Spooooky..

When was the last time you visited a graveyard or a cemetery? ..What are the chances that while in cemetery your car won't start back again.. wooooooh ..wait..wait.. when your car is down, keys are not connected.. and suddenly...whole electrical system goes wacky, All the RPM, Speedometer indicators were running haywire in a wild rush !! ... woooooohhh.. Spooky :) !!

Was in "San Diego Darshan" mode with my cousin sister Deepti. While driving back from Pt Loma, I thought abt visiting Rosecrans cemetery nearby. One of the greatest amateur astronomers, Robert Burnham Jr, is buried there. I wanted to visit him (?) for a long time, but never got a chance. ..that was the moment and I pulled over. We went thru grave locater to find out the exact location of the grave, out of thousands of graves lying around.. Finally we found it and decided to drive there.. Got into the car..and thats it..

Car wasn't starting.. Tried turning the keys once, twice, thrice.. Nope.. it wasn't !!. I took out the keys..and suddenly all dials, indicators started moving from one end to another end.. WOW !! Deepti and I were frozen on our seats... lil scared ..of ghosts ..esp of "Ms Carina Lee", whose grave was just next to our car :) !! ... The old classic DD TV Show "Kile Ka Rahasya" music was playing in my head :) !!

After 30-45mins panic mode, a nice gentleman helped us to jump-start the car. Again after 15 mins, while i was in the middle of the intersection of Harbor and Lauren, Car died again.. All dials were moving randomly again and this time car was making weird noise too, as if breathing for life !! Being on the airport road, bunch of cars honking, yelling at me ..I was in the middle of the intersection, just helpless, on the phone, for more than 15-20mins.

Luckily a towing services guy showed up in next lane. ..Iranian guy, who decided to help me only when I told him Indians and Iranian people do have connections.. :) Couple of dollar bills jump started the car again..

Local mechanic replaced the battery and my car is alive now.. So much of spookiness because of a car battery..

Seems like, Robert Burnham Jr, indeed wanted me to spend some time with him in that cemetery. Sorry Sir..I didn't get a chance to say hello at that time.. will definitely visit soon.. but this time I will park outside the cemetery.. just as a precaution :) !!

Saiyan Mhora..

Yesterday, while driving home from work, happened to play Rashid Khan Raga Puriya Dhanashri.. unexpectedly, the drut bandish words indeed filled the blanks.. :)

Saiyan Mhora Pardes Gayal Wa..
Kin Sotan Bin Mahe Rahu, Sudh Bisarayi..

Saiyan Mhora Pardes Gayal Wa..

Jab Se Piya Pardes Sidhare..
Sudh Huna Milee Aaban Ki, Jab Se Piyaan Nahi Aaye Hamaroo..

Saiyan Mhora Pardes Gayal Wa..

Listen here. Switch to last few minutes of the song for drut bandish..

These words woven in Puriya Dhanashri raga go way too deep :( !!

Comet Lulin.

Did you watch Comet Lulin?

Its naked eye object (barely)..binocs help. Easily observable. Take a look and location here.

Pacific To Atlantic - Day 12 - Kennedy Space Center

Jan 03, 2008 Saturday .. (Next day - During flight Atlanta to San Diego, 9:30pm)

RoadTrip Diary - Day 12.. Final day of the roadtrip.. Kennedy Space Center and Sitaram Home touchdown.

Its the last day of the trip..

Day started lil bit late 8:30pm with breakfast in ihop.. ate a lot as i didn't want to waste too much time in KSC just eating :)

Visited the Daytona beach, just next to Ihop.. It was nice.. Again the ocean water seemed similar to tymbee island ocean but this beach seemed commercialized. means it was heavily driven by lot of cars.. they allowed cars on the beach.. lot of cars parked..and people were playing on the beach..

Drove thru Daytona 500 racetrack.. The road to racetrack is called "International Speedway Blvd".. its huge.. bigger than a freeway.. with almost 5-6 lanes on each side.. From outskirts, the speedway seemed to be huge.. crowded with advt portals

Drive to KSC was also nice.. lush greenery on both sides.. and lot of water bodies around.. FL zindabaad !!

