Our eventful trip to Dallas, TX

Day 0

For those of you who don't know it, a friend of mine and I (along with
our better halves) decided to go to Dallas for a friend's wedding. The
wedding was scheduled to be on the day after Thanksgiving and since the
notice was given way back when, we decided to scour the net for deals
and actually found a good one on the one and only orbitz.com. We were
flying from SFO to DFW on Thursday morning and returning on Sunday night.
From the time we bought the tickets to about a week before we actually
took the flight, there were about 4 emails we got reminding us of some
change in itinerary. For the most part, we did not realize what the
changes were, but meanwhile, since the Thanksgiving week was a shutdown
week, we decided to extend our trip. Taking advantage of the fact that
if there is a change of itinerary on the airlines' part, the customer
can change/cancel the trip if its not suitable to him/her, we decided to
make it to Dallas on Wednesday, and not Thursday. We got the same
flight, but just one day earlier.

Come Wednesday morning (9am flight, reporting time 7am, shuttle called
for 6am, wake up set for 4.30am!), and we were all set to go to Dallas.
We packed our warm clothes because it was going to be 50s in the day and
30s in the night ('feels like 40s in the day and 20s in the night'). The
shuttle was booked through a simple logic - the first one in the Yellow
Pages! :-) It was called A-Best shuttle express. It seemed to be a small
family-owned company because the person on the phone could recognize who
I was after a couple of calls in a couple of days :-). I did not know
that the flight was from SFO, so I called him and set up the shuttle for
SJC (San Jose). Karthik and Sam came to our place at 6.05am and Kosha
and Sam waited in the apartment while Karthik and I waited for the
shuttle downstairs. After a few calls, we finally connected with the
shuttle person...loaded our bags (not so heavy) and off we were, looking
forward to a nice vacation-cum-first-indian-wedding-in-the-US experience...

We reached the airport well in time...our airline was America West, and
their curbside check-in counter was closed. So we went inside and the
person at the airport information counter asked us to go to the curbside
check-in! :-) Also, btw, she asked us to give some money for charity :-)
In any case, for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it was a light crowd
at the airport and we made our way to the line at America West. It was
quite short and in no time, we were checking in...The person at the
counter took our tickets and started the process. After printing the
boarding passes, she asked us how we were planning to get home.
Initially I thought it was only me who felt that the question was
strange, but realized from the looks on everyone's faces, that I was not
the only one. I asked her to repeat the question and she told us that
our return trip was on National Airlines, which went out of business a
few weeks ago! I said to myself that orbitz, the world's best online
travel agency would have taken care of it, if not the airline itself. We
looked at the counter next to America West's and it was National
Airlines'. No one there! My heart started beating just a tad rapidly,
because we were scheduled to return on the Sunday evening of the
Thanksgiving weekend, and I knew that the whole world would be traveling
on that day. I looked at Karthik and he said that one of the itinerary
changes that he received could have been a replacement flight for us and
that all he had to check was his email and print out the new itinerary.

The America West people were smirking and kept reminding us that we need
to get our travel plans fixed pretty quickly because it would be almost
impossible to get back on that day. Now, after all that we went through,
we realized how true they were! :-) (read on....)

So after we checked in, Karthik and I got on the phone. He called
Orbitz, and all he got was a curt response from the lady on the
phone...'it is none of our business...call the airline, or call your
credit card company'. I took the phone and tried myself - and got the
same response. It was quite sad in this day of competition in the
business, that she did not care at all about the feelings of the
customers. I asked her what I need to do by calling the credit card
company, and she had not reply! Karthik at least called the credit card
company and made sure we get refund for at least half the trip.
Ok, so now that we had the refund locked in for half the trip, we had to
start looking for ways to get back. Meanwhile, in all this confusion, we
almost forgot that it was time to board the plane. We went through
security and I was stopped for 'special treatment' because when I went
through the scanner, it beeped. They took me to the side and did a
special search on me. So, after spending 10 more minutes we were finally
on our way to the gate. In a few minutes, we were on the plane...with
exit seats!

We took off late, so we had hardly any time in Phoenix (our layover), so
we simply went from one gate to the other. By the time we got to Dallas
Fort-worth, we were hungry...using the directions on the wedding invite
and some careful guessing, we reached the area where the hotel was
situated. The hotel looked great. I got out and Sam wanted to go to the
restroom, so Karthik and Kosha stayed back. Upon the bride's request, we
had reserved a single room with two beds, for the four of us. The
charges were higher if we had told them that we were a party of 4 - so
we simply said that we were a party of 2...and got one room. We checked
in and then made a request for a balcony, since it didnt have one.
when we entered the room, we realized that because we asked for the balcony,
the person at the front desk forgot that we need two beds - the room
had only one bed!

