"THE" Re-Union : Day One

Approx 5 years and 3 months to this date:
Auburn/Clemson/Purdue : We school friends decide to make a Road Trip half the way across the country to Texas to attend our friend's Masters graduation ceremony. He is the first amongst our school gang to graduate and we would not miss this event for anything. Ameya and I have no plans (and money to go with it) to visit India, Kaustubh has just arrived in Fall, Atul too had just visited 5 months back. Our room-mates, all of ours would be visiting Mother India in December and we were going to have a free hand.The graduation date was 20th December and we decided to embark on our journey on 18th December and return by 26th December back to Clemson. 8 days and more miles than one can imagine.

18 December 2002:
Clemson, SC: The day finally arrives when we would be leaving for TAMU (Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA) and we all pretty geared up and very excited for the road trip. It would be the first driving experience for me on the InterStates. (I had earlier driven my aunt's car in Natick much to the displeasure of my uncle). A day before we have been able to convince the rental company to permit us 350 miles per day for an 8 day trip. We had roughly calculated the distances within the state that we would be traveling. Atul and Kaustubh have got some nice gifts for all of us and we take idiotic pictures and amazing poses are clicked as we show them off :)
Atul and Ameya went off to get the rental car while Kaustubh and I cleaned up our home and got rid of the trash by 4. By 5pm we are all seated and ready to roll. Some more pictures are clicked and then we drive off towards Anderson. Atul as expected is in the driver's seat while I was the navigator for the initial stretch. We mess up on the lights and forget to switch them on, mistaking the lights seen on the dashboard as a sign of them being correctly set. We receive a lot of wild stares from drivers and their navigators. We then play around and voila, they are on and the road ahead seems to be much better lighted.

Atlanta, GA : Just passed 7-30 we are in the midst of the traffic in Atlanta and on the ring road it is all chaos. Cars vrooming left, right, changing lanes, cutting lanes (screw the cops) and it is a near edge-of-the-seat thriller. This is the first time I was in a car in such peak traffic and at speeds worthy on expressways here. After about 20 odd mins we are passed the heavy traffic and now enjoying a nice, smooth ride in Georgia countryside (though it was absolutely not visible). Now it is the turn of YoursTruly to take the wheels (steering wheel included) in my stride. Another 15 mins and we are now in Alabama, and for a change the clock turns back to 7:10 as we enter the Central Time Zone. I am having once heck of a time as the traffic has now subsided and we are doing about 60 miles an hour. Not too bad it is till those huge 18-wheeler beasts decide to spoil the ongoing party. I was nearly derailing onto the dirt track everytime I saw them coming close and Atul kept pushing the steering to remain on the main line. Tens of them might have passed after which I got a feel of the situation and then it was just a video-game after that.

Auburn, AL: We reached Godu's place and were extremely shocked to see his roommates (some in pics), all of them on the higher scales of the weight/size/shape factor. We had Bread-Eggs for dinner quite late and then we tried to doze off as we were looking at a 15 hour drive the next day. Ameya and Mr. AnythingPossible decided that this was the best time to play table tennis at a church/chapel nearby !!