise of
being helpful. It took me a while before I realized (and had to beat out of my
vulture) that actual admission to the town was free and you only needed
to pay them the 35 bucks to go inside the little historical houses (more on those
later).
On the approach to the town there were some more signs that tried to guilt you
into paying the full 35 bucks because this was an "educational" institution.
Inside the town there were at least as many stores as there were historical
houses and the stores were much better staffed. The stores didn't require admission
and they were selling the most overpriced crap that I have ever seen. At
least when you go to a Disney park they sell overpriced things that you may actually
want (key chains, hats etc). Here they were selling a few links of a faux colonial-era
chain ($25!), faux colonial-era screws ($10!) etc. Once again, it was clear the
park was putting more time and effort in generating money and very little on actually
educating.
Now I'm not saying that educational institutions aren't allowed to make money, but
their primary goal when they spend that money is upgrading the educational facilities
not generating more money. Being faced with such a crass insult to my sense of
decency so soon after visiting a host of world class museums in DC (for free I
might add) was too much for me. I had to get the hell out of that place (plus,
there was no place to get food - there were no snack bars, only full restaurants
that weren't serving when I was there).
</rant>
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After leaving Virginia I made my way to the Outer Banks,
a string of islands that runs along the North Carolina coast. I took a leisurely
drive down the outer banks stopping to check out all of the sites. There were
many great beaches and lots of cool oceanside scenery.
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My first stop was at the Wright Brothers' Memorial. I really dug this place and
ended up spending too much time there. I also spent time at the Cape Hatteras
Lighthouse, and hoofed it to the top.
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I got into trouble on the tail-end of my trip through the islands because I didn't
realize that there were 2 ferries that I would have to take and I didn't incorporate
their schedules into my own. As a result I missed all of the afternoon ferries
and ended up on the last two ferries of the night not getting to the mainland
till late. Of course, where we were dropped off was sparsely populated and I had
to drive for another 2 hours before I got to a town sufficiently large to have
a hotel (Moorehead City).
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After spending the night at the second pirate themed hotel I realized that I was
starting to run a little behind schedule and started driving like a madman to
make up some time.
| Most Strip Clubs - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was shocked and appalled! |
| Most stations simultaneously broadcasting Rush Limbaugh - 4. These South Carolinans really love their Rush! |
When I exited the car in Charleston I noticed that the climate was quite
different from the weather that I entered my car in (in North Carolina). From
here to the end of my trip, the days were hot and humid. I started
having flashbacks to summer in Atlanta with a suit on...
I didn't spend much time in Charleston though and went straight through to Savannah
the next day where I met up with Alefia, Kaishoon and little Zavera (who used
me as her personal salt-lick) (1).
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The next day I took the little city tour of the town of Savannah. It was cute
and I now know where every last scene from the movie Midnight in the Garden
of Good and Evil was shot. I thought that the tour guides tried too hard to
make each building seem really historic. We saw things like the oldest-black congregation
(not black building) in all of the South, the oldest courthouse in the 13 colonies
or the first stone building built by a black native born stonecutter. It was really
hard to get excited about things like that. It was worth taking the tour, but
I probably would've been really disappointed if this was the only thing in Savannah
I came to see.
The next day I set out for Atlanta where I met
up with fellow ex-Sapientite April. It was a little disappointing that, of all the
people that I knew in the year and a half that Sapient had stationed me down there,
all of them (except April) had moved to a different office, were travelling,
or having eye-surgery.
The next day I dropped off my rental at the Atlanta airport and continued on with
Abizer (who was kind enough to drive the four hours from Mississippi to come get
me). I actually felt a little misty when I finally dropped off my Altima. After
all, it had been with me for about two weeks and I had driven over 2000 miles
in it. It was a good car which treated me well and I was sad to see it go.
Before leaving Atlanta, we had to hit the Waffle House one last time...
From this point, we actually had a schedule to keep (Abizer needed to be in his
new base in three days) so we didn't dwaddle as much as I had been doing in the
past couple of weeks. We drove back to Columbus, MS
the first day and then spend the night. The next day we checked out Vicksburg,
a Civil war battleground. We stopped to see some of the battlegrounds and even
saw a live firing of a civil war cannon. That evening we continued to Shreveport,
LA to meet up with one of Abizer's Air Force buddies Sean and his wife Caroline.
After briefly seeing Sean's base (Barksdale AFB) the next day, we left for beautiful
Abilene, Texas. Over the next couple of days Abizer
got himself situated in his new home. He checked in at Dyess Air Force Base while
I complained about the heat. Then I helped him look for an apartment to live at
while I complained about the heat. Then we drove around Abilene for a bit to check
out Abizer's new home while I complained about the heat. Finally I spilled coke
on myself at Taco Bell while I complained about the heat.
It was really hot down there.
You still reading? I'm impressed!
After 4 days in Abilene it was time for me to shove off and Abizer drove me down
to Dallas. We spent the day visiting Naomi which was fun and then in the evening
Naomi dropped me off at the airport and I took the evening flight back to San
Francisco.
Final Stats:
Total distance travelled: 3208 miles
Distance I drove myself: 2014 miles
Time travelled: 23 days
Number of cities that I stopped at:15
Number of places that I stayed at where I didn't know the people before getting
into town that morning: 2
Number of people I usurped from their beds: 2
Number of couches I slept on: 2
Amount extra Budget wanted for the ability to drop off in Birmingham instead of
Atlanta: $543
Amount of money you would have to pay me to move back somewhere south of North
Carolina: One hundred billion dollars
It was a fantastic trip. I visited many people who I haven't seen in a long time,
saw some people whom I see periodically, met many people who I have never met
before and saw more than I care to of the East Coast and the South.