So I went down and got the room changed (we were lucky there because we
actually checked in the day before the rest of the people were going to
come in...so there were rooms available to choose from)...of course,
when I asked for two beds, the guy at the front desk said that there is
nothing available with both, the balcony and the two beds. So we settled
for no balcony. Then finally, karthik was able to get it changed to what
we actually wanted...

We then came down and started looking for a place to eat...we had heard
that Tex Mex is really good in Dallas...so we started driving around the
block, which was actually the Town Center in Plano, Texas. But the only
place that came close to being Tex Mex was actually very classy...so we
skipped it and started driving towards the place we had seen some
restaurants on the way from the airport. We were so hungry (and cold)
that we gave up on Tex Mex and went into a place called Razoo's which
was actually a Cajun place. Of course, the menu had no vegetarian stuff,
so we had to talk the waiter into making something vegetarian for us.
Karthik had Rice with beans, Sam and Kosha shared the Jambalaya pasta
and I stuck to plain ole cheese fries. After having a quick dinner, we
returned to the hotel for bargain hunting (to find a way to get back!) :-)

After changing and making some calls to various transportation companies
(bunch of airlines, amtrak, greyhound, etc.), we realized that we were
too tired and it was at that time that Amit came and asked us if we
wanted to hang out...

We went and picked up Robert and Wilmer, Amit's friends from Hawaii
(Robert, in fact, was the best man)... and decided to go to Leddy's, the
bar in the hotel. It was a quiet place, and we were chilling out, when
the waiter said that it was last call. We reached only at 11.45pm and it
was almost time to go...so we ordered a few drinks for the table and
took the drinks out to the lobby. Robert and Wilmer told us some stories
of Amit and some of his past in Hawaii...it was fun to hear the stories,
but since all of us were really tired, we decided to call it a night and
went to sleep.

Day 1

So after a hectic entry into Dallas, it was time to actually start
enjoying the wedding festivities. Luckily for us guys, we were not going
to the Mehndi function. The girls woke up at 8am (don't know when they
went, was too sleepy) and went to the function, which was actually on
the 6th floor in the hotel. Thankfully so, because otherwise at least
one of us would have to wake up and drop them off somewhere :-)
Apparently, it went off well, with great food being served there.
They came back at about 10am and we wanted to go an eat somewhere quickly.
We were of course still sleeping at that time, and slowly woke up and
dragged ourselves out of the bed. Once we got ready, we started off to
look for a Tex Mex place (because Dallas is known for the excellent food
in Tex Mex places).

But we COMPLETELY forgot that it was Thanksgiving day and NOTHING is open on
that day in America. Absolutely nothing! We were dreaming of such good lunch,
but we just could not find a single place to go and eat. Ultimately, we found
Il Grano, which seemed to be quite a nice place, that was open and we feasted
there with Pizzas, sandwiches, cheesecake, etc. It was like we were coming out
of starvation! :-)

After lunch, we came back to the hotel and the girls decided that it was their
time to sleep and we went back to the hunt for a return trip. We took the internet
service in the business center, and thank goodness it was high speed, and
started looking at every possible combination of modes and places. Ultimately,
we decided to get a Phoenix to San Jose air ticket for Monday morning and
start driving from Dallas to Phoenix (1,064 miles!) on Saturday morning. We know
some friends there, so if we reached on Saturday night, we could relax on Sunday
and go straight to work on Monday morning. Given that plan, we decided to print
out the road trip from mapquest, and mentally convince ourselves that 15 hours
is not much of a trip! :-)

Thats when Amit stopped by the business center and told us that they were having
a rehearsal of the wedding in the hotel. We went to the rehearsal and realized that
the girls may be interested too. We called the room and asked them to join us. They
were obviously sleeping, so they joined us in a few minutes. Meanwhile, we could not
buy tickets on Southwest.com because of some SSL issues on the browser in the hotel.
So we called Ashish and asked him to purchase the tickets online for us, so that we
can get double credits on the frequent flier program....he confirmed that the tickets
were purchased and we were set to return to San Jose with at least one confirmed
plan! These tickets were fully refundable, so we were still hoping for a miracle, so
that we could fly more and drive less :-)

Meanwhile, the hall was done up REALLY well. All the seats had bows tied to them and
there was a full-fledged mandap set up for the wedding. The pandit and the wedding
planner were coordinating the rehearsal in conjunction with the bride's parents. We were
quite pleasantly surprised at the level of detail that was being taken care of in the
function. Once that was done, it was almost time to go for the Sangeet. So we headed back
to the room to change and get ready for the Sangeet. We decided with Amit to meet at
around 7.30 and head out together, because we did not really know where to go to.
On the way up, we noticed an orangish color on Kosha's sweater in the back and realized
that the bows' color was being rubbed off on the clothes! That was quite bad, so we decided
to sit upright, or remove the bows during the actual function.

