Superbowl 51 in Houston, Texas

Today is America's biggest sporting event. The Superbowl LI. The New England Patriots are standing in the way of Atlanta Falcons winning their Superbowl NFL Championship for the first time in their franchise history. Where is this game being played? In the one and only city and my favorite city Houston, Texas at Reliant Stadium. Well at least that's what they were called at the time when I lived in Houston. I think now the stadium is called NRG Stadium. I hate the new name. It doesn't have the same ring as Reliant Stadium. Like everything in Texas the stadium is huge - humongous - as what they say. I have lot of good memories from attending events at this stadium. Have a nice time watching the game tonight with friends & families over some nachos and a beer.

Tidbit : How big is Superbowl in America? A 30-second TV commercial would cost companies a whopping $5 Million. And also the total revenue generated by the event would be close to a Billion dollars. Some folks are going to rake in lot of "moolah" tonight. How much money will I make from writing this story on Football? Zero. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Bangor, Maine : Northern Charm

September, 2015

If you plan to go to Bar Harbor you must stop at Bangor. Why should you go to Bar Harbor you may ask? Well everyone must see Bar Harbor at least once in their life time. No excuses. No exceptions.

If you want to visit Bar Harbor you need to hurry up because your window is closing out soon for on the season. While August may be ideal but September is still spectacular in Bar Harbor.

I went to Bangor because the name sounded familiar, I may have read the name in books and magazines and besides the location of the city intrigued me. The name had been tossed around as if the town was a mythical figure.

The town had been quoted as an exotic place, an American city yet so different. It got its reputation probably because it is so far from rest of the country. The city is so close to Canada and it almost feels like a Canadian city.

It is actually a very simple town. When you get to Bangor you would be surprised to see how simple it is. So simple actually that you may be tempted to think “I drove this far for this?”

If I have to sum up the town in one sentence, it is this : It is half New England town, half Canadian city.


How do you say Bangor anyway? It is BAAN-GORE. Gore as in Al Gore.

When you are in Bangor the time slows down. The pace is lot slower. Time to take a deep breath and enjoy simple things like sit down for a meal of quintessential New England favorites, lobster rolls and clam chowder soup at a local diner with your friends.

Take time to walk around 

Do you know Bangor is actually north of Toronto in Canada? True. The latitude that runs across Toronto is actually south of Bangor. If you run a straight horizontal line on the map across Bangor it runs above Toronto at least by 80 miles. The reason is a big chunk of Northern Maine is actually cuts into Canada.

While you are making plans to visit Bar Harbor, if you are thinking Ellsworth is the logical place to stay for the night, you are right on the money. The town of Ellsworth has lot more choices of hotels and restaurants. The town of Ellsworth is the gateway to Bar Harbor. The city of Bangor is also another option.

Now that you are convinced what are you waiting for? Pack up, grab your loved ones, get in your car and drive to Maine. What are you waiting for?

Cruising in Las Cruces

June 2016
New York City

I was surfing the news last night on the internet and as I got to the end of the page, right at the bottom was the very last news item and there it was the headline that jumped right at me : "Bill Clinton stumps in Las Cruces." I let out a big shout "Well well I know that place because I been there. Oh my good gracious!"

As soon as the headline registered in my head my heart fluttered a bit and quick smile appeared on my face. It was one of those moments that defines all those endless hours of driving that I had done in the far corners of our vast beautiful country, the parts most people simply ignore to explore because it was not a glamorous town or "there was nothing there" or just fly over on a plane to some place, a destination that is "cool" and "hip" perhaps a town like Tucson, Arizona. It was one of those moments all your travels suddenly converge into one single moment even if the euphoria lasted just a for a minute. If the town we are talking about is a well known town somewhere on the east coast it would not have evoked such an emotion in me. But this town is all the way down in New Mexico state some 2100 miles away from where I am right now in New York City and the town is so remote from rest of New Mexico that Mexican border may well be just 50 miles away.

I would not be exaggerating if I said 9 out of 10 Americans will never get a chance to visit Las Cruces. Many of them might fly in to Albuquerque about 200 miles up north from this town for a vacation and maybe spend a weekend at Santa Fe the darling town of all the tourists who visit New Mexico. On the other side down south there is El Paso that sits at the corner of Texas and New Mexico border; you might stop here if you were driving from Houston, Texas to San Diego, California to fill gas or to get something to eat - if you fail to stop here you will be hungry for a long long time. The town of El Paso is the biggest city you pass before you see the "water" on the pacific coast; this dusty outpost of a town in Texas has two contrasts, one on US side and the other on Mexico side that goes by the name Juarez which is about 50 miles south of Las Cruces where nobody stops. Almost no one.

