ro – Random Emotions

The prelude to this awesome cross country trip started last year when the company my wife used to work for got acquired and my wife’s entire division was dissolved. She made full use of it, went to India for 3 months, spent a lot of time with our toddler, made a lot of connections, unwound completely and got ready for new challenges. As she was exploring when she found this amazing opportunity across the country. We decided it was the right thing to do and then packed all our stuff and embark on a new journey. Thus starts the awesome journey of moving cross country.

So it all began! the arduous task of moving, uprooting all the roots laid in Boston over the last 7.5 years and moving it all to a new place. Our first “plan” was to sell our home in Boston and potentially buy a new home in Seattle. The decision wasn’t easy, we really loved our place and I guess secretly wished we could keep it. Sure enough thats exactly what happened. So we decided to keep the place and rent it out. That was a great outcome in hindsight. We got some very good applications for the house and chose an awesome tenant.

It was quite the adventure, staging the home several times for potential buyers and tenants to tour it! Saying good byes to friends wasn’t easy. We let the stress get to us multiple times but also did a decent job pulling through.

We always felt that we were dealing with the last fire while we were in the midst of it, but there were more of these instances than we wanted or even anticipated. For me personally it was an arduous experience of interviewing and I was taking to companies at an average rate of one per week. I believe I peaked out at two on-sites a month. It was my super wife who picked up all my slack and coordinated the move. I believe I’d need an entire post dedicated to my interview adventures. So more on that soon.

The move was roughly done in three phases. One where Su, Arya and my mother-in-law moved with bags and boxes – 12 to be precise. Second was having all our stuff packed and loaded and finally the third where I set out on the cross country drive with Ray, which is what this post is all about.

Btw, on the first leg, with all the planning in place, we kinda dropped the ball on who will take care of Ray for the first leg of move. Thanks to our lovely friends who stepped in at the last moment, he could stay home. Ray definitely knew things were changing and we could tell he was upset, but he was great about handling it. I flew with Su, Arya and my mother in law, had them pseudo settle in over one day and headed right back to Boston the next day.

Week of the move – phases 2 and 3 of our move.

Monday: Probably the easiest day (In hind sight, it definitely didn’t feel easy that day though). All I had to do was drop off a few of Arya’s things at a friend’s place. I also had to take care of cleaning the cars. I then picked up paranthas one last time from my favorite place in Cambridge and retired for the night.

Tuesday: The packers arrived right on time, to what I think of as a paradise that we lived in for 3 years, to pack it all up and move it cross country. Awesome group of 3 guys who each handled a floor; basement, living area, and master bed room. I pretty much worked all day while they were busy packing. It was a long day and a pretty dreary one just watching this chapter of our lives wrapping up – pun intended. Our cars were picked up on this day as well.

Wednesday: was all about creating an inventory and moving the boxes into the truck. Again a really long day. And the day where things got real, real fast. Everything was moved except what I thought would fit in the trunk of a car. I felt pretty good about everything being packed so by nightfall, my plan was to leave on Thursday and get to at least Buffalo by the night. So I was all set to leave by mid afternoon, or so I thought.

Thursday: Day of the move or at least planned move. Our most beloved cleaning crew, who we had known for the last 6 years, arrived on the dot to do a final clean. Once the cleaning was done, a close friend drove me to the airport to pick up my rental for the long ride, and as any rental car company would empathize, National upgraded to an SUV. Our realtor then came in for a final walk through with a couple things to do for me. Sounds like just a few things, right? But it was 1pm when all of this was done. There were a few things that needed to be fixed. I did a home depot run and “fixed” everything I could. Time was 2:00 PM by this time. I then started loading the car, asking myself how hard it could possibly be! An hour and a half later I was still loading up the car. The amount of stuff I had decided to bring along was just ridiculous. But got the loading done nevertheless. Said one last bye to our home and headed out (after dropping off the router and picking a couple things from Arya’s home day care) and I was finally on the road at 4:30 PM after a real stressful day. My initial plan to reach Buffalo was no longer realistic, so I decided that we may at least make it to Syracuse, NY. Thus began the 3045 mile road trip across the country.

Day 1: Considering we started on Thursday I would still consider this day 1. We drove 40 miles west before hitting traffic on I 90. Among the 100 million things in the car was also a painting my mom made for a lovely friend of ours. I needed to drop off this painting off on my way and given I was stuck in traffic anyway, I figured it would be good to take a quick detour.

Once I reached our friend’s house, I also got Ray out to give him a break. Ray, started limping like there was something really wrong with his paws. He continued to limp. I checked his paws but he wouldn’t let me. I tried to walk him around he continued to limp for 15 about minutes. I realized that it was going to be a stretch to go any further that day. It did not seem like a good idea to drive with an injured pet for 6 long days. I decided to turn around and head back. I took Ray to the vet to have him checked. At this point I wasn’t even sure if I could leave the next day. The vet examined Ray and came back with the diagnosis that he was just fine! They gave him some antibiotics and painkillers just as a preemptive measure. We were then off to spend the night at our best friends’ house. In hindsight I believe Ray was just stressed and was limping as a result. He did it again when he was stressed! We have finally concluded that limping is a reaction to his anxiety.

