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The trip to Maine for white water rafting completed my 20th state visited in US out of the total 50. Wow! That feels good. I know I could have done better than this but 20 is not at all bad for 3 years and all these states are the ones where I have stayed atleast one day and/or one night.
Richmond happens be my second most favorite place to stay after Mysore not only because I got used to it after staying over 2 years but also for the wonderful group of friends I had there. My first 2-3 months in US was a hell; I had no idea what to do, where to go, I dint know much people and also am not very good with new people. Finally after this, I got a car and started to move around. I never took that car for a long drive though because of its old age, but got the momentum to go around the place. I dont recollect if my first big drive was Niagara falls or Indianapolis, I think its Niagara Falls. In US, I started driving from my second week of arrival and got local drivers license at the end of 2 months. Immediately after getting my drivers license, we (Soumik, Satya, Hemang) went for Virginia beach which was a 2 hr drive from Richmond. Before going for my first big trip, Niagara falls I had done quite a number of trips to Virginia beach. Niagara falls was followed by (I think) Indianapolis for Formula1 and then to West Virginia for white water rafting in New River the next weekend. Yup, that month with 3 back to back trips put life back in my life.
Niagara falls was a good trip and I was surprised to see so many Indians there. The place looked more like a tourist place in India with handful of non-indians. For every desi in US, Niagara falls is like mecca for muslims. Everyone would have seen this place, taken their parents once and/or any other conditions that can be imagined. The drive to Indy was more gruelling than Niagara. We were only 2 and I was the only one to drive. Watching F1 race at Indy was something I wanted to do for a long time and it finally happened June 2004. The race was amazing and I still remember Schumi overtaking Barrichello exactly in front of our stand which was on other side of pit-lane exit. FERRARI ROCKS! RED RULES!
The very next week, I went to white water rafting in West Virginia in New river where some of rapids in this were simply amazing. Infact our raft almost overturned in one of them. Couple of other rafts did overturn but somehow we managed to keep our raft straight. We also camped there the previous night and cooked in campfire. As usual, there was some struggle with veggie stuff but overall was fun and I surely would have enjoyed the serene beauty of Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia if I had stayed longer.
These trips were soon followed by New York and Atlantic City, my first time to a Casino. I had heard from others about the huge casino complexes but inside the casino, it was way bigger than anything I had seen or imagined. I started slow with slot machines of least denomination and losing some money, but then it got boring and I took to blackjack. I was reading and learning blackjack for more than week and that paid off. I indeed won a good amount in the begining but at the end lost. Well, I had a budget to lose and lost that plus some more.
The complete list of US states I have visited:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia
First VA Beach Trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
New York Atlantic City - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
Indianapolis - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
New River Rafting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
