Labor Day fun 2018

BF John and I left for Dandridge, Tennessee, early (like 3 a.m. Central early!) on Thursday night to spend a long weekend with my brother and family for Labor Day weekend. What fun! And … I managed to be productive and start two step stools that have been on order since the Art in the Garden show in June. (Yes. I’m slow when not given a deadline – something I know I need to work on.) I’ll post pictures of those in the near future. Meanwhile, check out the gorgeous Douglas Lake we enjoyed and a couple pictures of the silly and courageous John and Bill (brother – left)!

 

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First impressions upon arrival in India

At the end of my previous post I said arrival at the airport and transfer to our hotel went smoothly. It did but…

For the most part language has not been a barrier in India. Most of the people we encountered at the airport spoke English and if you are willing to ask questions and be patient, you will get pretty clear answers.

Our hotel hadn’t arranged transport for us because there was a mix up with my reservation (I found out later), but I spotted a sign for another party from the same hotel and asked the person holding it for help. After a short wait a guy appeared who promptly took my luggage cart from me and started quickly heading out the door. What were John and I to do but to follow? The guy had my cart including my large purse that I wasn’t able to snag quickly enough before he took off. (Not being able to push my own cart, carry my own bags, and open my own door among other things is something I will talk about in later posts.)

As the three of us hurried past all the other taxis and people being picked up outside the airport doors and headed toward an area where it was not well lighted and there was no activity, John began to get a little anxious. The guy was moving pretty quickly with my cart and we had to step it up to keep on him. (John was managing another full cart as well.) In Chicago it would be safe to assume that this was going to lead to nothing good–nothing at all.

We went through the parking garage and out the other side to an even darker and more remote space where there were parked cars and men hanging around. The guy stopped my cart and said he was “going to rent a taxi here” and walked away. Um? How did he get there in the first place?  Wasn’t he from the hotel? John and I stood there and discussed how the situation felt a little shady. But sure enough the guy soon pulled up in a car and he and John began to load the luggage. I jumped in the back seat and watched four dogs run past barking as they chased the taxi that had just departed in front of ours. “So this is India,” I thought myself.

We soon learned what everyone who has been to India was telling us about the traffic and rules (or lack there of) for driving here. It was dark so what we were seeing was intensified by the flashing of head lights and brake lights and the variety of brightly colored signage lining the roadway. The visual assault was one thing but the constant cacophony of horns was truly crazy! I was too amazed to pull out my phone and take video of our very first ride and John had put his camera in the trunk with our luggage. So we just laughed and continued to say to each other “What a trip!” as cars and trucks, motorcycles and scooters, bicycles and people on foot wove around each other through the night. It was Friday about 10:30 p.m. local time so we thought much of the frantic activity we saw was due to the start of the weekend night life. We would later find out that the chaos is, well, just India…

#Jendia