Entered to NASA Kennedy Space Center around 10:45pm.. Just along the drive to KSC, I was pretty excited and started taking a lot (i guess).. The astronaut hall of fame outside mentioned abt seaport and showcased the real space shuttle outside the building.. and gave us a hint of what is coming next..

The visitor center had a fuel tank and Solid fuel boosters housed outside..

Close-up-tour to launch pad were already sold out.. so went with general admission ticket.. Closeup tour would have given closed view of the Launchpad LC-32 facility.. but we missed it.. but with normal ticket itself, there were so many things to visit in KSC that we indeed ran out of time later..

Started with "tour of KSC"...The tour bus itself were luxurious and had small screen for quick video infos..

Visited observation gantry of LC39... this is first time, I saw a rocket launching site... and in this case.. it was human space-shuttle launching facility.. At the observation gantry, they showed small documentary abt the launch sequence.. also a small scale model of launch tower, shuttle and launch sequence is showcased... From the observation deck, On northeast and eastern side, both LC39A and LC39B were visible clearly around a mile away.. oxygen and hydrogen fuel bank domes were also visible.. browsed thru binoculars.. nobody was around the launching site.. probably because of sat and Christmas vacation.. Not able to see much details of launch tower... on southwest and southern side, the unmanned rocket launching facilities were also available. probably around 4 of them were visible.. KSC manages manned launching, while cape carneval air-force manages un-manned launches.. On western side, the vehicle assembly building was clearly visible too.. this building felt somewhat familiar, I have indeed seen it in some documentaries.. The huge USA flag and NASA emblems are showcased outside the VA.. Its 16 floor building, to assemble the launch vehicle and shuttle.. Huge crawlers were also nearby..these are required to carry the shuttle and launch vehicle to launchpad. Indian ISRO crawler or Russian crawlers are housed on train track, while KSC crawler drives thru sand road.. I was lil bit surprised why NASA crawler is so different and designed this way.. Need to find out..

On first level of observation gantry, a shuttle main engine and one of its exhaust is on display.. The engine itself is a size of SUV.. Seemed too complicated for novice like me.. Overall, the observation gantry was 3 floor high and the top floor has a temperature controlled glass cabin for comfortable views of launch site.

Next destination of the tour was Apollo/Saturn V center.. They showed short video abt brief history of NASA rocket program, starting from Sputnik, Gemini program, and then abt Apollo mission.. till Apollo 8 ... In the next room, they have simulated "a real experience" of being in mission control facility witnessing last 2 mins of launch sequence of Apollo 8. They have all real videos, actual telemetry and monitor data and real photos.. Mission control seating had computer panels for IBM, McDonald Douglas and Boeing engineers.. It indeed gave the feeling of real launch, observed from mission control.. The sound effects were good.. Also 5 seconds after launch, the glass vibrations in mission control building seemed so real..

Just outside mission control room, in a big hallway, real full-scale Saturn V rocket is showcased.. with all 4 stages placed horizontally.. I was impressed with its enormous size.. It is marvelous. With 5 boosters connected to first stage.. each booster itself is unbelievably huge.. way bigger than space-shuttle engines or the shuttle launch vehicle boosters.

The size of first stage itself shows how much fuel the whole launch consumes.. The power of the Saturn V engine is comparable to 200 FA-18 jets.. Second stage was like space shuttle launch vehicle rocket, with 5 boosters again.. On fourth stage, the navigation and guidance control ring was visible.. At the end, the real lunar service module and command module are visible.. Command and service module seems to be running on single booster.. The capsule, at the top of the rocket is like a small patio.. Its so compact that it provides leg space similar to full size car..no luxuries. A small piece of moon rock is on display.. the best part is you can touch it.. It seemed like a lava rock, black in color, really flat and smooth tile shape.. around the size of poker chip..

Watched Apollo 11 pre-landing events video and then actual visualization of landing.. wasn't that impressive..

Quick shopping session..

