And the U.P Yatra begins

Since July 2017, we have been doing only short trips of nearby districts for ShikshaDaan as we had a lot of unfinished work at Delhi and we were also awaiting our 80G exemption. We got the 80G exemption in Feb 2018 and we immediately did our strategy meeting in March to decide on the way forward :). Excited with our plans and yes they are ambitious. As part of the data collection for the strategy meeting, we realised that U.P has a large number of educational institutions. So we decided to do the important districts in U.P and a couple of districts in Bihar in this month. We are also doing the first year ceremony for my mother-in-law in Gaya towards the end of this month….. time does go by unbelievably fast. It seems like yesterday that my mother-in-law passed away and its already going to be a year :(.

Today we started out from Gurgaon at 6.30 am. Our first stop is Lucknow. It rained a teeny-weeny bit as we started out – our lucky charm.

I was heartbroken to see the speed breakers as you start out on the Yamuna expressway ! That is no way to control the speed. I liked the idea of sharing the information through digital boards about those who had been fined for speeding. A much better deterrent and levy a heavy fine, payable directly to the transport authorities :). We drove between 100 to 110 kph right through.

For the first time the dashboard showed 880 kilometres to an empty tank as we filled up near the Vrindavan exit, so I recorded it immediately. The speed remaining between 100 to 110 kph also helped with the mileage !

We turned off onto the Agra-Lucknow expressway at 9.58 am. Just 3.5 hours to complete 237 kms on the Yamuna expressway. We were really looking forward to driving on the Agra Lucknow highway, especially after Mohit and Javed told us that it is truly world class. And it is world class !! We could put the car on cruise for nearly 90% of the distance and except for the Hyderabad-Bangalore and the Betul Highway there aren’t many other roads in India where we can do that.

Then we reached the stretch where they landed the Airforce jets near Kannauj, the emergency landing airstrip. Was so excited to drive on that stretch. Krishnan has recorded the video… hope this plays.

 

We reached the Mohan exit for Lucknow by 12.40 pm and reached the hotel by 1.30 pm. On the way to the hotel we crossed the MASSIVE Kanshi Ram Smarak Sthal which is also an eco park. Very impressive. The traffic is a bit unruly with no respect for the traffic lights but the roads themselves are pothole free and wide.

We had brought lunch along with us from home. Ate that and took an extra long siesta. Now we are all geared up for the meetings starting tomorrow.

Travel is so much fun !!