The LONG one!

This one I should say was the MOST spectacular one! Passing 5 States all together.. driving 1300 miles altogether on I-80 for about a1000 miles

DAY 1

We were travelling again with our belongings to Denver Co from Fremont California! In our Jeep Cherokee and again a 5X8. We started in the morning of a HOT and SWEATY day of July through the desert of Nevada and Utah and the beautiful Canyons of Wyoming. It was just me, my husband and our Li’l angel. This time we missed to have our CHEER LEADER (Amma). We missed her a lot during the trip.. but were constantly updating her about the condition and the beauty of the journey!!

California being at the Sea level to get to Nevada was a total UP-HILL climb, and come hilly region.. our gas indicator started beeping again!!! We stopped at a Rest area before reaching Reno Nevada and checked with some truckers for the nearest gas station, but for our bad luck no one knew where the nearest gas station was. Being hilly region and with a trailer the 4L engine of our jeep just guzzled up the gas.. But for our GOOD luck, the next exit had a gas station. We thanked the Lord, and fed the Jeep’s huge belly with GOOD food, I mean high-octane gas!! And wished that ‘the gas station should never fall short of gas for any traveler passing that place’.

Our li’l angel had transitioned on to the front facing seat and she enjoyed the vast lands of nothingness.. she alternated sleep feed and see.. her Poop times were the most difficult ones.. there were places with no shoulders for stopping... and with Nevada State Prison signs said No Stopping and NO Hitch-Hiking. The thought of what we went through in that time makes me smile!!! We could not open the windows because of the heat and could not keep it closed because of the smell. :-)

I guess its all part of the fun when traveling with a li'l one! She got bored soo easily and so fast, that our car was filled only with her toys and books. Every time we stopped we had to pull out a new toy to keep her entertained. Even her favorite nursery rhymes CD failed to keep her entertained! We had to resort to funny methods of entertaining her. Finally both of us came to the conclusion that what we were doing was just an entertainment for us than for our li'l angel. After a point she dint pay attention to what we were doing and got herself distracted to something else.. but that was short-lived too.. then another way!!! This game continued throughout our journey.

In the whole stretch of Nevada, one thing that we never missed seeing was a CASINO.. if there are 4 items in that exit, one of them should be a CASINO.. we were soo surprised to see the density of Casinos in Nevada! But Sadly we dint play even in one of them.

We spent that night in Elko, which was at the boarder of Utah and Nevada. Unfortunately for us on that particular night every hotel in Elko was full. Finally we checked in to Hotel 8 at 10 in the night, hungry and tired. There was no supermarket, or any hotel around. We walked around a bit and found for our luck a 24 hr restaurant. we had some food , walked back to the hotel and crashed. The soft beds of Hotel 8 dint wake us up until the wake-up telephone rang! We freshened up, had our morning coffee and breakfast at the hotel and started our journey by giving a stomach wash for our Jeep (oil change). Our poor vehicle had been stressed out because of the external soaring temperatures (some 115 degrees) and the uphill climb! The temperature at 8 AM in the morning in Elko was 80 degrees.

DAY 2

Then came the White sand of UTAH, we had to pass thru the great salt lake in Utah. As we approached the boarders of Utah and Nevada, the land started to look white! we could see nothing but white sand in Utah. There were large salt water bodies.. and HIGH temperature.. as a result there were salt purifying industries all along the freeway. We saw Morton salt factory and may other salt factories. So this gave us a sight to see the source of salt we consume everyday!!! On our way was the GREAT SALT LAKE. The lake was so vast that we could see water till the end of sight! Being a beautiful sunny day we saw surfers on the water, lots of boats. We had lunch at our favorite Olive-Gardens in Salt Lake City.

Wyoming was an unique experience. The beauty of the canyons are beyond words. The formation of layers on the hills and mountains, the colors they display are marvelous. When the rays of sun fall on these layered hills and mountains gives pleasure to human eyes! Natural un-interfered beauty at its best can be enjoyed to the fullest in this stretch of drive! Oh I have fallen in Love with Wyoming. This Love is drawing us towards it in such great force that we have to visit the YELLOW STONE NATIONAL park in the near future!

The beauty of Wyoming made me forget the drive through the parts of Rocky mountains.. to get to DENVER our destination. But this time we knew that we will be passing hilly region again so we made sure that our Jeep has enough food to run on. We never let the meter go down below half mark. Kept refilling the belly. When we ate something, we made sure that Jeep’s gas tank is refilled!

Our li’l angel on this day too was not very cranky, when we got off the car for gas or food, we used to let her walk around and stretch herself and when we resumed the journey she would be fast asleep even before we knew it! And because there was no physical activity for her, her food intake reduced and so did her routine! She drank some milk and was sleeping!

