US Road Trip - day 8

Oct 14, 2005

I started from Altanta early in the morning - destination College station, Kalyan's house. I continued on 20E passing through Alabama, Missisipi and Louisiana. The southerhn accent was unmistakable here at every gas station I stopped. I had only heard it on TV before. The first time I heard the accent it thrilled me quite a bit. One thing though, I found the restrooms quite unclean throughout the two states when compared to the eastern states I had crossed, especially the turnpikes.

I decided to take a uncommon route to College station and avoid the bid freeways. I had heard a lot of the vastness of texas and here was the chance to explore it. I decided to take 79S from 20E right after Shreveport in Louisiana. 79S would take me diagonally cutting across 45S to 6. At which point 6S would lead me to College station. I would completely avoid going to Dallas. Indeed I loved my decision. Driving on these roads was a pleasure. I even took off-road sometimes and explored a little bit. Drivers here were extremely courtious. I drove through fields and small towns and really loved it. The only downside turned out to be the fact that I was crossing quite a few little towns and this slowed me down considerably. It was also pitch dark and my car was the only one after sometime. I could see nothing in the rear-view mirror for long stretches of time sometimes. Occasionally a car would turn up and would be in a hurry and would pass by me at over 100mph.

I reached College station at about 10:00P.M I think and was greeted by Kalyan. It had been a long time since I met him. It felt amazing to see him in person. We went to a chineese restaurant and had dinner - there were very limited choices available anyway at this time of the hour. I would visit Ramya only next day morning. Both of us slept very late in the night.