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"The Longest Drive to the Grand Canyon from Salt Lake City, Utah"


It was late October (28th, 2003), too early for snowfall in New York. I was kind of sad for the passed summer and fall. Trees have lost their leafs already. So, I decided to fly to Salt lake City, Utah. Right away I packed up my travel stuff and my laptop. I was never been to Utah before; all I knew was that it’s a city of Mormon, quiet and peaceful. It took seven hours fly excluding an hour halt in Atlanta, Georgia. When the aircraft was on the top of the Salt Lake City, it looked to me a dead city, all deadly mountains (no trees at all) scattered here and there. The sunlight was still there and it was reflecting from the lakes of Utah. My aircraft had a little bump while landed; I thought it was bad sign for me. I went to the car rental; the sales person was very pretty. She gave me a nice smile. I was very lucky, she gave me a car for two weeks with a cheap price. But when I went to the parking lot to pick up my car, I was surprised to see that she gave me a six cylinder SUV (Infinity), four-wheel drive. I jumped on the street three/four times with joy, but then found that two old lady were looking at me. So, I controlled my expression and got inside the car. While driving for a hotel/motel, I already have decided not to stay at Salt Lake City, but at the same time I was thinking what to do!! My mind was desperately searching for something exciting. The first thing I though was going to Las Vegas, but again I didn’t know how far was it from there. So, finally I found a hotel, had my shower followed by a chilled beer……ah! Then I asked the hotel manager for a road map. Oh my god! I found that it was approximately 500 miles from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. I am not a big gambler, so after looking at the distance, I was looking for something else on the map, and then I saw the greatest natural mark on earth, “The Grand Canyon” on the map which was another 500 miles from Las Vegas, so all together it was 1000 miles from the Slat Lake City. I opened another chilled beer, had a large sip………..quiet for one minute………..then decided “that’s it……….I am driving to Grand Canyon……”
October 24, 2003: It was 9 O’clock in the morning; when I opened the window I saw it was all white all over. It was quiet early for the snowfall, but then I realized that I was in Utah. After my breakfast I started my journey towards Grand Canyon via Las Vegas at around 10:30 in the morning. It was quiet difficult for me driving in that heavy snow fall, but after an hour drive when I was coming out of the salt lake city I figured out that the whole city was on a mountain, coz the highway was going down and down and I saw an endless desert in front of me, what an amazing thing on earth! I was leaving snowfall behind me and slowly I was turning into the hot sunny desert, which belonged to the state of Nevada. Lots of cactus and Joshua trees were passing by, sometime there were big mountains in the lonely desert, sometimes I drove through mountains (ppl made tunnels).
After about 3 hours drive I was kind of dizzy, the dry and hot weather made me hungry. I stopped by at the roadside café. It was very quiet and people were very decent. They were looking at me like I was from a different planet (probably haven’t seen any Bengali cheese before). After a cold beer, I ordered beef nachos (Mexican food) with extra hot and spices. Ah! It was real good. My gas tank was near empty, so had to fill it up. With a crushing tire sound I got back to highway, my stomach was chilled, turned on the radio………it was Bob Merley (so far I remember)………..no women no cry………, of course in that hot and dry desert there were no women……….hahahahahahha
It was a dark shadow far in front of my way; thought some kind of cloud, but as I approached I found that it was a series of mountains. I was kind of baffled and bewildered, thought that my road was going to end there. But amazingly later on I found that the highway went thorough the mountain valleys. It was very risky driving there (the maximum speed was only 25 miles/hr.). The strong wand was literally moving my car and it was very tuff to keep my car on the track. This was happening because of the trapped wind in the valley of the mountains. There was very tiny river by the highway; I could not resist myself to stop by the river. The waster was clear like crystal………….I could see my face on that. I drank a handful of water, ah! Unbelievable, It was chilled….. Around 7 pm I say the glorious lighting in front of me. I reached the famous Las Vegas.
I never could immagine that a city could have that much lighting. My eyes were getting shrunk due to heavy colorful lighting from all the casinos. I was afraid of getting a hotel there as I planned to spend only one night in Las Vegas. From the map, I decided to get on the most prominent road called “Las Vegas Blouvard”. All the casinos and clubs were on the side of that street; they looked like heaven to me. All world famous model cities like Venus (Italy), New York, Paris, London and others were there. Finally I found a hotel named “Sahara”, by the name I was attracted, I had my room at top floor of the hotel (12th floor). When I opened the window I was complete surprised to see the whole city, it was beautiful……………I can’t explain it, you have to see it.