Next stop was Space station Processing Facility.. Each and every component, housed in space station, is assembled and tested before the deployment. Saw replicas of multiple space station cabins.. It had waste management, shower, closets, drink fountain, chairs, etc.. These seemed to be real.. also, saw actual lab/workshop where actual assembly and testing is done.. there is a small observation deck for visitors to see what is happening in the workshop.. Nobody was working, when we visited.. because of holidays..

Returned back to visitor center.. directly went for "Shuttle launch experience".. The intro video of shuttle launch activities was impressive.. Huge screen across the room and high-end graphics.. The shuttle launch experience itself wasn't that great.. Sat inside huge cylindrical capsule, like space shuttle cabin.. Launch Sequence simulations of vibrations, sounds, G force and speed.. After the first stage, throttling, stabilization, loss of vibrations and finally the zero gravity effect.. Sudden change to zero gravity was impressive.. The shuttle gallery showcases all previous space shuttle launches from STS-1 to STS-127.. its indeed beautiful..

Near the visitor center, Real space shuttle is available to visit from inside.. Its like huge cylindrical truck.. 80% of inside is empty to house all instruments on the back side, while the front side has two levels.. At bottom level, all astronaut seating arrangement, waste management etc.. while on second level, the actual cockpit for pilots..


Visited the "space mirror", that memorial for all fallen astronauts. the mirror is huge, black and astronaut names are carved on it.. All these names glow only thru sunlight reflection..

It was almost around 5:30.. Rushed to IMax theater to catch the last show of 3D movie "Magnificent Desolation" abt Apollo missions.. it was okay movie.. sort of tuned for 3D effects..

Overall NASA/KSC has showcased all glorious, eye-candy space activities for visitors really well... and everybody visiting KSC, feels like they are part of it and indeed proud of it.. Everybody wants to join this bandwagon of "huge achievements".. and everybody ends up at the "Space Shop" buying some soveniers :)..It was really crowded.. Infact all logistics/maintenance cost for KSC tourism is managed thru these souvenir shop earnings..

End of the NASA tour around 6:30pm.. Single day is indeed not enough to visit KSC..

Outside KSC, had spicy Thai dinner at town of Tutsville,

Started lase leg of of our roadtrip.. to Sitaram's home at Coconut creek.. ~3hrs drive.. On the way, seemed like all three of us were feeling lil bit disappointed because the end of the roadtrip.. We started on the road 12 days back and every day was full of lot of activities.. We ended up discussing things which we liked during the roadtrip.. Zion inspiration point, Smokies Web overlook and Saturn V rocket were 3 most impressive things for me..

final touchdown at Sitram's place ~10:00pm

At Sitarm's two story palace house, the 50" plasma TV kept me awake with SNL and Matrix.. slept around 3pm :) !!

..and that marked our end of roadtrip.. Total 4310 miles in 12 days..

Today's Drive: ~250miles
State: FL

Total Miles: 4310 miles in twelve days
Total States (15) : CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, MS, TN, NC, GA, SC, FL

Pacific To Atlantic - Day 11 - Savannah

2009, Jan 02 Friday 11:40pm
RoadTrip Diary - Day 11, Savannah & St Augustine..

Yesterday night, decided to catch sunrise on Atlantic ocean next day.. After settling in best-western, browsed thru some maps and realized that the water body we visited was Savannah river and not Atlantic ocean :) ..

Savannah is still 15-20 miles east of the ocean. We need to visit Tymbee island for Atlantic touchdown.

In the morning, when alarm started, took me few minutes to decide if i indeed want to see sunrise.. After 5 hrs sleep, opportunity cost of sunrise vs comfortable drive to Daytona beach.. but finally voted for sunrise..

Tymbee island was around 20miles from the motel.. At the "center state beach", couple of folks were on the beach, jogging, catching sunrise.. we were 10 minutes before sunrise.. but cloud cover was heavy.. 7:25am @ sunrise, only golden lining on the clouds was visible.. sun was hiding behind it.. still after few mins, the yellowish-silver sun rays showed up on top clouds, but still no sun visible.. roamed around the beach for a while browsing thru shells.. felt indeed great after reaching to Atlantic.. water was lil bit brownish in color and not crystal clear.. probably La Jolla shores Pacific ocean is much bluish than this one.. The beach was also lil bit unusual with shell crunch sand..