How I ended up in Las Cruces back in June of 2011 would make a nice travel account on its own and I will save that for another day but looking back I am glad I stopped there. What I remember from spending an hour there was the "quiet". Yes the town was totally quiet, was devoid of many people. It was nice to read that President Bill Clinton stopped here this weekend in this charming town to meet with locals and campaign for his wife who will go head-to-head with her opponent on June 7th the last "Super Tuesday" of the primaries that includes California. No matter who wins in New Mexico the town of Las Cruces will win your heart if you take time to stop here.  .

Calamity in Castle Rock, Colorado : Mar 2016

"Hundreds Trapped on Colorado Highway in Record-Breaking Storm" was the headline my eyes were drawn to as I was browsing through the day's news last night. I am in Boston right now but my mind quickly raced back to the treacherous drives that I used to embark on between Colorado Springs and Denver in the deadly blizzards. What business I had on a Colorado highway during a blizzard you may ask. Nothing. All I needed was some lame excuse to get on the road so I could experience the mayhem during the whiteout conditions on the highway that traversed the mountains. One time in March I believe, I set out to drive to Denver in a raging storm to attend a club meeting. The lady who was in charge of the proceedings called me while I was still on the road, told me the meeting was cancelled, admonished me for venturing out in those conditions and sent me back home.

I also saw a tweet in the online news article about yesterday's storm in Colorado that read : Highway 83 between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock in terrible condition. Mere mention of Castle Rock in the article jogged my memory about all the trips that we used to take to visit this gem of a town. Actually you never really take trips to go to Cast Rock. It is right there on your way driving from Colorado Springs to Denver and you just have to make a stop, a stop that may end up as a destination in itself and you may end up spending whole day there forgetting all about your original plans as why you were on the road to begin with. I can write an entire story about my trips to Castle Rock and I intend to do so some time but now it is suffice to say : there may be calamity right now but calmness would prevail and good times will roll once again in Castle Rock. 

Tallest Fountain in the World - Fountain Hills, AZ - Mar 2013

Here is a town that likes their fountains so much that they named their beloved town Fountain Hills and not to mention the town also boasts of being home to world's tallest fountain. I admit the fountain was impressive but getting there was half the fun for me.

I don't quite remember how I heard about Fountain Hills but I do remember that Saturday had been cloudy as we were ascending up the mountains in Tonto National Forest shortly after noon with no particular destination in mind. Earlier that day we drove through Tempe on Highway 202 and turned up north on Highway 87 into the mountains.

The weather up the higher elevation was lot cooler and terrain was lot greener than the Phoenix metro valley. I saw giant Seguaro cactuses that dotted the landscape across the rugged ancient meadow-like land that was covered in thick tiny bushes and mud-colored houses were perched atop the mountain. I am sure they have an amazing view from their homes but what do you do if you run out of milk. 

Further up the highway we saw the signs for the town of Fountain Hills and we decided to check it out. It was a brand new community carved out of the hills on the edges of National Forest. Everything looked freshly minted - the houses, civic center, fire station, roads etc. I would have to say we never set out to come to this city, we just chanced up on it I might add. 

Right in the center of the town is where all the fun is and it is where everybody makes a beeline to like a moth drawn to the light - for a valid reason though. Here you will get to see the world's tallest fountain.

Don't be alarmed if the fountain doesn't seem very tall when you first see it. They only activate the special pump at the top of every hour and the fountain shoots up to the skies and the show lasts for 15 minutes -- if you ever been to Vegas you know what I am talking about -- rest of the time the fountain just looks like a normal fountain but it still very high compared to lot of fountains. At its highest the fountain rises up to impressive 550 feet. I did not know this at the time but I came to find out the fountain was the tallest in the world when it was installed in 1970 and remained the tallest for a decade and now it is the fourth tallest in the world. Where are the other three? I prefer not to know - or I will be tempted to go see them. 

When the clock marks the top of the hour, fountain starts sprouting, there is a stir in the crowds, you can sense the anticipation among the throngs that are gathered there and they get up from where they were sitting on the grounds and walk towards the fountain with their cameras that looked the size of a bazooka hung over their shoulders all ready to go. Not to look out of place, I discreetly hid my pocket camera out of public view.

