This was a trip which was long due. And a ' homage ' which just had to be paid.  For here I had been in Seattle for more than 2 months now, and the least I could do was

to visit the Boeing Field/Museum of Flight to acknowledge the invention thanks to which I could be here, so many thousands of miles away from home - the airplane.

 

Its amazing to see the evolution of the modern day jetliner. Right from the bicycle-plane of the Wright brothers to the Propeller planes , and then to the Jumbo Jet and finally the supersonic Concorde.  Every time a new model of an airplane is rolled out its a wonder in itself. And a trip to the museum made me realize it.

 

Take for instance the 777. While flying to Seattle from Bombay, the first aircraft I boarded was an A300, the next ( for the trans-pacific trip) was a 777. All this while

I had hardly paid any attention to it and the uniqueness which had gone into its making. Yeah, it was just another twinjet aircraft , pretty big , that was it. All of a sudden

there was a whole lot more to it. It was the first aircraft to be designed purely on Computer using CAD/CAM provided by IBM. The first paperless-ly designed aircraft.

Which brings me back to my thoughts on what computing has done and what it could still do but that is another story altogether.

 

The first 747 - I have seen so many 747s and even travelled on them, but there was a special meaning in knowing that I was seeing the first 747. An aircraft which transformed peoples live,careers and probably entire cultures even maybe. An aircraft which dominates the concourses of every major international airport. Only when

you pick up the book '747' can you realize the pains which went into its making.

 

The concorde - this looks way too slender & smart , it was an absolute wonder of technolgy and its sad that it had to be put out of service.

 But somehow I felt a sense of far greater awe for the 747 since its made a much more visible impact on our lives today. And even as I make this statement there must be thousands of it up in the skies carrying people and cargo between nations and continents ; agents of a different kind of a world wide web which brought the world togther even when the Internet wasn't there .

 

 

 

 

 

When I moved from India to US in Late Septermber 2007, I wanted to have my cell phone connection working till the last day, so I thought I'd reach Seattle , login to my

online phone account, pay the last bill and apply for a disconnection.

When I did try to access my account, I tried an incorrect password, and before I knew it, the system had changed my password - and what was the way of communicating back to me about my changed password ? It sms-ed it back to me. Now sitting thousands of miles away from home how was I supposed to get an SMS? The password shouldve been emailed to me at least. I tried mailing the  hutch assistance email ID but obviously they;re too busy to reply ....

When I tried to login next time, it just said UserId disabled so I thought they had somehow figured out that my account needed to be deactivated.

I just got the good news that a 1900 Rs bill is due back home and the problem is not abt paying it ... its about how to pay it !!!

 

Its raining and pouring and beneath your tyres there seems to be no splashing.

Yeah sure there's no water. But there's ice.

 

This was the most important lesson I learnt yesterday after I rented a car for the first time.

 

It had been 2 months since I had last driven a car. That had been in the crowded streets of Meerut , the hyper busy Uttaranchal-Delhi highway which can be the best possible training in how erratic traffic can get.

 

I had to go some 15 miles away to rent a car. How I got there I just don't know. It was a combination of multiple bus rides, in multiple directions, foot-walks across lawns and parks, and a completly random arrival at the address of the rental agency. It was anything but the shortest path.

The renting-guy was in quite a hurry and handed me the keys to a Mitsubishi Lancer ( courtesy Microsoft) and I happily headed to the car. Automatic transition,which is supposed to make things really easy, but it took me a while to figure out how I had to get around to moving the stick, and like many troubles the solution was found by a phone call to a school friend :)  The absence of a clutch felt like a loss of control  though. It felt less like a car and more like a gokart.

 

Well I was in luck. For I was parked right next to the highway towards Redmond. So I just had to head back right.

Well it was just 6pm. There was a long evening and the night time ahead. And after all these ages , I had a car!

Maybe it would be fun to just head further off from Redmond , go for a 20-30 mile drive and head back after a while ?

The mind said *no* .  It was not the most sensible thing to do. Definitely not for someone who's used to driving in a place

which is so dry and barren as a desert that there's never been a drop of water disrupting the view thru the windshield.

And, on a cold rainy wintery Seattle night, when the roads are so slippery, and even the streetlights are goin off,you should be

heading home to bed. But the heart said *yeah* go ahead have a nice drive , In any case you've got to drive 15 miles to get

home, it really wont matter if u drive another 15-20 more for fun. I generally do what my mind tells me to and not the heart.

But this was an exception. Forbidden fruit is certainly the sweetest and a nice little drive on a high speed freeway was an

understandable temptation. 

And so I began my journey in the opposite direction. And it wasn't as straight a path as I had expected. So I made random

decisions at every fork and enjoyed my drive for a while. Till I realized that I was now pretty clueless about where I had reached.

Every fork/crossing/exit in this area looks pretty much similar so there's no concept of taking a note of 'landmarks' out here at

least not for a stranger. Yeah the wheels and brakes were slipping. The roads were slippery and sloping.

My journey paused for a while. Now I looked around the place. There were the Issaquah mountains on one

side. The mischief maker in my mind came back to work again.  I had come all this way. Might as well take a nice enjoyable drive

through the hills as well. Whether you're lost at Point-A or Point-B it really doesn't matter because lost is lost ... So might as well

remain lost for a while at Point-B instead of Point-A if it looks more interesting ? And so I started going up in the hills . And it started

to rain and pour. But there was no splashing under my tyres so I felt pretty ok. Till I saw the reason why. The roads were more white

than grey. And , a few hundred yards ahead of me, were a bunch of abandoned cars, with their wheels jammed in ice.

So it was obviously time to retreat. As I started my jourey 'homewards' , the streetlights were off , the traffic lights were off, and even I

was pretty much clueless about where I was heading. Anyways, after a little more aimless wandering in circles and spirals, stopping at

Gas stations,burger joints etc,and a total of a 40 mile journey for the 15 mile one which was required, I finally landed up where I needed to :)

 

Home sweet home and a good night's sleep ..... with the satisfaction of a random exploration (of a small part of) 

what the beautiful Pacific Northwest has to offer..............zzzzzzzzzzzz...........