After half an hour, sun was still under clouds.. so headed back to the motel..

Feeling really exhausted..

Started the day around 9:30am looking for a nice breakfast place near Chatham square, as recommended by the book.. Ms Wilkes restaurant.. but it was closed.. so went to riverwalk st.. yesterday night I was on the same st, but today continued browsing different area near "folkers".. spent around half an hour just walking side by Savannah river.. Container ship was being towed thru narrow river channel.. Savannah seems to be one of the largest port on east-coast for merchant ship traffic.. Visited waving girl statue..

Had nice lunch at Toby's seafood grill place.. Fresh Tuna with cole-slaw was perfect with riverwalk view..



Savannah is exactly at the border of Georgia and South Carolina.. so we went to south carolina just crossing the bridge on Savannah river.. ~1:25pm.. nearby town maybe atleast 25miles from SC border.. so we returned immediately to georgia ~1:35pm and started our way down towards Daytona Beach..

On the way, stopped at "Howlf-Bradfield" plantation historic site, near Dorien town on I95-S.. to catch the glimpse of 1940 rice plantation and slave cabins.. I was expecting more abt slaves and their lifestyle, but the tour turned out to be abt owner house .. The ranger seemed ot be nice guy, but just too talkative.. again.. this house being from 1952 didn't seem really "historic".. but ranger unnecessarily wasted an hour just to see 4 rooms in a house.. Rice fields next to Altahama River, were really huge, around 4 acre area.. Spanish moss oak trees, in open area, were outstanding.

Visited "Fort Fredric national monument" on "Golden Isle Island" near Brunswick GA.. This was ruins of older british settlement fort to fight against spanish invasion and native indian communities.. the whole place is completely under ruins.. literally.. there isn't any "fort" at all.. I was hoping something similar to Nigara fort in Buffalo NY.. but except few walls, no structures around.. Initially, Ranger told me to abt 30mins closing time constraints, but I finished it within 20mins..it was complete wreckage and just so called "national monument"..

Overall, the Golden Isle Island was crowded because of tourists.. mainly for resorts or family fun..

Though we missed the sunrise today, Got a nice glimpse of sunset from the Island and Bay water..

Crossed Florida state line around 6:30pm EST

Reached St Augustine FL really late around 8pm.. The place seems to be similar to Savannah but this one is lil bit older spanish settlement. The St George st is "happening" street.. It is actually a small walkway with small yellowish buildings on both sides.. It indeed gave a feeling of small spanish village..

Had nice dinner at White Lions restaurant..

Visited nearby fort (??) ..was just too dark.. and it was closed from inside.. roamed outside the fort walls well..they were visible because of show lights. The fort was just next to atlantic ocean.. somehow water was really still..must be bay water..

had quick stargazing session with sitaram and meha.. it wasn't too dark.. but good enough for basic constellations..

Had nice ice-cream on St George St again.. and we started heading to Daytona Beach ~10:00pm..

On the way, Another milestone.. 4000 mile mark of the roadtrip..

Reached Daytona Beach travel inn motel around 11pm.. a Gujju guy working here gave heavy discount.. The motel is on US-A1A and ocean is just across street..

Will visit NASA KSC tomorrow..its still around 2hrs drive to KSC.. hopefully should reach there before 10am..

Today's drive: ~250 miles
States: GA, SC, FL

Total Miles: ~4000 miles in eleven days
Total States (15) : CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, MS, TN, NC, GA, SC, FL

Pacific To Atlantic - Day 10 - Atlanta

Jan 1st 2009, Thursday (late night 1:33am)
RoadTrip Diary - Day 10. Atlanta downtown and Atlantic ocean touchdown

After the stressful previous day, of about 20hrs, we started around 11am today.. wafflehouse brunch was feeling.. Though we had late night dinner at Denny's 2am previous night, I was starving :)..

didn't have any feeling for new year.. just yet another roadtrip day..