Then, we changed and met with Amit and some of his family and drove to the hall for the
Sangeet function. There was a band that sang some good and some not-so-good songs.
Poor Amit, he was made to slow dance with Anjali (and no one else on the floor!) on a Hindi
song! We could see the pain going on in his mind! :-) Chabs, Kalle and Anjali came in
later in the evening and we sat at one table. Drinks flowed endlessly and ultimately,
we started dancing too. It was too much fun! We returned pretty late and had to wake up
for the Haldi function early next morning.

Day 2

9am: Karthik and Sumati had to meet a friend of thiers in Plano, about 7
miles from the hotel and pick stuff that Sumati's sister had left for
them. Planned time was 9:30. reached Ravi and Usha's place around 10am.

Had upma + Ksheera + coffee and left their place around 11 am reaching
hotel at 11:15. Amit's haldi ceremony was at 10:45 am, which was in a
relative's place about 20 miles from the hotel. Picked up Kosha and Romit
from the hotel and started driving for the haldi ceremony. Reached there
at noon. Amit's ceremony as you guessed was just over and the man was
upstairs showering.

Hung around the house for an hour.

1pm: Lunch was served which was fantabulous. Pooris, paneer makhani,
dhokla and other north-indian dishes. Hogged like pigs and headed back to
the hotel to prepare for the wedding

3:30pm: The wedding was scheduled to be at 3pm. We were late as usual.
Fortunately, for us they were running late. The baarat began at 3:45 pm.

We were from the groom's side, so we were out with Amit and the lovely
corvette blasting a hindi song and corvette in front of us at .00001
miles/hr. Went into the wedding hall.

4pm: Wedding began and got over in about 45mins. Had coffee in the wedding
hall and started heading back to the room to get ready for the cocktails
party at 5:30pm and the reception at 7pm/

4:15pm: Took a sudden expected exit into Leddy's , the double tree hotel
bar on our way to the room. Sam , Rajesh and Karthik
distributed some peanuts, vodka, beer and margaritas between themselves.
Spent an hour chatting and watching football on TV. Headed back to the
room around 6ish.

7pm: Got ready and headed out for the reception downstairs. Men in suits
and women in sarees. All looked nice! Came down , looked up our table
assignments and we were all on table 25. Went down there, but before that,
a MUST, a trip to the bar.

Romit - Diet Coke , what the ....?

Kosha - Diet Coke, what the ....?

Sam - Zinfandel, oh well....

Karthik - Glenmorangie on the rocks, now you're talking....

Came back to the table, watched Robert, the best man make his speech.
Watched the bride and the groom walk in, have their first dance and toast
for the evening.

Alcohol Check: karthik - 2 drinks down

8:15pm: Dinner was served. A lot of variety. baked red potatoes, beans,
crabs, salmon, salad, eggplant parmesan I think. There was a nice ice
statue at the buffet table with Amit and Anjali's photo in it. Looked
cute.

9pm: Post dinner, DJ Marv started spinning it, and people started kickin
it. At one time we were the only 4 people at the table. Everyone else was
at the floor.

Alcohol Check : Karthik - 3 drinks

9:30 pm: Kosha had this terrible headache and she couldn't handle all the
noise in the hall. So Kosha and Romit, decided to call it a day around

10pm. Tried to find Amit to say goodbye, but he was "bhangda" ing it, on
the floor somewhere in the middle of the gang.

10pm: Karthik refills and So does Sam. We watched the crowd go nuts on all
the music.

10:30pm: Karthik's 4th drink finally kicks in and do does Sam's Zinfandel,
and we are ready to kick it. Kick what? whatever you want us!!

11Pm: insane drinking, dancing and partying continues....

12midnight: insane drinking, dancing and partying continues....

1am: insane drinking, dancing and partying continues....

1:15pm: Floor gets empty. most people taking a break. DJ starts spinning
this old sentimental hindi song from the 1960s or something(felt like
Gurudutt and Mumtaz were in that movie). Karthik gets this sudden urge to
dance for this one!!!!! Holy cow!!