If you are lucky you might get to see a live free music concert that normally takes place up the banks of the lake on Saturday afternoons. Kids can keep themselves busy by chasing the geese around on the slopes of the embankment. Fountain Hills sure was one of the unique towns that I ever visited. Thank You!

Who Do I Root For? AZ, NC, MA, CO?

In National Football League(NFL) all 32 teams start the season in September with a clean slate and four weeks into the season it becomes obvious half the teams would have no chance of making the playoffs. 

The Thanksgiving Day marks the beginning of a final quarter of the regular season. The contenders are separated from pretenders by now. At this point the competition would be just heating up and top teams would be trying to make a statement of dominance by trying to finish with the best winning record possible and land the home field advantage in the process. Sometimes the teams even dream of going 16-0 which happened only a couple of times in NFL history. 
As the holidays in December get underway the last few playoff spots may still be up for grabs and teams would make a desperate run to make the cut. By the time Christmas rolls around the playoff field is pretty much set. Six teams from AFC and six teams from NFC boast the bragging rights of making it to the promised land. Out of the six teams two teams from each conference get a first round bye in other words they don't play the wild-card round of the playoffs. 
The winners of the wild-card week play the top dogs who sat out the first round in a week called divisional round. The 3rd week of January brings up the conference championship round that pits 2 teams in AFC and 2 teams in NFC. The two teams in each conference battle it out for a berth in the greatest spectacle in sports i.e., Superbowl. This year the SB will be played on February 7th at brand new state-of-the-art arena Levi Stadium in San Francisco Bay Area. 
Today is the Final Four of NFL - the Conference Championship Round. The four teams vying for the big game are : NFC - Arizona Cardinals at Carolina Panthers & AFC - New England Patriots at Denver Broncos.

I have lived in all four states North Carolina, Arizona, Massachusetts and Colorado and it is hard to pick sides while deciding which team to root for. Now that I live in Boston, I would love to see the defending world champions Patriots back in Superbowl and winning it all so I can go see them in a parade for the second time in a row. But in reality I am rooting for all four teams and I hope to see some good football action today. All I wish for is some closely contested games that go to the wire.

Wichita Falls, Texas : Don't speed

Dallas TX
January 2007

Was there a good reason for my trip to Wichita Falls? None. Absolutely none. I woke up on the first Saturday of January in "Big D" Dallas and decided I was going to drive to Wichita Falls. Who would do something like that? Nobody. It defies any logic and any rationale. What did we do in Wichita Falls? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Like driving to Wichita Falls was not crazy enough I did not turn around when it got late in the day, instead we kept driving further north and crossed the Texas border and drove in to Oklahoma state and got on the interstate I-44 north bound and set my sights on Oklahoma City until the signs indicating the highway was turning into a tollway stopped me in my tracks.

"I am not paying toll for a trip I had no business doing in the first place", is what I remember admonishing myself. My good senses finally prevailed on me and it was time to go back home. But there was no way I was going to drive back on the highway that I came up on : the highway 114/287 that meanders through the towns in the region that is to the north west of Dallas namely Grapevine, Decatur, Bowie, Wichita Falls. The round trip had to be done in a loop. You are now in Oklahoma, you didn't want to go back the way you came, you didn't want to pay toll go up to Oklahoma City and going west could mean you could end up in Amarillo Texas for Pete's sake and you would never be able to make it home that night. Now what?

My only other option was to go east and that is what we ended up doing. I did not drive for 5 miles on Route 70 going east before I noticed a car that drove past me going in the opposite direction, and saw the driver in my rear view mirror making a U turn and was barreling fast towards me, he pulled close right behind me and before I knew I was being entertained to disco lights. He was a State Trouper in an unmarked car. So I pulled over. He stopped, got out of his car walked up to me and asks me "Do you know how fast you were going?" The angst in his tone was unmistakable. I said "No Sir!" He took my license, walks to his car, runs my license and walks back to my car and tells me "Slow down, drive safe" in an agitated voice and left in a hurry faster than a prairie dog retreats into a burrow at the sight of a hyena. I got out of the jam without a ticket.

The traffic stop kinda soured my mood. I kept driving east through barren fields and we stopped at "Ardmore, OK" the junction of Route 70 interstate I-35 and ate our dinner at a restaurant and we got on I-35 south bound to go back to Dallas. I was cruising along as I kept thinking about my day. "I just bought my brand new shiny Jeep and I wanted to take it for a spin and I got pulled over for speeding on the very first day. " So much for a joy ride on your freshly minted wheels...