Went to Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site.. but it was closed because of new year day.. totally frustrating.. still we roamed lil bit around it.. there are two statues near visitor center.. At front, there is an african statue called "Behold", sculptured in memory of MLK.. Behind visitor center, second statue of "Mahatma Gandhi" is hosted.. its donated by Govt of India... It seems like MLK was indeed a follower of Gandhi and truly believed in Civil disobedience / Satyagraha philosophy.. i knew very little abt this aspect of MLK.. felt good..

The statue reads: "Nonviolence to be a potent force must begin with the mind. Nonviolence of the mere body without the co-operation of the mind is nonviolence of weak or the cowardly, and has therefore no potency. If we hear malice and hatred in our bosoms and pretend not to retaliate, it must recoil upon us and lead to our destruction."
At the backyard, there is a pathway showcasing footprints of all those who believed/contributed in civil rights movement. e.g. Rosa Parks.. Was lil bit surprised to see Stevie wonder's footprints.. hmmm... On the other side, the old-renovated "Ebenezer Baptist" Church, where MLK was a preacher, is still active..

I wish NHS would have been open today.. I would have loved to see it from inside..

Went to coco-cola headquarters... aquarium and coca-cola museum are at the same location.. Completely lavish surroundings, exotic, & creative decorations.. easily managed with exorbitant entrance ticket prices.. The way history of coco-cola business is portrayed to public is indeed impressive.. it shows how great coca-cola inventors, businessmen are.. lot of memorabilia from older coke advts and older coke products.. they were impressive.. watched some animation video "happiness factory".. was too boring.. Went thru "Taste of coke".. it was impressive.. lot of real drinks from all countries can be tasted here, but not all drinks were mentioned.. Only Indian drink was Sprite.. i tasted lot of drinks, but india's sprite was the only strong one.. might be a bias opinion.. still.. I ended up drinking full glass from Sprite india only.. Most of african drinks were too fruity.. Asian flavors Japanese and chinese were indeed good.. and European flavors, e.g. ikacongla, were nice.. creamy flavor.. Also went to 4D movie.. the 4D effect experience was okay.. documentory/storyline was crappy.. Also most of the 4D effects were just added for sake of it.. Coca-cola tour consumed around 3hrs.. Overall, most of the western visitors knew almost each and every brand of coco-cola, but i wonder how many people knew abt MLK? felt lil bit disappointed, because I am also part of the same community..

We spent around 45mins in nearby Centennial Olympic Park.. It seemed like because of 1996 olympic games atlanta got developed heavily in infrastructure.. and most of it is still intact and is useful to locals.. the large scale replicas of the olympic torch, all around the park, were fabulous.. Sitaram and Meha also had some fun at musical olympic fountains..



Visited Stone mountain, 30 miles outside city of atlanta.. The monolith dome, white-gray in color, is really huge.. The carving on the dome, three generals from civil war, is well detailed and must be arduous work for craftsmen.. apart from the monolith, whole park is completely commercialized.. and it is at a extent where probably people just ignore this stone carvings and spent time in artificial snow or shopping places..

On the way back, Dinner at Sarvanna bhavan was fabulous.. Unexpectedly we ended up at this place, and we found lot of indian restaurants around.. Awesome food here, indeed made our night..

Drive towards Savannah wasn't much impressive..

When we reached Savannah, first thing everybody wanted to do is to touch Atlantic ocean.. so instead of looking for motels, we went to all the way to the End of the freeway (??).. and touched the waterbody.. roamed across riverwalk.. the name "rinverwalk" itself indicated that we are near a river and not ocean.. so we weren't sure where we were.. later found out that its Savannah river and not atlantic ocean..

Savannah being heavy tourist place, all motels were full and no vacancies, after 5/10 phone calls ended up at Best western all the way to the opposite end of Savannah !!

Most probably, will catch sunrise at Atlantic ocean, if I wake up tomorrow..

Total drive: ~300miles
State: GA.. Atlantic ocean (??)

