“Stay awake…stay focused…you cannot sleep…you are not felling sleepy…you cannot afford to…” these were the words, I was constantly reminding myself. I was trying extremely hard to stay focused.
”Continue for 4.9 miles on I-495” a loud female voice spoke, tearing the silence in my car into pieces. I almost shit in my pants, thinking who the hell just spoke (Hmm...Too many horror movies) It was just GPS Aunty.
I was still driving (and alive) all the way from North Brunswick, New Jersey (NJ) to Florence, South Carolina (SC) 600 miles.
Desi, with a 2 day old South Carolina license, freshly bought car and first long drive. Still seemed like a dream. AM I REALLY DOING THIS? Why am I doing this? Will I make it? Will I see my wife and daughter again? Did I do the right thing?? Somebody please wake me up…I don’t wanna do this!!
Desi, with a 2 day old South Carolina license, freshly bought car and first long drive. Still seemed like a dream. AM I REALLY DOING THIS? Why am I doing this? Will I make it? Will I see my wife and daughter again? Did I do the right thing?? Somebody please wake me up…I don’t wanna do this!!
The Backstory:
Mission was to drive from NJ to SC to pick my wife up from Florence airport - 600 miles. What’s the big deal? Well – I stay in Florence too. Did you say “WTF!!!”?
Well, it is difficult to buy used cars in Florence. Reason being supply & demand. Even a Year 1811 BC – Toyota Corolla with 198021984 Light year miles on it will cost you around $8K to $9K. At my salary, I could just afford a steering wheel, horn & 1 tire.
So long story short, this was the (dream) plan:
> Reach NJ by bus at 8:30 am where my partner in crime Satish aka “sAt” picks me
Up.
> We take a temporary number plate from NJ-DMV (Car already purchased by sAt)
> I (first time driver…who has received his DL just a few days back) will drive the
Car all the way from NJ to SC
> Pick my wife and daughter up from FLO airport on Tuesday, so that meant
I HAD TO GET CAR BEFORE THAT.
Don’t ask me “Why didn’t you do it earlier?…why wait till lastest last moment?…” All the time in universe and I won’t be able to explain or justify that!
What actually happened:
D-Day minus 1(Friday night)
Adventure started on Friday night when I boarded New York bound gotobus. “Garib logo ka bus”. Only walking would be cheaper, it’s a life saver!! Mostly preferred by Chinese, African-American & Indian origin junta.
A man got onto the bus, drunk as hell. Stuff falling from his back pack, food spilling from the takeaway box. He crashed into the first row seat, right behind the bus driver. People were scared that he was distracting the driver. He was laughing on the bus door that would not shut properly (worth a risk for 60$ ticket). He felt, that the door will give away and people in the bus will be sucked out into the dark night.
When the bus reached Richmond, bus controller got in the bus; he did a surprise check and found out that the drunken man did not have a ticket on him. Controller & drunken man had an argument. Police got involved. Some over enthusiastic people tried to solve the issue, which the police officer did not like.
After a much huu-haa match ended in a tie. It was decided that the drunken man will pay the fine, sleep in the back of the bus and won’t trouble anyone. So after 2 hour delay bus left for NY. It was almost 3 a.m. and I was longing to sleep. I knew it would be a long journey back home.
The bus driver understood limited words in English. So, it was getting very difficult for me to explain him where I want to get down.
Suddenly my Indian instincts kicked in & I handed over a 10$ bill to him and surprisingly he even understood sentences that I spoke in Hindi.
Btw, he asked for 10$ more when I got down, I paid him 5$ and ran. “Kisko diya hai jo tujhe nahi dunga” I said to myself.
ALL SET…Stage 1 completed. Hello NJ!!
At NJ (D-Day minus 0.5)
Plan for the next 2.5 hours was extremely simple: Go to DMV office. Collect the temp license plate. Go home. Complete morning activities. Eat! Take some rest. Change car tires. Do something about leaking coolant pump. Do some practice laps in sAt’s area. Eat (again). Take some rest and then leave from sAt’s place at 11am, so that we both reach our respective destinations on time and (in my case) alive.
As per plan, after having delicious Sambhar (really awesome!), rasam, rice, bhendi ka bhajji, ice-cream, pistachio biscuits etc.. we left from sAt’s apartment at 4.30pm. Archana had packed ration good enough for 2-3 days. She said “this is for the road”.
