The long highway trip to Chennai was punctuated with childhood stories and jokes. The highway was even better than when we did the trip in August 2008 - there were more bypasses and lesser detours. It wasn't perfect though and there seemed to be more heavy vehicles than before. We had no problems though and for once BUZZ never got lost when we entered Chennai. The Kathipara flyover helped us reach home faster.
BUZZ had several adventures during this Chennai trip.
Meet the Laura: A visit to Besantnagar to my cousins house and BUZZ was parked face to face with my cousin's Skoda Laura. BUZZ seemed to turn green with envy when I testdrove the Laura for about 10 minutes. The Laura was a lot more powerful (especially when the turbo kicked in), was more luxurious and had lots of gadgets and gizmos! But I never really felt at home inside the Laura and was glad to get back into BUZZ for the return trip! My nephew took BUZZ out for a spin before that and enjoyed it.
A trip to the zoo: Yup - there were tigers, snakes, elephants, fishes, bears, zebras and more at the Vandalur zoo.We had a great time. Unfortunately BUZZ had to simply wait in the parking lot while we feasted our eyes on the animals and birds. We stopped by at my aunts house on the way back and BUZZ had to expertly navigate over sand and very narrow corners to get to their house. For the return trip we took a different route that saw a long smooth stretch of highway and then 20 minutes of trudging slowly in roads (if you could call it that!!)
A cop: It must have been a year-end phenomenon. A cop pulled us over for allegedly jumping a red light. BUZZ gave a sheepish grin and I explained that the lights had not yet changed when we went past. After a little explanation he let us go scotfree. Some nervous moments there!
Crow excreta:It happened at Thiruvanmiyur when we had parked for a couple of hours. When we got ready to leave we found BUZZ covered with a dozen splotches of crow excreta. I frantically tried to clean it up but found that the crows were faster than me. We decided that the best course of action was to leave ASAP. BUZZ didn't seem to mind and after we came back home, Nagaraj cleaned him up and the next morning there were no traces of the ugly crap!
Citicenter: BUZZ's first experience in a shopping mall - the Citicenter @ Chennai. To be honest BUZZ never got to see more that just the front view and the basement parking, but I loved the way he eagerly dived into the parking area and then expertly maneuvered the tight curves upwards when we got out. I wonder if he made any new friends in the parking lot - they say a lot of car romances begin there!
The trip back saw us start off at 4.30 AM through the dark and some mist and I realised that BUZZs headlights were not as powerful as I wanted them to be. The sun peaked in by 6 AM and we had a safe trip back. There was one weird thing I noted when I parked BUZZ after the trip - there were literally hundreds of tiny flies/insects splattered against BUZZs front end (bumper especially). Well - every trip sees something new happening!
Unfortunately BUZZ was camera shy and we don't have any pics of him to show off - so I'll just enclose a video of the time at the zoo.

The event: A wedding to attend
The place: Neyveli - home of the coal mines
Distance: 150 KM (Trichy - Neyveli)
Three of us and BUZZ did this trip and had a great time at Neyveli. The scenery with the coal mines and big machinery was very different and it was fun! As usual BUZZ did his traditional 'lost' act just before we entered Neyveli (and on the way back when we entered Trichy)!
The best part was that on the way back we stopped at a place called Virudhachalam where I had spent my childhood. It was awesome visiting my old home, my old school and the Danish Mission Hospital where my grandfather had worked.
I'm sure BUZZ felt the excitement that hit me when I saw these places after 20 years!
We had a great trip . The roads were a mixture: fourlaned smooth highways, under-construction sites, patched up stretches, narrow streets, village roads and diversions. And to top it all a mixture of sun, rain, dust and wind!
Buzz came back covered with a layer of black dust and dried up watermarks all over him - a true hero!