Total Miles: ~3750 miles in ten days
Total States (13) : CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, MS, TN, NC, GA

Pacific To Atlantic - Day 9 - Smokies & 31st

2008 Dec 31st, Wednesday.. late-late night
Roadtrip Diary - Day 9 - Smokies NP & 31st night in Atlanta..

The day indeed started early.. again i didn't follow the alarm.. late-night 2pm to 7am.. So really had only 5 hrs sleep. ..but still was really enthu to see Smokies NP.

In the morning, we realized that we were staying in a motel owned by indian family again.. gujarati family.. they had sold the hotel to hilton that morning and will be moving to Pigeon forge.. they must have become millionaire.. So on 31st, from now, the motel will be closed.. so ours was indeed a last night in the motel.

We started with "roaring fork motor drive nature trail".. supposed to be nice auto drive.. it was full of orchid trees.. another set of different trees in our roadtrip.. Trees are indeed tall on the mountain slope.. so, previous night, probably we felt complete darkness becasue of these dense trees. After 3-4 miles, the main auto trail was closed due to winter.. so we had to turn back.. actual trail would have given us eastern smokies looks.. so missed it..

again.. the timezone adjustments in the car, messed up my time calculation :).. so we went to "ober gatlinberg" at 9am instead of my pre-planned 8am or 8:30am.

The "Ober gatlinberg" tramway was indeed a good experience.. the tram-operator was also funny and had some bizzare accent texan-country style + german flavor :).. the tram travelled at 12mph for around 15 mins. the top was around 3100ft.. when i was in gatlinberg, i was lil bit disappointed with the commercialization of the whole town and in turn felt bad that somkies is becoming commercialized... but when "ober gatlinberg" tram was climbing up, i found out vastness of smokies and gatlinberg was almost nothing infront of those mountain ranges.. Gatlinberg is set in a valley.. but still local residences and new resorts were showing up their existance on our path on those mountain ranges.

Ober gutenberg is a ski resort.. and have lot of snow tracks.. but it seemed like it hasn't snowed for a while in there.. so all upper/difficult tracks were closed.. only begineer patches were open.. so those snow patches must be artificial.. We tried "alpine way" chairlift.. the top of the alpine pass, indeed showed eastern as well as southern smokies range.. it was completely hazy on top of mountains.. sun was under clouds.. and it created yellow streaks of sunlight on the mountains.. probabaly as name suggests, it was the blue haziness on those moutains.. mountain slopes were too dark/hazy to take any clear picture or observe thru binoculars.. it was really cold up there.. probably around 23F..

Bought tram drive-thru pictures. Coming down from apline pass and then to gatlinberg almost ticked 11:30am.. lunch at flapjack's added an hour.. in flapjack, the water glass shapes were weird..like "baranee"

It was almost 1pm when we entererd smokies NP at Sugarlands visitor center. consideting 4 hrs to sunset, no hike would have been possible.. so only drive thru "Cedar coves" and "Newfound gap" was feasible.. The ranger mentioned that cedar coves roundtrip trail, 24miles one way itself will take around 4.5 hrs.. I just didn't believe him.. but his judgement was almost right.. it took us 4hrs to finish it.. Smokies NP is huge..

The drive to "Cedar cove" is across "little river".. the river was really small and flowing in same direction.. the path was torturous for around 8 miles.. the destination at cedar coves displayed vast fields, open areas and smokies mountain range.. we were sort of in the valley.. the valley has cabins and church buildings from 1860s European settlements, who took over native Cherokee reservations,.. there wasn't a simple glimpse of indian heritage left there.. but whole cedar groves was under heavy traffic to see those old European cabins and churches.. when i went inside "primitive first baptist church", i didn't find anything interesting.. Its not old at all..its completely renovated and probably older desk is displayed.. at back, there was a cemetery of people dead in 19th and 20th century.. infact..one of the graves was built in 2005.. also there were lot of graves of young kids from 2 year old to 6 month old.. i was indeed surpised..

On that drive, we also encountered wild life.. lot of deers.. also some horses (wild life??)

