Saga de Ammerikka - Atlanta

After driving for about 7 hours with few stops in-between, we finally arrived at Atlanta.

The sky was just blue and before we headed to Manishbhai's home, Bhavesh and family posed this...

Stay in Atlanta was very busy and demanding. Lots of challenges to meet and many hurdles to overcome...

Going up 40 feet in scorching heat and operating this boom lift first time in life was very interesting and equally scary. Even a minor swing due to wind used to create a panic...

When we were working on our projects, Pinesh and other volunteers were working on lighting of the temple and they were doing great job.

And while we were working hard during day, we had good fun in evenings. Pinesh is very expert cook and this evening, he prepared Fajitas for all of us.

It was time to leave Atlanta and as I selected late morning flights, the airport terminal was quite empty. The lounge had some interesting displays made from junk...

And as usual, the Starbucks!

A very wrong seat to have when you were determined to take interesting pictures... Since the flight was full, I did not have any chance to relocate to any other seat...

I had an hour layover at Denver, CO airport. Its very nice airport and very big. Its one of three hubs of United Airways in America. When I reached Ontario, CA, it was 8pm local time and too late for me to drive to San Diego. So, we decided to drive there next morning.

Saga de Ammerikka - Orlando

I had been waiting to reach Orlando since the day I put my first step in US... Something special was waiting for me there... and I had been waiting for it too!

I did finally make up my mind to get 450D instead of 40D. It was hard decision but 450D's compact size and latest DIGIC processor overpowered 40D's professional capabilities and the price difference enabled me to get additional battery and a professional lens.

The FIRST from my 450D! Low light, hand held and no flash and still it produced the best. The colors are very faithful to the original ones and even with such low light, dynamic range is very visible.

This is Bhavesh's house where I had stayed for Orlando's visit. Its a lake side house and a best place to have a creative vacation...

 

Bhavesh owns couple of UPS stores in prime areas.
He is very fond of big cars. He had Honda's Ridge Liner truck last year and now he has fully loaded Audi Q7!

One morning, we were invited by a friend Arvindbhai to have a lunch at his place. His house too is on a lake side and this lake is connected to 10 other lakes. It is the same community where Tiger Wood and many other celebrities have their houses. Arvindbhai's son Ajay took us to a boat ride.
Ajay and Nirav-Bhavesh' son.

We were also joined by parents of a cute girl!

I made a quick trip to Jacksonville to visit Sally. The drive to Jacksonville was very interesting.

One evening, Bhavesh and family alongwith another friend, we went to Universal Studio. While I have been there few times, it was my first visit at these hours. It was fun being there...

I am really impressed with a almost noise free pictures 450D captured in such low light.

And of course, I found Starbucks here too...  

Dr A had arrived in Tampa on 3rd evening but unfortunately I could not receive her at the airport. She and Dhwanil were put up at our long time family friend Hasmukhbhai. One morning, Bhavesh drove me to Tampa where I also met a special person in my life - my granny who baby-seated me for first 8 years of my life. Hasmukhbhai is his third son. He extended courtesy to Dr A and Dhwanil to stay at his place till they found their own place to stay nearby University of Tampa. Since it was my first visit of Tampa, Hasmukhbhai took me around Tampa and to its famous beach. Some pictures of my Tampa visit below...

Hasmukhbhai at Clearwater beach...

Tampa skyline...

Savitabaa - the granny!

Dhwanil and Dr A... The just married happy duo!!!

Next day, we had to drive to Atlanta. Since Bhavesh was to help me in installation there, Vandana Bhabhi also decided to join us. It was cool morning when we started driving to Atlanta. It was about 425 miles of drive and driving.

Vandana Bhabhi's Odyssey had been very comfortable for this ride.

Saga de Ammerikka - Chicago

After spending a day at New Jersey office, I was destined to Chicago for couple of days. As I had booked my VUSA ticket for domestic travel in US, it was first sector on this ticket I was traveling.

When I reached to the gate to board my flight, I started smelling a very familiar and temptive smell... the STARBUCKS!

The smell itself was refreshing enough to charge me up and I decided to check my will power to resist Java chip as long as I can. I succeeded!

It was late afternoon when I landed Chicago's O'Hare airport. The lobby looked relatively uncrowded. I noticed that it wisely used the available daylight.

Seeing Vivek grown up so much in few years was indeed surprising.
Few years back when I visited him, he gave me this pose...

My first lunch in Chicago was at Pankaj's Subway... He custom-made my sub with spinach, some special herbs and honey mustard with salt and pepper. He introduced me to Frito-Lay's Multi-grain chips which now has replaced Lays classic in my menu. Pankaj was very shy and tried to hide when I clicked this picture...

Chicago stay was very short but very productive. This time, when I reached to the same lobby of O'Hare, I had some time to browse through...
and I found that just one lobby of O'Hare, three Starbucks!

Saga De Ammerikka - The departure

While Emirates Airlines is my favorite one to travel, it is not part of Star Alliance and thus, I could not choose it for my travel to US. I had to choose between Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. All SQ flights from Ahmedabad to Singapore were overbooked till mid of August. SQ flight from Delhi to LAX was Rs. 30K+ expensive then Lufthansa flight and thus, I had to fly Lufthansa this time.

Recent luggage restrictions have limit the check-in bags weight to be 50 lbs (23 Kgs). As I was carrying some equipment to get repaired, each of my bags were overweight by few Kgs. I was mentally prepared to pay the charge for this overweight...

Sunday evening, friends at New Delhi Airport were informed about my travel and they were requested to help me out in getting export documentation for equipment I was carrying with me.

I reached New Delhi airport at 7am and soon, a senior level officer along with his two coworkers came to receive me at the entrance. One coworker pulled my cart and other carried my cabin luggage while the officer and me proceeded to Lufthansa counter. Though I was flying economy class, he brought me to Business class check-in counter. The staff at the counter stood up from his seat and greeted me warmly while I handed over my travel documents to him. While the officer continued talking to me, back of my mind was nervous for the excess luggage charge. Then following dialogue happened:
Lufthansa staff: "Sir, which seat you would like to have?"
Me: "I haven't slept for two nights. Give me a window one which is most comfortable to sleep."
LS: "Sure. Let me give you 28A and also block 28B so that you have both seats at your disposal."
Me: "Thank you very much". He than handed over me my boarding card... !!! No charges for excess luggage! Then LS told one of Lufthansa girls to escort me to the gate and make me board the plane with Business class.

Lufthansa seats were colorful! After I took my seat, a crew member came and relocated me to even better seat where I could stretch myself at full length.

This three-seats combo was even better than business class seat.

Once the flight was airborne and seat-belt sign turned off, I stretched myself in those three seats and fell asleep in moments.

Lufthansa does not offer any special meal with no-onion and no-garlic and thus, I ended up getting a fruit platter. Fortunately, Rutu Chachi had prepared and packed two meals for me to carry in this flight that I could survive whole journey. After lunch, I again resumed my sleep. When it was time to land, a crew member woke me up.

I switched my position back to my original seat and had cool glimpses of Munich terrain.

I had two hours layover at Munich airport. The section of the airport from where US bound flights were to take off looked empty.

My US flight arrived at the gate in time and I soon boarded the flight. This time, flight was very full but I was fortunate to get a comfortable seat to continue my sleep.

After almost 18 hrs of travel, I arrived at Newark International Airport at 1830hrs local time. Long line at immigration took up an hour time to clear it. No pictures as TSA does not allow cameras or cell phones in immigration area. Mitulbhai came to pick me up at airport. As we met after a long time, we talked talked till past midnight before going to bed.