For those that follow my sparse publications in the blogs, you must have hopefully read an earlier post I had about how I find fall season to be enchanting, always! This year, I had to sit and search for the choicest places for viewing a full scale fall foliage, never mind that when I move the blinds up my bedroom windows, I see the same sight in the maple tree lined avenue!
What can make a trip merrier than an ability to tag along a friend with you too? Thus go some of the the conversation!
What can make a trip merrier than an ability to tag along a friend with you too? Thus go some of the the conversation!
"Hey, how about checking out upstate New York? Lake Placid? White Mountain area?"
"Umm.. Er. But wouldn't it take quite a lot of time Ravi? I have a pile load of office work and a conference where I have to present something in a fortnight or so"
"Alright, how about the Catskills then? One of Hudson's catchment area as well...?"
"Done deal. Come over to my place in New Jersey. We will drive up to Catskills and then return tonight"
All this was happening almost closer to noon time. This meant, by the time I get to my friend's place in New Jersey, it is already about 2:00 PM. And he was impatiently waiting for me. With everything already being in a delayed mode, there was no time to lose. Out we started... driving up the I-287 North. Lately, my mobile has been filled with a good deal of Tamizh literature lectures and I just choose to play some tracks from it while driving. Not that it was extremely fascinating choice for my co-passenger friend - but well, we are at least not falling asleep or quarreling over what should be playing on the speakers!!
The I-287 is one of those roads where I always find it a hard time to maintain a speed less than 70 mph - only because you might get either run over - literally, or keep getting some obnoxious honks - as if you were in violation of some unstated speed limits, which by the way, I suppose is at least closer to a 80 mph.
When I had watched the San Andreas movie in the theatre, I recall some of the opening scenes of the movie. A young girl decides to just listen into Taylor Swift and cruises in the highway - at least an empty one when she is stuck by a rockfall / stone hit and swerves and falls into deep valley. The only thing I was thinking to myself when I saw this scene back then was - Is this even possible in real life? I mean, a bird hit in an airplane - yes. A stone hit or an object hit for a cruising car on the road? Seems unlikely - and yes it did, until I found a flying bumper come in from nowhere right into my path at a good speed. It was too fast for any decision to brake or shift lanes (which was anyway not doable considering the parallel traffic was at an equally good speed). The flying object hit my front bumper. And before I even knew it, I was gone past the object and it was not visible any longer on the rear view or side mirrors.
The incident did jolt me a bit. What was this supposed to even be? A bad omen of sorts for the journey? Or karma deciding to give me a punishment for not heeding my dad's word in the morning not to head out anywhere but stay home and take rest? I wouldn't know the answers yet. But one thing was certain - intuitively, I wanted to cut my journey short and not be up at the Catskill as planned earlier. I had to settle on some other place. I am not going back home without having my share of trekking and walking either.
I glanced at the clock on the dashboard that I always keep to be a quarter hour fast on purpose. And I of course, know this too well that it probably doesn't make sense anymore than to have it running at the correct time! It was already around 3:15 PM now. We had another 100 miles left to hit Catskills area. And thus went another conversation series
"Hey, don't you think that the sun is kind of setting a little earlier these days than usual?"
"Yes Ravi, it indeed does!"
"So, what if we land up being at Catskills just around the sunset time? What do you think we might be able to see if a veil of darkness decides to descend earlier than usual?"
"Well, how about I check the weather app Ravi? Give me a second."
(Internally to myself) "Oh well... I am sure I don't want to be going far with what just happened..."
"Oh yes - but I think the weather app can be trusted only so much you see!!"
(Lots of experience gets shared / quoted. Relevant. Irrelevant. Doesn't matter for now!)
"Hey... look at this signal on my dashboard. I am not sure I have seen this come on before in my car!"
"Ravi, will you stop freaking out and understand that its nothing more than stating one of your tyres have a low pressure? We can pull over at the nearest place where we can probably just fill up some air. I have done that several times. These are standardized systems"
"Alright, so be it. But tell me, don't you think, going back to the same topic, we might want to cut short the trip so that we can enjoy the foliage view in the sunshine?"
"Well.. it looks like you have quite made up your mind already to change the destination. So be it. Where are we going now?"
"Oh thanks a ton for the understanding. I am now taking the upcoming exit to I-80W. Let's hit the High Point Monument in New Jersey"
"Alright, whatever... I am game."
Nothing seemed out of turn for quite some time thankfully. We weren't able to spot a place for refilling air until we got quite deep into Sussex county area.
"Hey, you just filled up the air, didn't you? Why am I STILL seeing this sign flashing on the dashboard?"
"Hold on Ravi. Sometimes, these indicators DO take some time to get reset. Just keep driving up for a little more time. We should probably be good in a while"
So, I kept driving up, up and away - into the long winding mountainous terrain. It was so much fun stopping over one place after another trying to figure a way to get to the parking lot nearest to the monument - until we eventually found there is one really close by to it. And WOW... this was worth every strain... Look at it from one side - complete view of NJ areas. Another side - NY. Yet another side - PA. It was a perfect junction of the states indeed..!
After tons of photography which both myself and my friend couldn't get enough of, we decided to head back home. Then begins the drama - of the same TPMS - Tyre Pressure Monitoring System. No matter what we did, the light would just refuse to shut out. We chugged slowly back into the same spot where we had filled air. All the while, my friend kept asking me - "Do you sense anything unusual steering?" I replied, "Nothing!"
When we parked ourselves into the spot for refilling air is when we noticed the air pressure was starting to drop drastically. It just was a little short of hissing. And I noticed it wasn't just the air pressure on the tyres that were dropping. With all the photographs that I was gleefully taking using my new 16 MP Moto 4G phone, the battery in my cellphone has dropped drastically too :D
"Its clearly a flat tyre on the front of the passenger side", my friend said.
"Can you call the roadside assistance helpline?"
Fact is, I didn't note the number down anywhere to have it handy. I had to get onto my mobile's browser and pull it all up in a Google search. So far so good. We did wait about 45 minutes before we saw a gentleman from the toeing company walk up to the car with his toolkits. He took out the "spare tyre" in the boot of my car. And voila! That's the first time I learnt that the spare tyre is really not a proper spare like what I am accustomed to seeing back home in India. This one was supposedly a "donut" tyre. I had clear cut instructions not to drive above 50 mph and keep the drive to less than or equal to a 100 miles and get assistance with fixing the proper tyres before proceeding any further.
This was some totally new learning. And it followed up with a lot more. I was so exhausted by then from the trek, wait and everything. I literally wanted a donut - no, not for the car. But for myself - and on a plate :D :D
