I am on a "Highway" to .......

"To boldly go where no man has gone before" said Captain Kirk..
These days when time is at a premium, i look back at my days in grad school and wish could have done some traveling then.. I guess $$$ were at a premium then;)...Nevertheless it would have been a great experience to go on those cheap trips and live in cheap motels..
This summer my parents are visiting me and i have been doing the rounds..
It was actually them, who probably got me into traveling, with our yearly trips to different parts of INDIA. Delhi, Agra, Goa, Gujarat, Orissa, Hyderabad, interiors of Maharashtra..and Kashmir. Hell we even made it to Muscat one summer..It was a pleasure. I am pretty sure if i were to visit all these places now, i would draw a different image.
I like to think of myself an obsessive "planner" - i love to schedule..and really enjoy it when things move like clockwork. With a "little" help of that thing called "internet", i can go berserk. I can go on and on and probably try every permutation and combination to "maximize" the trip (imHo ofcourse).
The other school of thought is how much spontaneity of the "fun" do you kill when you do such things? When things work out - they were meant to be - because they were planned out.. the reaction is satisfaction.If there is a slight deviation from the "planned" path.. then the reaction is a little disappointment. If i had gone with no plans and if things would have worked out, the reaction would be "awesome".. simply because i went with no expectations.
This summer i have done meticulous planning, and more importantly stuck to it and executed it with aplomb. We have so far crossed out local - Baltimore and other Maryland area attractions, Washington D.C., New York city, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyons. Every place was an experience in itself. I had visited some earlier and it was my first time at a few. I had read about all of them though, before visiting.
And you know what, "Seeing is believing". All of them were whatever i had read/ heard and a lot more. You might do your homework on the place you want to visit.. it will only help you and i don't think it will kill the spontaneity one bit. I hope to write lengthy chapters on each of these places.

For all my love for traveling.. i will still have a boring chicken sandwich to the local delicacy ;)