15. "All we need is four wheels on road and a wheel in hand"

We decided to cover almost 13 hrs. long 826 miles journey in one day to spend a day more in New York and Niagara. As a backup plan in case we get tired, we decided to stay wherever we reach and drive to New York next day.

We left Schaumburg, IL after waking up late to last night's hangover. We drove, fueled car, stopped at Subways to eat and drove again till we reached New York around 5 am in the morning. It was a very risky decision when I think about it; but when we started talking about our days in Sainik School, Satara (a military boarding school, where I spent 7 years of my life) the time just flew and laughter kept us awake through the night.

Finally made it to the east coast - almost 4000 miles and the best part it without even a single ticket. Thank god we have been lucky many a times and also thank Waze maps for shouting "police reported ahead"

This is what we saw the whole day, just a long stretch of road:

And the state board signs!

Stopping for state welcome board signs:

Then walking back to the car to cover long stretch of road again..

Then it's gets dark and blurry,,,

And board signs look exactly the camera captures it at 80mph.

Finally made it to the Empire State!

Now to Miami and back to Los Angeles.

14. Day 12-15: Beautiful breeze after a boring journey

After the Nebrasca disappointment, we reached Chicago on the night of 29th July.

We just slept and took rest for two days at a friend's place. She took us to awesome places and we drank and danced till early morning.

This place a awesome taco made inside the Fritos chips pack..

The best part was the place were they had a dance floor also had a basketball ring and a dedicated lane for playing!

Saturday was all sightseeing and falling in love with the architectural city.

I have been uploading only the pictures taken from my iPhone in this blog. I will post the pictures from my DSLR later.

13. Day 10-11: Through the boring state to Windy City

Driving from Aspen to Lincoln, Nebraska was tiring as we encountered our first road trip mishap. One of the car tire had to be replaced as it had a cut on the outer side. Even the mechanic was amazed about how did that happened.

That's not the worse part. 

Driving through the road bordered by corn fields on both sides for hundreds of miles, we reached Lincoln, NE.

I am sorry to say but Lincoln is the most boring city I have seen in America. We went to a restaurant and asked a waiter, " what all places can we see in here?" and he replied "There nothing to see, it's a pretty boring place". Damn he is right.

That's painful..

Why do you welcome to Nebraska, let people enjoy their lives outside..

Don't know what is this but it's looked cool.

And the Worst State Welcome Sign board is:

Me and my mean machine from West to Midwest.

Excited that we will be spending 3 days from tomorrow in the beautiful city.

Looking forward to enjoying the Windy City.

12. Day 9: Beautiful Aspen, CO

Please, please visit this place if you have not been here yet.

It's just beautiful.

Look at the pictures captured with iPhone from a moving car and you decide.

Sky in pond

Following ones are not captured from moving car as u can see.

My mean machine

The famous Maroon Bells

Snowmass village near Aspen is like an welcoming European town

Funny story - On our way to rafting we saw this police car. 

A gentleman from Illinois said, "this cop is very hard working, I am seeing this car here for last 2 days." 

The driver told us that the car is broken and doesn't even have engine. It is kept at that same place  for months now, so tourists don't speed up in this section.

That's really an innovative way of reducing car speeds at tourist spots!

11. Day 8: To colorful Colorado

Do you remember childhood drawing with backdrop of mountains, river flowing through the village and sun setting between the mountains?

I think we saw it today on our way to Aspen, Colorado. 

It is a small peach town with some wineries named Palisade.

It's beautiful!

Will upload the pictures from DSLR later.

This is a cool state welcome sign till now.

Excited for tomorrow's white water river rafting level 4 and 5. 

10. Day 7: Walking the dirty narrows in Zion

Driving narrow roads traversing through the huge canyons was the best part of the day.

Yeah we waked the dirty Zion Narrows!

Hiking through the water running in between canyon narrows is a unique experience but the water was dirty and sorry to say but it gets boring after a while.

Clichè photo! 

Balancing act

I love this one. (Just after crossing the Zion National Park visitor center)

Note:

Strongly recommend trying airbnb whenever you travel. Saves some money without compromising on comfort.

9. Day 6: Grand Canyon North Rim

We decided to see North Rim of the Grand Canyons and avoid South rim, just to take daredevil selfies and pictures on the edges of the rim.

Then we covered Horse Shoe Bend in Page, AZ on our way back.

8. Day 5: Thank you Vegas

This is my first time walking to the cashier in Casinos to collect money and not to ATM machines to withdraw. 

I think I am getting better at roulette or was just lucky, 3 times...

Winnings : $90, $60 and $200

Net : $260

Casinos paying for gas on your road trip not bad right !

Left Vegas to reach Santa Clara, UT where we booked a place on AirBnB for the first time. It is just 50min from Zion National park and 3hrs from Grand Canyon.

Visited Hoover dam on the way.

We have decided to capture all possible state welcome signs on our way, so here are some:

Grand Canyon North Rim tomorrow....

7. Day 4: What happens in..........

The best part of being in Vegas for me is playing roulette on strip at night and coming out of clubs in morning lights. Sleeping through the day just to repeat last night.

This is probably the only picture on my phone 

Ohh wait I think I have another one: don't know where and where though !

6. Day 3: To Sin City,,,

Driving from San Francisco to Sin city Las Vegas. Whole day of driving, awesome scenery (especially a long stretch of wind mills on hills) and Harshad got to drive 😝

Completed first 1000 miles of the trip - 8 more to go. We are confident that we can do it.

Stayed at Stratosphere: Nice place to stay just a bit far from the strip

View of the strip from Stratosphere tower: it was far better than this picture 

Bartender at Cosmopolitan, Aria served Green tea whisky shots and that started one hell of a crazy night of drinking, gambling and ..... in the Sin city.

Rest you all know