After my shower, I decided to take my dinner, came down to the lobby, crowded, loud music, drunken ladies everywhere. I ordered for a glass of Extra dry Martini from the bar, got myself relaxed and then looked around.............every body was gambling.........they looked crazy to me, but then I also bet 10 dollar and I lost right way, so decided not play again. I started walking on street, took some pictures, it was little chilly outside but tolerable. Then all of sudden a girl came forward to me and asked me if I was interested to hang out with her. Initially I didn't realize what was she asking me for, but later on I found that she was nothing but a hooker. I was kind of scared a little bit, but then I realized that I was in Las Vegas, what else can I expect from here? I decided to come back to hotel and start my journey again to Grand Canyon next morning.
It was almost 9:30 when I started towards Grand Canyon. It’s 500 miles from Las Vegas. Coming out of the Las Vegas city was not that difficult, after making few turns I got on to the highway. It was a very sunny day, little chilly, thin air, and a wonderful day to start. My mind was very fresh. As I was moving on, the color of the soil was turning red slowly. After near about one hour drive I got on to the very famous damn “Hoover Damn”. It was amazing! The high way went on the damn and when I was driving I was kind of scary, coz when I saw the side of my road I found it was a straight down creep, probably thousands of feet, blue water down there. On the other side of the damn, down in the cannel water was coming out of the damn. I thought that I would stop by the damn and take a tour, but again I changed my mind and kept driving forward. The turning points after the damn was too curved, I had to maintain a very slow speed, however after half an hour dangerous drive I was able to come out of that area. Got myself relaxed after that and boot up my speed near about 100. The passing by mountain were growing bigger and bigger. It was all wild both side of my highway. After a white I saw that very famous trees, “JOSHOA TREE” and then next two hours drive was through those trees. Sometimes I was feeling like that my car was not moving, coz it’s the same scenery on the both side of the road. So I decided to take a nap. I turned my car from the highway and got on to the rough, sandy side. Light up one cigarette, and poured a cup of coffee from my flask. I was feeling like those western movies, where the cowboys take a nap near by a bolder, with a rusty mug full coffee and cigar. After the last puff of Marlboro I started again. I did not recognize that a big truck was behind me for a long time. I was listening to Dire straits loudly, ……………high and dry in the long hot day……………lost lonely……………..every way…………./ but all of a sudden that loud hunk overlap the music, I gave him side to pass on. At one o’clock I stopped by a restaurant. I was hungry like a crazy dog.
When I reached at the Grand Canyon, for the first time I missed my heart bit not because of any beautiful girl. It was so calm, but so wild, so dangerously beautiful. Miles after miles its all red, giant boulders here and there. I do not remember how long I stood there without any movement, probably at least 10/15 minutes, a slight cold bridge awake me up, and then right way I jumped on my camera, took shots after shots. It was 4:00 pm, sun was already on the eastern side of the sky. The shadow of those boulder were becoming longer and longer. Far down, the Colorado river looked so tiny. I saw some cattle drive far way down by the Colorado River; they were very tiny looking at them by necked eyes. I heard that a tourist guide was telling a group that still there are few old Indian villages down there, where there is not electricity or any other things from this modern civilization. As a matter of fact here in America, there are some villages called "Amish Country" where ppl still live in old style, they refuse to take any gift from this modern civilization, they stitch their own clothing, they do not use electricity, they cultivate by the use of domestic cows, they do not accept any family planning. It’s amazing.
After taking several shots with my camera, I got cooled down, sat by a big stone. My mind was telling me repeatedly to go down by the river. Then I stood up and asked the tourist guide if there was any way to go down. He said that there were some ways to go down taking some trails but as it was almost a mile high, so it takes a good training of tracking and maintaining and takes at least 2/3 hours of tracking. I did not plan for a night stay at Grand Canyon, so I got a little bit upset of hearing that. Time was running fast, far east the sun was almost half gone, the sky was all red and, looked like it was matching its color with the canyon, temperature was going down; I felt little bit chilled, but again the beauty of the canyon made me stunt and felt nothing but its windless, its greatness and its silence. I picked up a small stone threw with all my strength down to the canyon, and shouted loudly “Grand-Canyon, I love you and I will come back again”.
I started at 6:00 pm. for Las Vegas. It was already dark; all I could see was the red sky and passing by cactus tree. I became very quiet after seeing this giant natural creation, I went back several hundreds of years in my mind, when all the native Indians used to live here. But alas! They (white ppl) killed them all, now this canyon looked very naked to me without them; I heard their mourning in the boulders of the canyon, in the sound of the Colorado River. The sky was all red with their blood.
I reached back to Las Vegas at around mid night. I thought that I would spend some times at the casino bar. But I was very tired, after grabbing a bottle of chilled Heineken I went to take shower. Next day I woke up very early in the morning. I started driving again back to Salt Lake City, Utah, non-stop 550 miles. When I reached Salt lake it was terrible snowing. I barely could see. I took a hotel nearby the airport so that I don’t miss my flight next day early in the morning.
My flight back to New York was on time. I came back to the human civilization again, my busy time, where people even do not have a minute to spend for their dream. They all are running after reality. My 2300 miles of driving ends here.






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