How a road trip covering 2120 km gave me the courage to quit a job I hated- Part 1

How a road trip covering approximately 2120 km gave me the courage to quit a job I hated

Part 1:Materializing of our plans

One of the many beautiful stretches of road on this LONG journey!

 In October 2015, my husband and I decided to do something we had never done before. We decided to go on a road trip. Though it was true that we had done plenty of road trips earlier, this would be by far our longest one till date. We both love traveling by road and even though I do not drive, the husband enjoys driving, so it works out just great for us. To say that this was a much needed break would be an understatement. 

This had gone from bad to worse at my workplace. This was my first job ever after completing my post-graduation and even though I had initially loved it, the circumstances changed in such a way that I grew to hate it. The mental torture at the work place along with the long commute got so bad that it took a toll on my health. I started having menstrual irregularities due to hormonal disturbances. Though I had considered quitting my job multiple times, it was unthinkable for me to quit it, without first having found another one; as this job provided the much needed financial security. So after completing one full year at the job, when I was finally entitled to sufficient paid leave, we planned this epic road trip, in which we would be traveling across three different states- Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala (we even drove through a tiny bit of Tamil Nadu!).
Our original plan went something like this:
The journey would start on 11th October 2015, which was a Sunday.
Day 1 (11th October, Sunday): Leave for Mysuru from Pune early in the morning and reach Mysuru by evening on the same day. Stay over at friends' place for the night. Explore a bit of Mysuru on Sunday evening. The estimated time on the road for this leg of the trip would be 13-14 hours, covering a distance of approximately 903 km.
Day 2 (12th October, Monday): Leave for Wayanad, Kerala from Mysuru, Karnataka. Stay at a home-stay/resort called Little Home from 12th through 15th October. Estimated time taken for this leg would be approximately 3 hours, covering a distance of 118 km.
Day 3,4,5 (13th - 15th October; Tuesday -Thrusday): Stay in Wayanad, explore the surrounding places of interest. Total distance covered on this leg of the trip would be approximately 100 km, over a span of three days.
Day 6 (16th October, Friday): Leave for Mangalore, Karnataka. Stay in Mangalore. The total distance covered during this leg of the trip would be around 255 km and the approximate time taken to reach our destination would be around 5-6 hours.
Day 7 (17th October): Meet up friends in Mangalore. Visit our old haunts (Mangalore is the place where I first met my husband when I was pursuing my MBBS. He would come down from Pune to meet me every couple of months. We were eagerly looking forward to re-live our days of long-distance dating)
Day 8 (18th October): Leave for Pune. Start early in the morning and reach Pune by evening. Approximate time taken for this leg of the trip would be around 13 hours, covering a distance of about 774 km.



(This handwritten note was sent to me on Whatsapp by the husband when I was at work..It had drastically improved my day for the better!)


I should perhaps point out here that this trip was a deviation from the kind of holidays we generally take. Goa is our most preferred destination, we love staying in a comfortable hotel room with all the amenities. In fact, we had almost decided on Goa for this break as well, as it is incredibly relaxing and mental relaxation was something I craved the most at that point. Just the thought of spending 8 days at a beach resort, waking up to the sound of the sea, long walks on the beach and the superb food at a little-known food joint we frequent made us almost change our minds. However, we were determined to try something different this time and therefore booked the little resort/home-stay that claimed to specialize in Kerala cuisine. Though we were not fond of Kerala cuisine at all, we thought how bad could it get? We would soon find out! Multiple times during our week long break, we desperately wished that we had chosen Goa instead of Wayanad. But I am getting ahead of myself...
(For the next part, click on the link below
 http://experiencelifeontheroad.blogspot.in/2016/08/how-road-trip-covering-2120-km-gave-me_27.html)







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