The road trip to Yellowstone - Part 1

Its been a week since our road trip and I still havent got rid of this sad feeling ki as with all good stuff, this trip was way toooo short :( Anyways, heres part 1 of the trip!

Friday dawned bright and crisp and the alarm set off at an unearthly hour ( on a normal day this would be just a couple of mins past her bed time -which is ALWAYS in the A.M). The cheerful morning person greeted her spouse with snarls and much gritting and baring of teeth . Dumped herself un-ceremoniously into the car and promptly went

back to sleep, while the spouse went about filling the fuel tank, checking tyre pressures, re-checking the bike stand etc. Presenting the glamourous avatar that has so far been presented only to a select few.

The poor spouse drove on in silence wondering if this miniature version of the hippo, snoring softly in the navigator seat was the same hyper-excited person who went around in cartwheels and summersaults all around the house yesterday;in anticipation of the trip.After about 150 miles, her highness let out a giant yawn, stretching her little self, transformed into a pleasant smiling person allllll ready to take on the world.

A stop for coffee and a quick change of clothes, she took over the wheel and off they went - 2 happy ,excited, young people all geared up for the 12 hour drive ahead of them.

As with every young female who loves to go zoooooooom and feel the wind in her hair ; this little lady was known for frequently over speeding on the highways. But the good girl did stick on the speed limit, and how!! :)

But young blood is known for frequent display of zero commonsense and likewise, she happily ignored the fuel-meter .After about 100 miles of happy driving & loud singing & giggles & screams, the gaadi let a giant sigh and sputtered . Quick manoevouring of the car to the side of the highway was followed by the spouse trying to be the fix-it-all man and checking the oil,heat etc And when nothing seemed wrong, he peeps into the dashboard to see the needle on the fuelmeter happily resting on a big red E. ARRGGHHH!!!!!

A quick call to the roadside assistance was followed by an assuring ' dont worry, we will be there. But it might take some time since you guys are much too far from any town/city' .

'No problem!' was the cheerful response. After all, the car was fully loaded with intellectually stimulatory reads - cosmo, marie claire and the likes. And also with loads of DVDs to be played on the Mac with a nice little charger being charged by the car battery. Whats the worry, eh?!

But 'some' time dragged to 3 hours. With all the movie watching , the car battery had drained to zero leaving the car tin-hot with no battery even to keep the fan on , in the hot Idaho sun :( Stuck on the shoulder of the freeway where one isn't really supposed to even get out of the car -with all the vehicles zooming by; how much they missed the Indian highways with the roadside dhabas and chai tapris.SIGH.

As the little lady slowly but steadily melted into the pages of her book, the man was left with nothing but angry hot bubbles around his head wondering how could there possibly be people who wouldn't bother with monitoring the fuel in the car?! Isnt is as simple as making sure there is some toothpaste on your brush while brushing?!

Finally the rescuers arrived , pumped in some fuel & jump started the battery much to the relief of the flustered couple. And off they went-the tired, dehydrated,irritated couple, set back by a good 4 hours into their journey. After about 2 hours, the lady took the wheel again driving through dangerous forks in a hilly terrain and frequently changing lanes-only to be stopped by the highway cops and let off with a very understanding "oh, you look tired.You should take some rest ,ma'm!' . No ticket!! This was followed by a drunk teenager and a cowboy-hatted-ex-convict at a casino almost giving the spouse a heart attack. Some dum-dabake-bhagings happened and the couple inched their way to their destination wondering if this was an indication of a really rotten trip ahead . And how wrong were they?! :)