Day 2: I wanted to be well rested, so I took my time to wake up in the morning. My friend made me a scrumptious Indian breakfast. I ate well and set out on our journey! Finally – about 20 hours later than planned! yayayay!! As expected Ray was just fine. The roads were empty and stomachs full. The 3000 miles to go, the only stops I intended to make was to give Ray a break and we set out. Driving through Massachusetts I realized how beautiful the Berkshires are, the towns really quaint. Also the highest elevation of I 90, East of South Dakota is in MA in the Berkshires. So long MA, you have been so awesome, we would come back in a heart beat. Next up, New York. The first state I lived in when I got to the US. We stopped in Syracuse, I had to, after all this is the first place I lived in, and got Ray some yogurt. I also wanted to pick up some lunch at university place but decided against it and continued and stopped at a rest area instead just past Buffalo. The best rest areas on I90 are in New York, I was amazed by the availability of basic amenities, the choice of food and place to walk pets. All of this just reduced as I continue West. Next state on my drive was Ohio. It was getting dark, I driving on the shores of Lake Erie but couldn’t see much around. I felt like my eyes were slowly getting tired. I figured I wouldn’t be able to make it to my initially planned destination of Toledo. I decided to stop a few miles past Cleveland at an Extended Stay America, not the best place but didn’t really matter, I was fast asleep with Ray beside me on on the bed.

Day 3: I set out from the hotel at around 9 am, next big stop was to pick up my pal for the cross country trip from the suburbs of Chicago. Ohio’s rest areas are not the best but are not bad for a quick stop and a quick bite. Ohio in general was pretty boring, just miles and miles of farm lands. I then entered Pennsylvania and the rest areas got better. At this point I guess you see where I am going with this! When you are just driving especially through plain farm lands, rest areas are sort of important. It was a small part of Pennsylvania that we drove through on I90. The next state was Indiana, I was greeted by incessant rains, again nothing much in terms of landscape, rest areas are a joke and decided not to stop in any of them. I then entered Illinois, rest areas get lot better, almost similar to the rest areas in NY. And this would be the last of it, no more rest areas with any food for the rest of I-90, just toilets to relieve yourself. Enough with the rest areas!

My pal- my brother in law, Vikas, decided to join me in Chicago. We decided to go to this “awesome” biryani place. I was famished, and could use some real lunch. The place we went to was Radhikas kitchen, a decent place with okay food but not as good as we expected. We then went back to Vikas’s room and picked up his stuff and hit the road. We then got to Wisconsin and wanted to get to Rochester, MN before breaking the drive for the night, but were delayed in Chicago. We decided to stop at Lacrosse, WI. We were pleasantly greeted by a very enthusiastic college crowd. This was probably the best night stop in the whole trip. We got an awesome room at the Gunderson hotel. I got Ray comfortable and Vikas and I headed out. What do you eat at 12:00AM in a college town that is still partying… obviously a PIZZA! It was an awesome pizza place, catering to the clientele whose knees are no more steady than the one million jello shots they would just had. A fitting end to a pretty good day of driving, next day was going to be another adventure.

Day 4: Su had mentioned that Lacrosse was on the banks of River Mississippi, when we were on our way there and I had to check it out… My day began quite early with walking Ray and I decided to head out to take a look at one of the most important rivers of America. It wasn’t spectacular or anything, at least not from the location I entered but I was still glad to have checked it out. I got done with Ray’s walk and headed back to the room. While driving the previous night the car indicated that it needed maintenance. I called National, they were nice enough to make it as seamless as possible for us. All I had to do was drop the car off for about an hour at a shop where Ray made new friends and we hung out. We then had to make another stop at the Lacrosse airport to add Vikas as a secondary driver on the car. It was almost 1pm by the time we left Lacrosse. We decided to drive a little further before we stopped again for lunch. The drive getting out of Lacrosse, WI which is almost at the border of WI and MN, is a real beautiful one, in fact you also get a spectacular view of the Mississippi River and then you get into Minnesota. It was fun to drive through WI, especially because WI is dear to our hearts… Both Su and I, started our careers in WI and some of our closest friends live there. We are sure to visit WI again but it sure felt like driving through home. Lunch on Day 4 was in Rochester, MN at a Thai, Vietnamese place worth calling out since the food was awesome. Minnesota is a state where nothingness reigns, at least the part where I90 passes through, you can see the road as far as the horizon and this view is studded with a lot of Wind mills. This was the pattern for the drive over the next day. So glad Vikas was with me for this stretch of the drive, there is no way I could’ve done it alone! We continued on without any major events and crossed MN and into South Dakota. The landscape didn’t change much with large swaths of emptiness and windmills. We stopped for the night at a place called Chamberlain, SD where there only few hotels and a couple restaurants. We stayed at the The Baymont inn which was pretty good. The night’s dinner was at a burger king.

