Our First Road Trip

This photo takes me back to our first road trip. It was the summer of 1988. We had a brand new Omni van, our first car, and were raring to go have an adventure on the big bad road.

We loaded the van with sleeping bags, a kerosene stove, a sauce pan to make tea, instant noodles, some dry ration, and a few other things that we thought we would need. We planned to drive from Ambala in Haryana to Rampur in Himachal Pradesh via Shimla, and Narkanda, stopping as the day grew dark and beginning again the next morning.

It was a loose program and we had no reservations anywhere.

As we left the plains behind, the terrain changed to green hills and then to cold mountains.

The roads were narrow, had numerous bends, and were scary to drive on for plains people like us.

We traveled along the beautiful, crystal clear Satluj river beyond Shimla.

This photo has my husband and daughter posing at a view point. All the distances and place names are clearly marked on the road sign.

This is a travelers' pride kind of photo. It says, "Hey, we are here."

My daughter looks tired and appears to be wondering why we were bouncing around in the van when we could be home. She has that fountain hairstyle which no self- respecting little girl wants to be seen dead in. Well, I knew only one hair style and inflicted it on her every day till she outgrew my styling.

My husband is studiously presenting his best profile.

So over all a beautiful picture of a moment in time captured perfectly.

It makes me think of those carefree days when we could just up and go.

Note: I took the original photo with our Hot-Shot camera where you slide the button to move to the next frame. This is a photo of the original photo using my Nokia Asha 305 phone.