Karthik and Sam , the only two on the floor at this time, start running
around invisible trees on the floor, 1960s ishtyle!! ;)

Man it was a Riot.

2am: insane drinking, dancing and partying continues....

Alcohol Check: karthik - 9 drinks down, Sam 5 glasses _ATLEAST_

2:15am: Karthik and Sam decide to call it a day, given that they have to
wake up at 4:30am, for a laborious 1075 mile drive to Phoenix, AZ.
Karthik in his usual way, walks up to Anjali's dad, introduces himself,
thanks him for the beautiful wedding. Then he slips his final comment to
Amit's father-in-law..................."I WORK FOR JUNIPER".
Amit's FIL goes berserk, asking me who the heck invited me to the wedding.
Karthik points his finger towards Amit and runs as fast as he can back to
his room!!!!!

2:16am: Sam and Karthik back in the room. Romit and Kosha fast sleep.
Karthik and Sam spend the next 45 mins, packing the remainder of the stuff
for the long long road trip, that they had never expected to
do.........................

3am: Karthik and Sam hit the sack.

3.01am : ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.........

Day 3

4:30 am: We were supposed to wake up at this time, but didnt. Sam and
karthik were drinking till 3am, so obviously they couldn't even hear the
alarm go off!!

5:30am : Woke up, took showers, packed and started driving to the airport
to return the rental car and get a one way rental car to Albuquerque. Took
a new route through the dallas parkway and the I-635 which were all
toll-full roads. We are almost broke by the time we reached the airport.

8am: Arrived at the airport, dropped off the car at Avis, hauled all the
big pieces back into the reservation counter to get the one-way car.
Geography blunders by Avis people, they dont even know what states are
around Dallas. Is Iowa west of dallas? was one of the many interesting
questions, which were asked by the staff. Then the lady disappeared behind
the scenes claiming to find the right car for us. 15 mins passed and no
signs of her.

8:30am

Romit takes this chance to see if southwest has anything to offer us,
because the very thought of driving 1075 miles to Albuquerque was
crumbling our spines, but none of us wanted to talk about it. Romit hit a
jackpot, when the lady said there's a one way from love to san jose for a
good $320!! Sounded like a steal. Romit made hand signs that we had hit a
jackpot and we should just go for it. Everyone hailed a big YEA! TICKETS

WERE BOUGHT..$320 a pop leaving the next morning at 8:05am reaching San
Jose at 10:30am. Non-stop service...cool eh? ;)

10am:

Now that we had our return trip, taken care of , in a nice way, we all
felt a lot accomplished , so threw the one-way rental reservation, on the
Avis' representative and demanded a one day rental car - pick up at
dallas-Ft. Worth, drop off in Dallas Love Airport.

$30 a day, and no drop off fees. What a steal? man we thought, we were
getting great in finding deals......

We picked up our "new" car for the day, and stuffed all the luggage, with
the friggin huge frame and started heading back towards the hotel. Through
the same old toll roads, taking away all of the quarters Sam and Kosha had
collected for doing laundry!! Here comes the interesting part, since we
had checked out of the hotel, we had to check back in. We initially had a
wedding rate for the hotel(Reservation Code: RELE-RAO) but checked out a
few hours before.Now checking back in meant no wedding rate for us, since
the wedding was OVER ;)

11am:

We had to haggle with the hotel folks, explaining to them our predicament,
that we were getting hammered from every direction and they please help
us. They took us back in, with the old rate. They were helpful in giving
us a room closer to the elevators. This room(Room # : 375) was just .25
miles from the elevator whereas the older room (Room#: 544) was at least
.75 miles!!!!

12noon:

We havent eaten a damn thing since morning, except for a small 7-eleven
doughnut and some watery coffee. We had successfully booked an air ticket
and got the hotel for the wedding rate too. Now it was time to treat
ourselves to some great food. Checked at the lobby for some
recommendations, didnt succeed, went to the VALET parking guy and he told
us about BLUE MESA, the coolio tex-mex in the area. So Blue_mesa it was a
couple of exits up north on the dallas parkway. It looked like a nice
place and we went ahead and ordered the following:

Romit: Nachos with cheese

Kosha: Enchilada with a strawberry smoothie

Sam: Brown rice with beans and a coke

Karthik: Obviously a big Enchilada + a Chili Releno with everything on

it. + coke

Had a heavy satisfying lunch and drove back to the hotel. Yeeeee Haaaa, we
had Tex-Mex in Dallas.Check!

