A memorable trip in US

From left standing): Binod, Mahendra, Mahesh, Bhanu, Nabin, Khadgaman, Nagendra and (sitting): Deep, Damber and Lekh

By Lekh Nath Adhikari,

Mr. Adhikari is a graduate student of chemistry at University of Nevada, Reno. He with his friends had visited many places in the US this winter. I wanted him to share the experience with us and he comitted to write. As a result you are able to read this blog. Enjoy it. By the way this is the first blog by guest blogger in Science to Society.

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It had been one and half year that I was living in Reno, NV. It is my hobby to visit more and more places around the world but, unfortunately, I have not got chances to visit many countries. This is my fourth country that I put my feet. After coming here in US, I visited New York, California, Oregon and Washington in last winter and summer. Some of my friends are living in mid-western and mid-eastern regions and from last year they were asking me to visit them and their places. I was also thinking that if I got chances I would be really happy to visit their places. Finally, we decided to take vacation in the time of Christmas and New Year and we discussed to make our trip. Since it was a time of winter, some of our friends are saying that it’s not a good idea to travel in North but some were saying it wouldn’t be a problem. I and my friend Nagendra from Reno bought a ticket to Nashville, TN and from there to Reno. Finally, we flew from Reno on 25^th of December (Christmas Day). We were in the sky in dark for about 3 hours. The scene in the Nashville ground was so beautiful in most of the places. It was because, the night was the Christmas night. All the buildings and streets were decorated with glorious and bright lights. The plane landed on time in Nashville. My friend Deepak Bhandari from Knoxville, TN was there to pick us up. We had a plan to go to St. Louis, MO early in the morning of next day. We were so tired from our six hours flight. So, we went to the hotel that we had reserved for that night, put our luggage there and went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.

On 26^th of December, we got up early in the morning and after freshening up we headed to St. Louis. From Knoxville, one of Deepak’s friends Key (he is from Vietnam) was also with us. Four of us were in a mini sized van and I was driving. Actually, it was my first time that I was driving a big vehicle. So, I was little bit nervous too. The travel in the vehicle was so exciting and joyful because of the nice sight scenes all the way in sides of freeway. Two of our friends Binod Pandey and Mahesh Poudel were in St. Louis who were eagerly waiting for us with the yummy foods there. Finally, we reached to St. Louis at around noon in their place and had lunch there. After the lunch and rest for a while we decided to head towards Manhattan, Kansas. Weather was not so good there in St. Louis and we were worried about the possibility of snowfall in the way but we left St. Louis. Friends Binod and Mahesh also accompanied us so we were six persons in our trip thereafter. Our other friends Bhanu Bhakta Neupane and Mahendra Thapa were in Manhatan and they were updating the weather for us and preparing dinner for that night. Even the weather was not good (it was raining a lot for like 2-3 hours) we were able to got in Manhattan around 9 PM. Bhanu and Mahendra with other Nepali friends who were there in Manhattan were there to welcome us. That night became so great and excited for us because we felt like we were in Kirtipur (when we were doing our Masters in TU three years back) with most of our friends from Kirtipur. We had some drinks at first and then dinner with all together 20 friends there. It was really great stay there even it was for a short time. 
Next morning we went to the apartments of some other Nepali friends and after that we visited Kansas State University. We did not have enough time to stay there, so, we bought some lunch from subway and headed back to St. Louis having lunch in the van with our two more friends Bhanu and Mahendra. It was like 7 hours drive up to St. Louis so we did not stop anywhere in the way excepts two gas stations to fill up gas in van and use restrooms. Finally, we arrived in St. Louis around 8 PM and due to the tiredness from long travel we could not go to the Downtown that night. We had to prepare dinner ourselves, so it was almost 1:00 AM in the morning when we went to bed.

