Fahrenheit 9/11

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, “Libertarian” is a fancy word for me and I neither support Kerry nor Bush. But, I never endorsed Bush’s foreign policy or his diabolical fiscal deficit. It was more out of curiosity and for a taste of Moore’s uncanny humor (not to mention the controversy surrounding it) – we ventured the very first day, Friday 7-00 PM, a sold out show. We also thought that it would not be worthwhile to take the risk, what if some staunch conservatives pulled the plug.

Needless to say, it was a media feast – a bold and direct attack on the commander-in-chief. I was amazed to see the amount of research put forth and the footage collected – Moore has seriously struck quite a deadly blow. And his sense of humor is incredible – playing “Cocaine” in the background while revealing that Bush got discharged from the army for medical reasons; putting western movie snippets to draw parallels; calling Fox channel as the “Facts” channel; and some hilarious outtakes catching the unguarded President in compromising situations.

Some of the saddest moments of the movie were – some war scenes from Iraq, the 7 minutes silence after the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s changing emotions from a laugh to a smile to a frown before declaring the War on Iraq in national television and the oil nexus.

I don’t know how far the facts are exaggerated; but I have to agree that some of them seem quite convincing, well buttressed by authentic documents and supporting arguments. I checked out Moore’s website and read that he has checked and double-checked the facts, even hiring authoritative legal persona to prepare for possible counter arguments in case someone sues!

In the end, there was a standing ovation for 5 minutes – the emotions poured out. At least, Bush is answerable to people like Lily Lipscomb, who lost her only son in the war, a fictitious war by a fictitious president for fictitious reasons [to quote Moore].

I find it preposterous to see some ratings of “F” in Yahoo Movies and “1” in IMDB for Fahrenheit 9/11 – after all, whatever the movie maybe about, you have to admire Moore’s sense of humor. I even saw some people calling him a traitor and unpatriotic – where is the freedom of Speech?

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a masterpiece. Moore deserved the Palm D’or.

Humility

Humility – a very simple word, mostly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Sometimes it is conflicted with the philosophy of egoism – as if “I” and “humility” are two opposite paradigms. When Ayn Rand talked about the theory of Objectivism in her two most noteworthy novels – “Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” , when she laid the foundation of “I”, did she shrug off “humility” from her characters? Do we remember Howard Roark conversing with Peter Keating? Do we remember John Galt? Can we say that they were egoistic as well as snobbish? I am surprised to see so many characters in real lives forgetting that humility is such an important facet of any human personality. Forming a clique is as if being cool. But in the long run it can be only detrimental – the foundation of any organization is laid on good teamwork and team spirit, it combines people of different interests and backgrounds under the same umbrella working towards the same purpose. [Remember Sam Walton sacking Ron Meyer in the late 1960s when Ron temporarily became the Chairman of Wal-Mart.] I may have been unknowingly a part of that clique sometimes, but now I refuse to succumb and be stereotyped. Everyone is unique in a way, everyone has his own individuality and no one is inferior to the other in any aspects. Money, Pedigree, Intellectualism – these are all materialistic denominators of a virtual classification system which will put Aristotle to shame.

Probably, Humility comes with maturity; probably, it cannot be inculcated with pedigree or affluence. Probably, one needs a deeper understanding about his surrounding. The wiser he is, the humbler he becomes.

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

Bliss

To sit in the patio with a book on your lap, the incessant mating calls of the cicadas filling the air, bright sunshine, occasional breeze and you, Moses and Henry lost in the lands of Manchester County of Virginia in mid 1800s. Or spend an hour with Victoria Thivisol and Jacques Doillon in your bedroom, assimilating all the drama in a 12’’ by 12” screen. Or catch up on the acquisition of Procket Networks by Cisco Systems, study the Illuminati and the raging New World Order conspiracies, browse the countless conundrums, or initiate a google conversation just with a single tap of the finger. And then if you really seek outdoors, pull out your jogging shorts and tickle your muscles running through the meandering roads or catch up on a match of tennis with an old buddy in the university courts. In the evenings, after dinner, go for a relaxing walk in the university parks or drive to the viewpoint for a glimpse of the hustle and bustle of downtown life. No worries, no pangs, no hurries – as if sucked into a black hole and lost count of time.

