We Were on the Road to Ooty

I gchatted with my friend KJ from the Orlando Sentinel yesterday. She reminded me that it had been a year since we were together in India. I'm sure the reminder of the anniversary of VA Tech massacre brought this to mind. It hit her hard to be so far away when her relatives who had attended the college were suffering.

I had more fun with KJ. She was such an asset in the classroom (because nobody was answering calls at this point.) I know they must miss her Mac expertise to this day. Besides that, she knew that we were only going to be in India once in our lives and wanted to see as much as possible. We didn't just hang around Bangalore and eat at the Leelah, that's for sure.

A year ago today, we were on the road to Ooty. What an experience! Let me just remind you of the highlights, although anyone can go back to April 21, 2007 to catch the whole story.

What we did:

• Rode the switchbacks and pot-holed one lane road to the cool mountain top of Ooty and beyond. Oh, that road. There is nothing like it here, nothing, because even on our worst little road, you won't confront a bus barreling down the hill at you when you have no place to go.


• Wandering through the tea plantation and having a tour of the processing plant with some guy from another car. Hope he gave us the correct info.


• Riding the train with people snapping my picture every few minutes. More than that, the view from the train was amazing. And having Ramesh find me a seat so I wouldn't have to stand all the way up the mountain. Priceless.


• Seeing lots of animals on the road past Mysore on the way to Ooty.


• And remember our detour? OMG, I didn't think we would ever find our way out of that little village beside the road. And then Ramesh parted the trucks, like Moses and the sea.


• And we got a flat tire on the way back.
  

It was quite an adventure for sure. But then, the whole 11 weeks was. I do miss these guys.