“I Learned to Drive in New Jersey…”

…Otherwise known as “How Joe Volpe Spent His 60th Birthday”.

So today was the Big Day. The reason we came to India on the Rickshaw Run. Sixty years ago today the world welcomed Joe Volpe into it, specifically into the state of New Jersey.

Ah, New Jersey. The land of passionate drivers who are highly adept at flipping off and yelling at people who drive like idiots. Well, that’s my impression. The only person I have ever driven with in New Jersey or who is from New Jersey is Joe. And that describes him quite well when he is driving.

Today was a dream drive come true for the New Jersey driving trained birthday boy. We headed out with the Norwegian Vikings just after 8 am. We had packed and fueled the rickshaws and agreed to take it easy today en route to Bharuch and a king sized suite at the Hyatt Hotel. That room and the possibility of having a shower in a bathroom where hot water and a shower curtain were readily available was like a beacon of light on the proverbial horizon.

It was a fun morning. We stopped for chai at a roadside stand, and enjoyed the changing landscape under a sunny sky as we went south through Gujarat. Lots of agriculture here - chick peas, tobacco, mustard, cumin, what looks like rice. Lots of cows but that’s another post.

And lots of trucks. Big trucks. Lots of them. And cars and buses. Those were all going faster than us. Going slower than us were tractors, motorbikes, other rickshaws, some cars, a camel pulling a cart, bicycles, a guy pushing a knife sharpening machine on wheels, and some people walking. A gong show on the highway that never stopped.

Our first stop, in honor of Glen the Viking’s birthday, was the Harley Davidson Store in Ahmedabad. Glen is a huge Harley fan and the store was very cool and had a nice bathroom (quickly becoming my standard for building quality). Turns out the guy at the counter also had a birthday today so we snapped a pic.

Just around the corner from that we came upon a group of people driving very old vintage American cars on their way to what is apparently Asia’s largest vintage car show. There was a guy there with an old Bel Air and for once Joe asked an Indian person for a selfie. I can’t imagine how wealthy those people must’ve been to own cars like those.

Anyways, the drive continued. Now that we are out of Rajasthan it is becoming much more populated and those intersections have started getting pretty hairy. Joe from New Jersey strangely seems to be in his element here when he is driving. The nice part is that everybody is smiling at us as they are also cutting us off. Some of them cut us off on purpose and then ask if we can stop to take a selfie. Most just drive past us after they cut us off and smile and wave.

At one point we stopped for chai and were slowly taken over by a large herd of cows. Shortly after that the Vikings had an issue with their spark plug, then their gear cable, and then their engine. We towed them (yes, we towed a rickshaw with our rickshaw) to a local mechanic after some help from some locals, and reluctantly left them there so we could make it to the Hyatt before dark.

The last 30 minutes of the drive were done in the dark, across several very busy intersections. The hotel loomed large and light ahead of us like the beacon it had been all day in our minds.

As a guy in a car tried to cut us off, Joe yelled at the top of his lungs “Not a chance, mother f’er, I learned to drive in New Jersey!!”

I don’t think the guy heard him, but I could see Joe smiling in the front mirror.Read more