The cross-country story

It took me some time to put this entire story in place with all the original pictures and anecdotes. All the photographs published related to this trip was either taken by Ria or me. Undoubtedly, we had the vacation of our life – if I ever get the opportunity to do it, I will do it again. If anyone is traveling from the east to west or west to east – I will suggest do cross-country, it will be an experience of your life. Most importantly use the AAA Internet Triptek – it is such a veritable cornucopia of information. We made all the hotel reservation in advance and planned the entire trip. Some people prefer it to be some sort of an adventure, but we decided that at the end of the day, hunting for a hotel would be a real pain. Make sure you have adequate clothing for the trip and plan the unforeseen. [For example, we didn’t keep any warm clothes with us and had to buy on the way.] Also make sure to service your car and change your tires if required. Keep the tire pressure-measuring gauge handy. AAA membership is a must for such a trip. We also didn’t have much luggage with us – both the suitcases were in the trunk – it is not safe to keep any of your luggages in the car other than the trunk.

Day 1 - CA to Wells, Nevada

We started pretty early in the morning as we had 600 miles ahead of us – our destination was Wells, Nevada – a small town situated at the intersection of I-80 and Highway 93. Since we started on a Saturday morning, the traffic was not as horrendous as expected on I-80. We crossed the entire California before we reached the Tahoe region. The drive on I-80 near Tahoe had spectacular sceneries that we captured:


Our plan was to have a lunch break at Reno. As soon as we entered the Nevada state, the landscape changed immediately:

Even before we realized, we had crossed Reno – it was such a small city. Anyway, we stopped on a travel plaza, picked up some sandwiches, filled up gas and started again. The Nevada landscape was starkly different from California – with mild vegetation on plain lands surrounded by mountains:

As we headed towards Wells, we saw this snow-capped mountain in the middle of the desert – weird, isn’t it:

We thought that in the middle of the desert we will not be needing any winter wear – but we were astounded to learn that the temperature fluctuates like crazy – from low 30s to high 80s within a day. We were afraid that such a small town may be xenophobic, but surprisingly the inhabitants were extremely courteous. We had dinner in a small country inn surrounded by predominantly caucasians with cowboy hats (all of them)!!! That was quite a change from the diverse california crowd.

Day 2 - Wells to Yellowstone

As we left Wells and headed for Yellowstone, we knew that we had an exciting day in front of us – we will be crossing some of the most beautiful states in the country – Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. This is the view of the ice-capped mountains as we left Wells, Nevada:

I-93 was through the middle of nowhere with ghost towns here and there. It was mostly plain lands in an elevation. Here was this big stretch of I-93 in front of us:

We soon reached Idaho. Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere we saw this beautiful canyon on the way through Idaho:

It was actually near the I.B. Perine Bridge over Snake River in Idaho. There was a group of people doing base jumping from the bridge – it gives an idea about the depth of the canyon:

After that most of the Idaho was grassland with ranches all around us. It seemed to me that Idaho is a very sparsely populated state:

Anyway, we caught up with our lunch at Denny’s in a small town called Pocatello – very close to an Indian Reservation. Then the stretch of I-20 started which took us to West Yellowstone. As soon as we entered the park we were able to see some wild life:


But more than that was the beauty of the place, which enthralled us:

We were finally in Yellowstone – luckily we got a very good view from our room at Best Western in Gardiner, Montana. We finished our dinner and headed to bed – after all we had an entire day to explore the park.

Day 3 - YellowStone National Park

Today was Yellowstone day. Yellowstone resides over a super-volcano, which has been dormant for the last 640000 years. So, almost the entire park is a caldera – the mouth of a volcano. It is the oldest national park is the world, established in 1872 – one of the most geothermally active areas in the world. Since, we were staying in Gardiner, Montana we started our day with the Mammoth Hot Springs – an entire mountain which is a geothermal area:


Most of Yellowstone is full of geysers and hot springs – as expected since the lava (molten rock) is very close to the earth’s surface. This capture of the Norris Geyser Basin gives a good idea about Yellowstone:


Yellowstone also has a variety of wildlife – bison, elf, moose, coyote, mule dear, bear etc. We were lucky enough to see a bison and a coyote from very close range – This is on the way to Old Faithful.



The roads inside Yellowstone spans almost 200 miles, the area in itself is gigantic – almost 2000 square miles. By lunchtime, we were close to Old Faithful. Old Faithful is one of the highest geysers in the world erupting after every 92 minutes for almost 2-5 minutes. We had some time so we had lunch in the Old Faithful restaurant before we were able to capture this:

After Old Faithful our trip was the drive along Yellowstone Lake – most of the roads were under construction – so the ride was pretty bumpy, but it was worth it. The scenic beauty was amazing:


One of the Park rangers tipped us to visit the northeastern part of Yellowstone to see bears. But we were not lucky enough to site one, but instead of a bear we saw a moose from very close range.

