Nature at its best.....and worst!!

Ok,here I am all ready to tell all about the wonderful weekend.Let me start at the very beginning.We left at around 4pm on Friday...decent timing since we have never left this early for a driving trip!!The drive to Cincinnati was eventless....Uday and I shared the drive.I had carried dinner so we didn't have to stop.Made it in good time.My cousin and her entire family (her in-laws are visiting) were awake to welcome us.My niece who had apprently been eating their heads asking when we would arrive turned silent on seeing us.But then,she is a little shy.The next morning we left at 7.30am to Buffalo (which again I consider very good time since we have never left this early in the morning to anywhere :))!!)This was the longer stretch of 6.5 hrs.But my cousin and brother-in-law warned that it could take much longer considering the holiday traffic.And traffic there was.....but not enough to delay us substantially.But there was another cause of concern.The patrol cars in Ohio!!!!Gosh,that is one strict state if I have ever seen one!!For about 150 miles,they had patrol cars for every 20/30 miles....with the policemen standing outside their cars and pointing their radar guns at the passing cars!!!!If you happened to see them suddenly,you'd definitely think they were pointing a real gun at you!!!Anyway,I guess they were just being extra careful.

We reached Buffalo around 3pm.Uday's brother and family who were supposed to meet there had already made it and were waiting.Now Uday's nephew is this little fella called Varun.And he is one big vaalu!!!We went into their room shouting his name and his reaction was simply priceless....he came in leaps and bounds from where he was playing and hugged both of us!!!Somehow he managed to do that with his small hands.....he's just turned 3!!Our man was so excited on seeing us that he couldn't stop jumping for a few minutes after that!!!It really made that long ride well worth it!!We then quickly left to the falls which was about 25miles away from the hotel.

We did the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds rides that day.Both are good in their own way but the Cave of the Winds is exhilarating!!!You go up rather flimsy looking wooden steps to reach what is called the Hurricane Deck.There you can stand and feel the force of the falling water.....it is absolutely fantastic!!And to imagine that this is the smallest of the three falls on the American side.......The Maid of the Mist takes you reasonably close to the horseshoe falls and waits for a few minutes there to let you take in the view and the falls.We saw two perfect rainbows while on that ride!!Follwing all this activity,we were hungry and headed for food.We ate from this stall that sold a veg thali for $7.Good food considering that we were in one corner of the US!!!But then again this is such a popular destination for Indians in the US that I shouldn't really be surprised.We headed back to the hotel room and crashed.

The next day,we left after a good breakfast at the hotel.Back to the falls to check out some of the other things to do there.We went to the Terrapin point and it was from there that we got our best view of the falls.The horseshoe falls is best viewed from the Canada side but that day there was so much of mist rising from the falling water that I doubt whether the view was any better from that side.The beauty of the whole thing is the sheer volume and force of the falling water!!!It's an awe-inspiring sight to simply stand there and realise how beautiful and powerful water can be!!We took in the view and for me it is forever imprinted in my mind.

We left later that afternoon and reached Cincinnati around 11pm.My first 4th of July and I saw the fireworks from a small gas station in some county somewhere between Cleveland and Cincinnati!!!Uday and I sat in the car eating our sub and looked out at the fireworks.It was nice.....a different way to enjoy the fireworks!!The next day I spent mostly with my niece.She is such a darling and though she is only 2.5 she talks like she is atleast 5 yrs old.We waited for her to fall asleep and sneaked out at around 4pm.I felt guilty about cheating a child that way but then everybody convinced me that this was better than her crying as we left.

Back on the road with our Kishore Kumar,Tamil Melodies.....off we were.Uday drove half the distance and then I took the wheel.We were almost in St.Louis when the sky darkened considerably.Uday commented that it was as if we were in the movie Twister....riding into the storm.And how right he proved to be!!!Suddenly,with no warning,it started pouring......huge drops of rain fell on the windshield and we heard some clinking.....ice!!!It was ice rain....heavy and blinding.I slowed considerably but we decided to keep going.Later I realised how tensed I had been and how firmly I was holding the steering....my shoulders hurt.This rain was accompanied by several bolts of lightining....strong and powerful.There were also gusts of wind....I had trouble keeping the car under control.Many people were pulling over but I thought might as well make it home than get stranded somewhere on the way!!After about 15 minutes tha skies relented and the rain slowed.We were less than mile from home when it started again!!Heavy but no ice....we reached the apartment and waited in the car till the rain lessened and then got out and ran in.We immediately swtiched on the TV to watch the news and realised that we had narrowly missed two tornadoes that had touched down within miles of where we had been driving.....

Well.....that was some weekend....humbling in many ways.But most of all,I realised how small we are compared to all that the Earth is.We,a miniscule part in the whole chain of events.And also that it wouldn't take much for the Earth to wipe us out totally....a few hours may be, at the most.I wonder why She hasn't done it yet....considering all the nasty things we have done to Her??!!