Rider Mania'05-- Part II

DAY 2 ---> 07-Jan-2005

All of us managed to wake up only by 7:00 and we were supposed to hit the road by 7:00. We were bang on time, as us bikers go. Here we were joined by Ambar and Samarth. These guys had started off at 6:00 the previous evening and had rode through the night. To top this, they would be carrying on with us to Panvel. man these guys were made of sterner stuff. By the time the guys tanked up on food and fuel and were ready to leave it was close to 10:30. This meant that we would reach Panvel late at night. The stretch from Belgaum to Kolhapur is an amazing 6-lane stretch. Here Sourabh and me did speeds of 130kph. i don't care if we have speedo errors. The feeling was too good to be diluted by such thoughts. Abhi had a stock silencer unlike the two of us, and even he went upto 125 kph. The feeling was amazing. Stooped over at Nippani before crossing over into Maharashtra. It was time for a few snaps and some calls home. Called up my friends at the office too.
Soon we landed in Karad where the road situation was completely on the other end of the spectrum. Without local help we would have never been able to get on to the road to Chiplun. Soon after locating the highway, we found a decent looking place for lunch. The owner was thrilled to see so many hungry-looking bikers at his doorstep, and was more than happy to prepare our meal. A long relaxing lunch, and all of us sleepy heads took off towards Chiplun. The ghat roads here were just awesome. Scraped my foot-rest lots of times. It was more of a treat to see Sourabh & Abhi taking those turns.
At Chiplun some guys filled up their tanks while we feasted on some Vada-Pavs. Man were they tasty or were they tasty. It was the perfect snack , like Keerthi mentioned, neither too heavy , nor too light.
We were then to move on to Pen(it sounds better in hindi), where a couple of Indiethumpers would meet us, and direct us to the RM'05 venue.Managed to reach Pen only by 10:00 pm. Rajiv and Ashish of the Indiethumpers then led us to the venue. Checked in by 11:00 pm, and then started our hunt for the booze.Lucky for us Belli had stocked up some from Bangalore. After a couple of rounds, feeling all warm, we headed for dinner. Passed out at 2:30 am hoping to get some good sleep before the event kicked off the next day.