After covering the entire park we called it a day and returned to hotel quite early. We grabbed our dinner from a 45-year-old hamburger stand in Gardiner – I liked the town, it was almost like a hill-station. Tomorrow, it’s Utah.

Day 4 - Yellowstone to Green River, Utah

I was tired of the mountains by now. I wanted to see a different type of landscape and I knew that Utah would provide me that. But we had to cross the northwest part of Yellowstone before we could reach the highway I-20 starting from West Yellowstone. Who knew that we would be slowed down by a group of bison trying to cross the road for greener pastures?

We should have known that it was a sign for worse things to come. By the time we reached Salt Lake City it was almost 3-00 in the afternoon. The temperature was in the high 90s and we were all heated up, both mentally and physically. And then there was this traffic jam. We tried to be smart and take a parallel road in order to bypass this commotion. And that’s it – stuck for another 3 hours, reminded me of the first scene from “Office Space” – this old man with crutches going faster than the car.

And finally we were able to breathe some air as we left the highway to take the short cut to Green River, Utah. This is also a small city in the midst of canyon lands, supposedly beautiful. [I tried Moab, but accommodation in Moab was expensive – so we decided we would stay a few miles away from Arches.]

And then came the landscape right out of the western movies:

We were thrilled suddenly to be surrounded by this different form of topography. So, Utah was it – the best state so far when it came to scenic beauty. We had miles and miles of road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by canyons all around us:


By the time, we reached Green River – we knew that we made the right decision of visiting Utah.

Day 5/6 - Arches and Denver, Colorado

We woke up early in the morning, as we were very excited to head towards Arches National Park. Aches National Park, located close to Moab, Utah is full of geological wonders – landscape created due to tectonic plate movements, water and wind erosion, happening for millions of years; rock sculptures which are nature’s own creation. As soon as we entered the park the marching men greeted us:

If you visit the park, it is on your imagination. Here is a potpourri of photographs of the landscape in Arches:



One of the most enchanting creations was the “balanced rock”. This happens mostly due to the dissimilarities in chemical proportions of the different layers in rock, hence the layers erode disproportionately:

Arches has one of the largest collection of natural arches in the world. We did some small hikes to the designated locations in order to catch an eyeful of these natural wonders. The first one is the Delicate Arch, which is the symbol of Utah. The last two are the Skyline Arch and the Landscape Arch respectively.



It was almost noon before we finished our visit of the park – the temperature was in the high 90s and we were very exhausted. So, we headed to Moab to grab our lunch before our next stop, Denver. We got a tip from one of the locals to catch a byway rather than going through the highway in order to enjoy more scenic views. We followed the entire Colorado River before we reached I-70. On the way we were met with castle lands:

The drive through I-70 towards Denver was the most strenuous one as we crossed the entire Rockies. But the river kept following us all the way:

We reached Denver when it was almost 8-00 in the evening. We decided that we would bunk the next day’s plan of going to the Rockies and take a breather instead. The next day, we relaxed as we had further 1200 miles ahead of us.

Day 7/8 - Flat Lands (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois & Indiana)

The last 2 days of the drive was pretty boring as we crossed the plains of Kansas, halted overnight at Kansas City, crossed Missouri, Illinois and Indiana before we reached our final destination. Kansas is flat as a pancake with miles of croplands on both sides of the highway I-70:

The drive from Denver, Colorado started pretty early in the morning around 6-00 am. By noon we had almost covered the entire stretch of the I-70 and was mid-way in Kansas.The entire stretch of land in Kansas was mostly desolate with some signs of habitation here and there:

The drive from Kansas City through the states of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana had similar landscapes as the day before, but with more greenery and more trees:

As we entered Indiana, the mating calls of the cicadas could be heard even from the highway as we sped at 80 mph across the last stretch of our journey. We were so glad to reach home after being on the road for 8 days. Needless to say, this cross-country trip will be one of the most memorable journeys of our lives.

Back

I reached here on Saturday - the trip was astounding, mostly Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were mostly boring drives throughcroplands and plains. Kansas is flat like a pancake. Among all the states Utah has the most interesting landscape and topography - mostly canyon lands and red stone mountains. The most difficult drive was through the Rockies in Colorado. The most painful one was the drive from Yellowstone to Green River, Utah (we got stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours in Salt Lake City).

Yellowstone was geologically amazing with geysers and natural hot springs. It is a huge park (almost 2000 square miles)full of diverse wildlife and scenic beauty. Arches on the other side was marvelous with natural arches and rock sculptures created due to wind and water erosions.

I will soon post my day-to-day trip experience with photographs and anecdotes.