2pm: Just before we went to our rooms, we thought we'll just print our
next morning's flight iterinary just to make sure. Romit and I go to the
business center, take the print outs and read it. The trip is from

Lubbock, Tx to San Jose, not Dallas Love to San Jose!!! Yowza

Whoopteedoo!!! The southwest ticket representative in the morning
apparently said "Lubb" in short for Lubbock in her own Texan accent, and
our Mehta man, hears it as "Love". This was even after the fact that we
knew that there is no non-stop service from Dallas Love airport to any
non-neighboring state from Dallas Love Airport(Due to FAA regulations on
Southwest airlines). This is when Karthik had no choice but to share his
"Einstein" title with Romit too ;)

3pm:

So we were back to square one, not knowing how we were coming back to
california!!
here we go again 1-800-I-FLY-SWA. After trying multiple permutations and
combinations, finally got a ticket from Oklahoma city to Oakland, through
Kansas City, MO. This ticket was just a dollar more than the previous one.
Canceled the Lubbock - San Jose ticket, and moved the money over and
booked the new iterinary.

As soon as we hung up, we printed out the iterinary, just to be extra
sure, that we are flying from the same location as we thought we would. It
looked OK!! YAY!! So we were going to come back to san jose after all.

3:30 pm: We then go back to room after a sigh of relief. Some of us slept,
while some others watched Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" on the TBS
SuperStation and had a few laughs.

5pm: Well it was time to party and it was coffee time. So went down to the
Starbucks at the Legacy Center town center. a couple a lattes, a couple a
macchiatos and we were ready to call for a one-way rental car to Oklahoma

City!!! Romit and I started calling away all the rental car companies and
found the cheapest deal with Budget Car Rental. Nailed the reservation
right there.

6pm: We had to go drop off the one-day rental car that we had picked up in
the morning at Avis, then get our One-way rental car to Oklahoma city. So
we drive down to the airport through the same toll roads, shelling away
quarter a mile and do the necessary stuff.

7pm: Drive back to the hotel. Watched USC kick Notre Dame. That was one of
the very consoling parts in the day. Sumati and Karthik had a lot more
luggage to bring back, since Sumati's sister Hema had left a load of gifts
for them. One of them was a huge moving picture frame, with the New York

Skyline and moving water. They had to use Kosha/Romit's help and bags to
redistribute some of the weight to make sure that all bags are legally
under the limit and can be lifted by a human being. The Picture frame was
also carefully packed.

9pm: It was dinner time and everyone was very hungry. We went down again
to the Legacy Town Center, which had a chinese fast food restaurant called

Rice Box. Karthik smiled right away just looking at the name board. The
restaurant was much more than a fast food place. The decor was nice and
cooks looked clean!! Let the ordering begin

Romit - Vegetables with Almonds and Cashews + Fried rice

Kosha - kung Pau Vegetables + fried rice

Sam - Spicy Vegetable curry + fried rice

Karthik - One big ass plate full of fried rice with all veggies
they had!
This was one of the best chinese food that all of us had ever had in the
US. The food was piping hot, served fresh and spicy. All of us thoroughly
enjoyed every morsel of it, although the servings were really really HUGE.

Cant beleive it? Here's the proof - Karthik didnt finish the plate ;)

11pm: Drove back to the hotel, went back to the rooms, watched some TV and
hit the sack around midnight.

Day 4

7:30am: Woke up

9am: Checked out of the hotel for one last time. We hoped we'd never see
the DoubleTree Legacy Center ever again ;) Loaded up the car and started
heading North. Destination was Oklahoma City. Romit drove 220 miles
non-stop. We reached OKC at about 1pm.

1pm: Since none of us had anything to eat, we decided to get some lunch,
but again wanted to make sure that we are the right airport. So we made on
visit to the airport and checked it out. WE wanted to make sure AGAIN that
the car rental place is also in the same place. U-turn again back towards
the airport. Checked out the rental car drop off location and started
heading back to town for some food.

2pm: After driving a few miles on this one main road, we decided to find a
Dennys there.
the whole town looked pretty run down and old. All of us settled down
with our respective orders

Romit - Cheese sticks + hash browns + raspberry iced tea

Kosha - veggie skillet + diet coke

sam - veggie burger + coke

karthik veggie skillet + coke

Had a very satisfying lunch and headed back to the airport. Almost inside
the airport, we realised that we hadn't filled up the gas on the rental car.
There you go again, one mor U turn. Headed back to town, filled gas and
came back to the airport and dropped off the car.