I think she was being polite. May be, she felt I won’t be able to reach in a day or I eat that much. I will prefer earlier reason than the later.
D-Day:
We left at 4.30pm (only 5-6 hours behind schedule) from sAt’s apartment. Archana placed Ganpati idol on the dashboard. We refueled the car (with GAS and not petrol…Americaaa uhhh!!!) Bought & ate some sweets from Mithas and then came the moment I was waiting for…
Dashboard showed gear “D”, GPS said 600 miles – expected arrival time 2:05 AM – BP 800-1200 – My palms sweaty – eyes tired – Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!
I was tailing sAt’s car like a small kid chasing his parents in a crowded area. Had few close encounters on the way. No harm done. 595 more miles to go…
At a red signal, I showed thumps-up to sAt, who I knew was equally tensed. Somehow he being around was very comforting. And I was on that lovely thing called I-95
A few words about I-95…I don’t know why this highway is not on the 7 or 8 wonders of the world. You have to drive on it to believe it. Not a single pothole. Clearly marked lanes. Amazing display of information like rest area boards, places you are heading to, exits, speed limits…MAN!!!! It was a big BIG transition for me. Couple of months back I was driving on Shit-Mahape..err…Shil-Mahape road. Driving to save my car from falling into potholes, desperately trying to not run over people surprisingly showing up on the road (reminds me of the Robocop game) I think “road crossing” is some kind of adventure sport in India. You don’t cross the road when its empty. There has to minimum 2-3 cars speeding your way, close enough to hit you. May be, this makes us feel alive. Gold medal at Olympics secured. But I digress.
After driving around 100 miles, we took our first break at Delaware Service Area. We had some coffee and corn bajiya. I knew this is the place where I & sAt split. There were tall dinosaur size butterflies in my stomach. May be it showed on my face too. Archana said a nervous bye & take care!!! sAt and I hugged each other, “Motte drive safe”, is all I recollect...
For the next 50 miles I pretended that sAt is still driving ahead of me, over the years I have learned to fool myself & trust me, it’s not that hard
Slowly and steadily I started gaining confidence. Excitement & fear kept me awake. Luckily FM played some of my favorite songs – Have a cigar, Sweet child of mine, Run like hell, Master of puppets. Few miles knocked down while singing along with Gods of rock!!! (Don’t know if they would have felt the same)
Initially I was driving at slow speed, traffic started pilling behind me. This is when I had a filmy thought…”bahut ho gaya daar-daar ke jina”…”ab meri bari” and after that never looked back (Or was scared to look what I was leaving behind). Went with the flow, as GPS (god sent angle) told me. I took a wrong exit after Richmond, went into the city. I got panicked. I pulled the car to the side, took some long breaths (alom-velom) Started again, and joined I-95 back after 15-20 minutes de-tour.
I took another break after reaching North Carolina. Almost close to 330 miles covered, called up sAt "Should I continue my journey? or halt somewhere, at the night?" I wasn’t sure. There was this newly found energy in my body, which was telling me to continue. I was feeling tired as the same time. Finally we decided that I will continue for next 50 miles, if I feel sleepy I will rest at some cheap motel.
And then I started the last & most physically tiring leg of my journey. I was constantly reminding myself to stay awake…not to sleep…I had to stay focused…and then…GPS lady spoke…
Back to the present…
This incident shook me up, sleep – disappeared. I was back to my senses. Heart beat slowly coming back to normal. All the way I was thinking, how happy Mahek & Rashmi would be to go around places in this car. How much trouble I gave sAt for searching this car (which I am used to). I was feeling like AB and his Ram-piyari or Tarzan & his wonder car.
On entering South Carolina state, I was getting that coming back home feeling (bring the boyz back home), I lowered the glass of my window and let the cold, yet comforting SC air fill up car, took a deeeeep breath, I was coming back home. In few miles ahead, I started seeing direction boards for FLORENCE, my heart filled with joy. I was getting very anxious to get back home, might have driven a little bit fast. Punched my fist in air when I saw EXIT 160A (exit on I-95 for Florence) and in a few minutes, I was there “HOME SWEET HOME”