Day 5: Again the day started pretty early, driving through SD felt like a drag and we decided this is something we had to simply get through without thinking too much about it. It pretty much became all about expectation management. We started driving after breakfast and stopped at a gas station where we met a few guys who were going for a reunion into the Bad Lands national park. We were about 150 miles away from Rapid City, SD and I believe this is where the drive took a turn for the awesome. The dreary long emptiness was no longer there and the the land scape got very beautiful. Next stop was going to be Mt Rushmore. One thing I had heard from a lot of people was there was nothing around Mt Rushmore and this was truly the case. It is these massive sized faces carved out of the mountain by an artist who absolutely loved the four Presidents. Even though there is nothing else notable that around Mt Rushmore, given we pretty drove through flat lands, the new scenery was a welcome change and quite stunning. From this point forward the drive got really nice and there was something to look forward to. After visiting Mt Rushmore we grabbed a quick bite at a Mexican place in Rapid City and then started heading west. The next state that we would enter was Wyoming, home to Yellow Stone National Park. At this point we had to decide whether we should drive through the park and break for the night pretty much around 1 or 2 am or skip Yellow stone and get to Montana at a decent hour. In hindsight, that was a good decision to avoid going through Yellowstone. We tool a lot of pictures while driving through Wyoming because it has some of the most beautiful landscapes. We happen to drive by signs to Devils tower in Wyoming. It was about 20 miles out from where we were and we figured we weren’t going to drive to this place just to see the tower and decided that we’d check it out. Devil’s tower is a beautiful mass of granite that has a diameter of about 0.1 miles, stands tall and is majestic. This is a holy site for the Indians, so Ray was not allowed near it. Vikas and I walked around and took a few pictures. It was definitely worth the drive. As a bonus, when you enter the monument, you get to see a lot of prairie dogs. Next, we started our drive out to the stop for the night at Billings MT. Driving through Wyoming is a treat during day time and not so much during the night. For about 70 miles we drove through the country roads where there were a lot of deer grazing all along the road. It was quite scary because of the possibility that we may hit a deer. And had that happened, we would just have to rely on the mercy of an occasional passerby since there was no cellphone reception anywhere along that road. I am glad we made it through without any such thing happening and we reached Billings close to midnight. Billings is the largest city in MT with multiple refineries. We saw at least 3 refineries on the way to the hotel. The three of us were totally burnt out and called it a night.

Day 6: Planning our day was tricky, we could either drive for a long time and make it to within 5 hours of Seattle or take it easy, drive at a decent pace and drive longer than 5 hours on the next, perhaps last day. We decided to take it easy. Montana, is an exceptionally beautiful state with huge mountains and rivers carving out valleys. We stopped a lot to take pictures. The pictures just don’t to enough justice to the beauty that is Montana. We stopped in a gas station along the way, which had a beautiful gift store. I thought I should get some gifts for my lovely ladies. While at the gift store, we met a hitchhiker from Sweden who was making her way from New York to San Francisco, without any money (not even to buy food) and totally relying on the goodness of humans. Considering that she had made it already to Montana, I would say she was doing just fine and that her social experiment was quite a success. Humanity for the win! She rode with us and we dropped her off on the way to Yellowstone. Our next stop was Bozeman, MT. We grabbed a quick bite and then headed off to Missoula, MT where we spent the night. We reached the lodge which was known for its views at around 9 at night. The next day was going to be the last day of the day trip.

Day 7: The view from the lodge did not disappoint, it was amazing! I started the morning early, by walking Ray for a few min in the woods. The morning mist was just about settling on the grass and the veil of fog was being lifted by the rising sunshine. As the fog cleared, some really beautiful mountains came into view. It was definitely worth the short detour to stay at this lodge. Apparently, Montana is also famous for its Huckleberries. We ate them for the first time and it pretty much tastes like a tarter version of blueberries. We could find all things huckleberry out there, we had a smoothie that was super filling and yummy. We stopped at another gift store right that was the quite expensive and pretty much browsed through the store before heading out. This was going to be the last leg of the journey with 7 hours of drive ahead of us. We took it easy, and stopped often to take pictures. We had to stop once again for fuel where we had another huckleberry smoothie for lunch. Next state was Idaho. It was a pleasant surprise, I was always under the impression that Montana borders Washington but theres a small part of Idaho between Montana and Washington. Finally we were in Washington. Washington state, to the east of the Cascade mountains is quite literally a desert, all the agriculture that goes on is aided by irrigation and the land scape is pretty sparched. But the drive was still beautiful, the landscape changes pretty drastically, when we hit the cascade mountains, all the brown dried grass gave way to lush green mountains, and it was pure pleasure to drive through. While we drove appreciating the nature around, we were almost on the outskirts of Seattle and reached home after driving 3200 miles, quite literally from one end of I90 to another. It was one heck of a trip and we were all finally super happy to be together. Ray was especially happy to see Arya and Su after nearly two weeks of being away from them!