The speed on the freeway dint drop from 75 MPH mark other than some stretches when we passed through towns and cities! By the end of the day we were in Larame, about 2 hours away from Denver. It was a sat morning and I thought i would get behind the wheel.. and guess what.. that was the most wildest drive of my life. The traffic density increased and the stress levels in our car SOARED.. so I pulled over and handed over to my never complaining husband.. So we reached Littleton just south of DENVER by about 10.30 AM

And that was about our LONG AND REALLY LONG travel from CALIFORNIA TO COLORADO..

Thanks for reading

The next BIG one

This was in 2005 AUG
In between our lives was ONLY travel, once to our own land India and next to a totally unknown land Canada! Our lives in Canada consisted of constant moving!!! If we look back we can see ourselves moving to 10 different places in 5 years not to count the number of houses we have changed...

We were in Toronto in 2005 and there our Beautiful Daughter was born in August. To help us thru the process my Mother-in-law (I call her AMMA) who is 70 years old came.. She has the strong traits of my grand mother who was strong and used to do all her work herself! Amma was with us when we made our BIG move.. Move from Toronto ON to Chicago IL. This time we had a Jeep Grand Cherokee and had rented a 5X8 U-Haul Trailer. This was 600 Mile drive mainly on 400 in Canada and I 90 in USA. I have not seen a SMOOTHER road than 400 in Canada.. Newly Asphalted road was AWESOME. This time I gave a little rest to my husband during the drive and helped him in covering miles.

My husband, he is Patient, Calm and COOL person who is a Sweetheart at all times. He did the entire stretch without complaints and pain! We used to stop every 3-4 hrs to feed the li'l angel that we were taking along with us. He never uttered a word for the number of stops we had or the length of each stop although he had to rejoin work the next day. I can vividly remember the incident when my daughter was asleep and the routine feeding time had come... i was all oozing.. he stopped and helped me pump out without saying a word or complaining about what was happening.. it was such a relief.. !!! GOD BLESS him!

We were moving our Residence from Toronto to Chicago and had a ton of stuff with us... and with the Baby.. our items just doubled! If you peeked into the trailer.. you could find a LOTs of groceries, number of utensils (kitchen is one place I accumulate soo much of stuff I can never get over that habit, I should say kitchen appliances, crockery and cutlery are my all-time weakness) TON of baby stuff ( if i think about it.. I can never stop buying stuff for her!!), a couch and CLOTHES.. it never ends.. dresses here there and everywhere!!!

One person who dint know what was going on around us was our Daughter only weeks old baby! She came along with us where ever we went without complaints and fuss! She had only a few requirements feed, sleep poop and Pee!!! But our whole trip was revolving around these 4 activities. Stop when she poops, a diaper change if there is too much of pee.. drive when she sleeps!!! again stop when she feeds!! so this explains our stop every 3-4 hours!!! :-) :-) :-) :-)

We crossed the boarder at Sarnia (boarder of Michigan) on the first day without any hitches and stayed at Best Western. The next day after breakfast we started off to complete the rest of the journey to Chicago.

Amma was all the time cheering us up and was such a great support throughout the time. I have not seen a lady at that age going soo strong ..(touch wood). Amma was not complaining about anything.. despite her difficulties, she had a SMILING face all the time which motivated us to do better than what we were doing. She is a Pillar of strength, who travelled alone at her age for 24 hrs just to give us that extra comfort for which we LONGED!!! Amma, you have made a difference to us!! THANKS A LOT for all the support you and APPA have extended to us at all the time!! We are totally indebted to you both

How it Started

Way back in 2001 the bright Idea or traveling with a Trailer STRUCK to us.. we were newly married and before the wedding my husband stayed in Portland Oregon, We were married in India and we came to California to stay with my SIL and BIL.. My husband had a Yamaha VStar Classic bike which was HUGE, and we had to transport all his stuff from Portland to California. So we started the MARATHON task of MOVING!

It was in November that we went to Portland on a flight from CA and our journey started at 5 in the morning, the previous day at the local U-Haul center we got a Hitch Attached to the TINY Nissan Sentra and rented a Trailer!!! It was a 4X6, to fit the Motorcycle and his household stuff. We loaded the trailer with all the things and started off the next morning at 5AM... Cold mornings of November made me dose off in the front seat but I got up and ENJOYED the scenic beauty of Oregon. We traveled on I-5 for close to 500 miles and reached California by 7 PM..

Was a FUN trip.. we got overtaken by huge truck and almost ran out of gas on a hilly region.. GOD that was scary.. our poor vehical was soo sweet that it dint breakdown any where and is still RUNNING well (touch wood)