2:30pm : At the southwest counter. Checked in the bags. Southwest said
they cant guarantee the frame delivery in good condition and they wouldnt
be responsible for any breakage and also wont refund anything, if it
broke, since it was cardboard packing. The frame was too big to pass thro
the security screening, so had to take a chance and check it in.

As luck would have it, one of our bags beeped for explosives and we were
the 4 "random" people whose bags would be thoroughly searched in and out.
We werent surprised, since we were in Oklahoma City. After 15 mins of
search, we were all clear to go. Stopped at the gift shop, looked around
and found nothing. Kosha picked up a refrigerator magnet. Romit picked up
a few magazines.

3pm: We still had 3 more hours to board the place. Hung out around the
gate, read stolen newspapers. Karthik caught up with his book - Black Hawk
Down. Still bored? Yes!
We went to the bar in the terminal and watched a philly-St. Louis foot
ball game. We were pretty much the only non-white people in the airport or
the bar!!

We checked out the bartender. He was a big fat white
man, with a pony and tattoos all over. People just decided to gulp the
flat beer down, without making trouble for asking a replacement.

6pm: Time to board the place. guess what? You guessed right. We 4 people
were again subject to "random" security checks!! by the time we were all
done with that, we were pretty much the last bunch to enter the plane. The
plane was full, so we couldn't find seats together. Again random seating
and flew into kansas city, MO an hour later.

7pm: landed in Kansas city. Airport was crowded like hell. All of us knew
it was a 4 hour flight into oakland and peanuts is what it is, on
southwest. We decided to grab a bite. Go into pizza hut, and there are no
more pizzas. We thought we'll go into KFC, but then were scared they might
say "we're out of chicken. Started walking towards the end of the terminal
to see if anything else was open. Found a steak house, ah what luck.

Ordered some veggie cheese steaks and Romit got himself a baked potato
with cheese.

Ordered a Budweiser since Missouri is the home for BUD, got a gallon in
the glass!!
We were almost running late for the flight. Gulped it down, and rushed to
the place.
Just managed to get in on time and find 2 blocks of 2 seats each.

7:55pm: Plane takes off and 4 hours on it.

10:30pm: The pilot claims that he has arrived 15 mins early to OAK and
starts descending. Overshoots the runway and starts taking off again when
he is 2 feet from the ground!
Damn another 15 mins later, circles around and finally lands in OAK at

10:45 pm - on time.

11pm: Baggage Claim area. Pick up all the bags, but the picture frame isn't
there yet. wait for it to come out of the oversized/fragile luggage window
and pick it up. The frame makes a lot of music, thanks to all the broken
glass inside.

11:30pm: Romit had already called A-best our shuttle service provider from
OKC telling me our flight details to be in OAK at 11pm. We call again and
the guy on the other end of the phone tells us that the driver is still
somewhere in Sunnyvale, 45 miles away!!

Hell NO! we walk up to the shuttle booth and start asking rates. $55 for
the first person and $10 for each extra person . $85 it would be. Still
not sure, ask around a couple a more people. cant get anything less than
that. OK then, we load up the luggage on a van and sit inside while the
driver goes outside and tries to get a receipt for the trip, from the
shuttle management official for the trip, before we leave. 5 minutes
later, we are asked to step out of the vehicle, since there was another
van dude, who arrived before our van fella and he had the right to take us
to mountain view. We load the luggage again to the new vehicle and after
sitting in the vehicle, for 10 mins, we leave.

30 minutes later we are at 1375 Montecito ave, Romit/Kosha's place. its

11:57pm!! We couldn't beleive we had actually reached our homes before
Monday in one piece!!

Sam fires up the jeep, loads up the luggage and drive home.

12:10 am: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

END OF STORY!!!!

MORALS of the story:

1. NEVER FRIGGIN TRUST A 2 way CONFIRMED airline ticket
2. Get a cellphone with VERY good national coverage
3. Read up the map of the area you're visiting and also of surrounding cities and states
4. always carry your PALM Charger with you while traveling
5. READ ALL YOUR EMAILS FROM YOUR TRAVEL AGENT THOROUGHLY
6. Keep all airlines/rental cars numbers handy
7. Dont panic, if you see BACON in your tomato soup
8. Make sure the hotel room you book is NOT a mile away from the elevators
9. make sure the hotel room has a balcony
10. F*&^ YOU ORBITZ...YOU just LOST A BIG CUSTOMER..............