Next morning, on 28^th of Dec, late morning get up, we left Mahesh there in his apartment and we (7 guys) visited few famous places in St. Louis including Gateway Arch and the museum therein. It was really nice scene there in the side of Mississippi River with big arch in the west of river. After that we headed towards Chicago, IL. We were going all the way north from there and we were thinking that weather was going to be worse in north than in south. But, we did not find that. Actually, the drive was so long and boring but we were not feeling and bore ness and tiredness because our friends were so funny if needed and they were saying jokes and stories in our entire trip. Especially, Binod was one of them. Whenever he would speak something we would not keep our mouth close. He made us laughing almost all the time. Some were saying their love stories, some were saying their tragedies, some were saying their real stories happened in their life, some were saying their future plan like go back to Nepal, getting married, what to do after completion their degrees and stuffs like that. So, we felt like we reached to Chicago within 1-2 hours even that took 7 hours for us. The interesting thing is our Vietnamese friend was also enjoying with us even though we were talking in Nepali at all the time and were playing Nepali music. We approached to our destination in the apartments of our friends where Shankar, Shiva and Suraj were there with plenty of food and different kinds of drinks to welcome us from their hearts. They were our classmates in I. Sc. and B. Sc. That night was one and only one night that I ever had in my life. I did one thing there with them that I had not done before and I have not done after that too because I couldn’t stay without accompanying them. We had long gossips for almost whole night but we could not share all the feelings that we wanted to share. Next day, after late morning wake up, we went to a Nepali restaurant for lunch. Even though, Chicago was very cold at that time we did not feel any coldness due to our best friends and their guidance to visit the places there. Since, they were there for a long time they know everywhere in the city. Therefore it was possible for us to visit more places in a short time. We visited important places there like Sears Tower, Science Museum, Aquarium and some other places all over the day.

Next morning, on 30^th of Dec, we left Chicago early in the morning and headed to Kent, Ohio. After 7 hours drive we reached there. After a lunch at around 3 PM, we visited Kent State University with Som and Krishna Dai. We had also a great night over there too and next morning we visited Cleveland and Akron. After having lunch there in Kent we headed towards Columbus and thereafter we stopped by in Ham Raj dai’s home in Cincinnati. We did not have any plan to stay overnight there but he was already prepared there to keep us overnight with different food items as a dinner. We couldn’t deny his request and hospitality and agreed to stay there. It was New Year eve and we planned to be awake until midnight. We played cards for a while and watched New Year eve ceremony in TV. Next morning we went to a temple there with Hem Raj dai and his family. Then, we said goodbye to them and left to Lexington. The drive in the Ohio was so thrilling because of nice road and scene on the sides. In Lexington, we had some friends so we visited them, had lunch there and started our travel to Knoxville. We thought that we would not have any problem because of the weather because we were heading towards south. That’s why we planned our trip assuming that we would reach to Knoxville around 7 o’clock in the evening. But weather became so bad there that it started to snow. Initially, it was only flurrying but with the time it became so dense that we could not see even 5 feet ahead from us. Driving was so crazy due to slippery road. We could see so many traffic accidents that made road jam for like two hours with the speed of 5 mph on the freeway. We were thinking they have gas stations and rest areas in every 10-15 miles but there was nothing except big jungles on the way. I was feeling to use restrooms for pee. Traffic was very slow and we could not find any restrooms for like one and half hours. I became so stressed after some time that I tried to do inside the van but I couldn't do. That was my first time in my life that I felt so uncomfortable and I thought it would be easy to die than to tolerate that pain. Finally, after some time we were able to find restrooms and me and other friends also felt big relief. I can’t forget that moment in my life. After spending 6 hours (for 3 hours long way) we reached to Knoxville. Our friend Girish and his wife were prepared dinner for us there so we went to their place. After dinner we went to Deepak’s apartment and slept.

Next morning, on 2^nd of Jan, we went to Atlanta, GA where we visited few famous places like CNN center, Coco cola museum, and all downtown areas. Although it was supposed not to be cold there, it was colder than Chicago at that day. Therefore, we couldn’t stay outside for a long time and we returned to Knoxville that night. After this long trip we were so tired that we couldn’t do anything on 3^rd of Jan. We took rest all over the day. We returned the van we had rented and rented another car for next day because we had to come back to Nashville (which was 3 hours drive from Knoxville) to take our flight which was early in the morning at 6:00 AM. So, we decided not to sleep at that night and remained awake until 1:00 AM. Some of the friends were sleeping. I woke them up and we had coffee to get rid of sleepiness. We left Deepak there and five of us (me, Bhanu, Nagendra, Binod and Mahendra) headed towards Nashville at around 2 AM. I had to drive but I was also feeling sleepy because of not sleeping at all. So, other friends were scaring from my drive and I think they couldn’t sleep in the car too. But, sometimes they were sleeping and that was making me sleepiness even though I was trying to avoid that. Finally, we approached to Nashville airport at 4:15 and returned the car and went to the terminal. Actually, this time was so hard because we are in the moment to depart with each other. All of us were felling so bad. We didn’t know that when we were going to meet next time. But, it was our compulsion to return in our respective places for our study. After a final gossip, it was time to check in there for the flights. Bhanu and Mahendra were going to Kansas City, Binod was going to St. Louis and me and Nagendra were coming to Reno. Finally, we went to our respective terminals with feeling so bad. I boarded in aircraft and fell asleep as soon as I had a seat. As our scheduled time we arrived Reno at 11:45 AM which was my home town and made my life normal.