Las Vegas Trip ... 1

First Long Weekend after a long time , and second last for the year. Merry X Mas , 25th of Dec is on Friday and ripples apart all those people who wanna have a long weekend away from home in most entertaining way , but are often compelled to stop by project constraints , time constraints and even financial constraints. The rates of hotels shoot up like there is an emergency, the food chain maintain the cost but quality or quantity dips , the accommodation is poor and streets are crowded. People who live in San Francisco travel to LA , LV and people from those sides come down to SF .

So again i wanted to use this opportunity , and the plan was hatched a week ago ( prior to 25th Dec) and I called ande ( Mayank) and set up the meeting time. The plan is now set up to meet, on 24th evening at ande's place, 25th morning to Las Vegas and

then on 26th to Grand Canyon and back. But one thing that still left me thinking was the fact that

ande said if i come on 25th , he wont let me in the house till 3 am for till then we will be in Strip in Las Vegas. 
I then called Mayank and asked him very silently in dead of night, Are u in LA or LV. The answer as expected 
was not in a single line, it had to come after a long lecture, and it came. For all the slangs u know, for all the 
things heard of, he said , and then, you coming to stay with me without knowing my city. 
Well he was in Vegas, so plan change. No LA now, direct to LV and then Grand canyon and back


So we started for Las Vegas on 24th Dec from Fremont, and then there is a problem. We dont have a GPS holder ,
so the navigator becomes holder as well. That was not much of a complaint as we had a single driver throughout. 
Estimated Drive : 1200 miles

Trip Start : 330 PM Fremont 24 Dec 2009
Occupancy: Deepak , Gopal , Bhooshan , Kamal 


Pretty much smooth track right into the point where we entered a good complex near Barstow. We were hungry and one of us has repeatedly told about Denny;s
So we were in Denny's still thinking of driving right into Vegas (would be a long trip for Kamal, 550miles + at a stretch) and so wanted to do it fast and get going. Got a long way ahead, and we sat at a corner. After sometime when no one came then we realized we have to go and get it ordered. So here we were laughing on the guy who said he loved Denny's because then we knew it was his first time too in Denny's. Well, the food was good and we were re-fulled. Then we took a coffee from seven-eleven, and refueled the car ( which was drinking gasoline as thirsty camel) . here we start again and we touched speeds of 90mph , or maybe even more. Time was getting on us, and we were thinking to stop somewhere in night. The road was dead , for long stretches there was no vehicle in either direction, unlike the review we got that there will be a big rush to Vegas on 24th Dec. We sped , possibly overs-sped and realised it when we say magnificient red blue lights blinking in our cars out of nowhere. And we stopped in a shoulder.
It was ice cold and i was virtually not wearing anything, when the window pane rolled down. It was cold windy and possibly killing me, at temperatures reaching zero on a windy highway and cops directing flash light in the car, and very humbly asked the question, "Sir , do you realize what speed you were on", we knew we are gonna have a bad time here now. "88 it was, may i see your license", and he went back. Coming back only to tell it was 65mph limit highway. Hard luck, the ticket is gonna come now , and we decided we will share. but we cant share the increase in insurance and the traffic classes one has to take. Well , one thing was sure , we are out of money and we are going straight to Mayank , no stopping anyhow, anywhere.
(to be cont)