Again, as i mentioned previously, it seems like the concept of "interesting history" is completely messed up here.. Anything older than probably 50 years is a heritage in usa.. and everybody showcases it as "the best thing" on the planet.. means, instead of enjoying the nature within Smokies, tourist were busy visiting so-called-historical buildings or horses.. In Albq NM, when we visited a local church building, it was completely renovated from its 1897 establishment.. In san antonio, Alamo and similar missions are probably way too older than these Cabins/Churches in Smokies, but nobody porbably knows abt San Antonio missions.. there were around 10-15 people in those missions as compared to thousands in Smokies Cedar-Grove church... Definition of "historical" places, is completely mistaken or probably "commercialized"..

I wish if i would have got a chance to camp in Cedar groves.. The place is so beautiful and bountiful that native reservations were wise enough to stay there for their whole lifetime..


It was almost 4:30pm when we came back to visitor center.. and clock indeed started ticking fast..

"Caedar valley" gave the glimpse of valley and riverside views.. but "Newfound gap drive" goes to top of the mountain range and shows complete view of smokies vast mountain ranges.. It gave the real feeling of Smokies.. Drive towards "Newfound gap" was indeed torturous and way too adventurous..and inorder to reach there before sunset, the drive indeed really fast and way above speed limit :) !! At the top, It was crazily windy around 23F.. The "manor overlook (??)" showed western smokies ranges, while the "newfound gap overlook" showed northern-eastern ranges.. THE BEST view of smokies.. just unlimited range of mountains on the horizon.. I was spellbound with that view and binoculars indeed enhanced the vision.. Our forward jounrey US-411 drive was also visible.. and that seemed to be another torturous down-slope and thats also gonna be in dark :).. It was too windy to stay up there for more than 15mins.. I am glad that we made it during day light..

North Carolina and Tennessee border is exactly at "Newfound gap overlook".. Entered NC around 5:30pm EST

On the way down, "Webb overlook" gave marvellous views of Southern Smokies range.. It was yet-another THE BEST viewpoint for the day.. Its not only just mountain ranges, but the sunset dusk light created magic.. after the sunset, sky was all red and yellowish.. and vast southern smokies range was unending on horizon.. God Picasso's paint-brush was producing new posters every now and then .. Our perfect timing made the whole experience to be the "Inspiration point" like Bryce canyon.. Thru binocs was able to capture lot of details.. the village of Cherokee was clearly visible.. Truly inspiring experience..

The drive forward within Smokies, then thru Cherokee village and then towards Atlanta was unbelievably tiring.. I was operating manually.. brain was completely shutoff.. but we really wanted to reach Atlanta for 31st night..

Crossed NC-Georgia state line around 7pm EST.. Reached Atlanta around 9:30pm EST

Atlanta, Motel 6 assistant was really helpful and gave recommendations abt visiting down-town to witness peach-ball drop of 31st.. He also mentioned that ~100,000 people will show up there. considering parking hassle, he also suggested to use local rail-transit MARTA.. Luckily, train station was within ocuple of miles from our motel... When we reached to downtown, I was shocked to see so many people.. Its like "Ganapati-Visrjan-Mirawanuk" in Pune.. so many african-american people at the same time.. specifically, with that "distinctive" accent.. After observing people around me, the way they were behaving, moving, talking/yelling, it seemed like real blue-collar people.. before midnight, usual drunken brawls and yelling was taking place every now and then.. Peach-ball drop was from 500ft tower and we had a side view.. there was a small conert going on.. but considering "discussions" and heavy hassle around us, concert was just in-audible.. Also, coca-cola screen was displaying ~32F and too windy.. but probably because of such a huge crowd, i wasnt feeling any cold winter.. THe 00:00am event of 31st night was marked my huge fireworks and ball drop.. but it got over within few mins.. Also we didn't realize the precise 00:00 moment :) as we didn;t see any counters nearby. because of side-view ?


Return journey was another beast.. Thousands of people getting into small train station, at the same time, created usual hue & cry..

Again, Denny's late night dinner and an un-necassary hour delay in delivering the food, completely knocked us out.. Total 20 hrs day finally ended.. Good night !!

Today's Drive; ~300 miles
States: TN, NC, GA

Total Miles: 3400 miles in nine days
Total States (13) : CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, MS, TN, NC, GA