14: Day 9: Surat - Pune (422 km)

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened!

- Dr. Seuss

The road trip that we all had looked forward to, had one last leg left. It was a mixed feeling - a little sadness that the trip was going to get over, and a little happiness that we were going to return to the comfort of home sweet home. By 7:30 am, we were awake and ready. After completing the checkout formalities, Mukul, Anant and I went downstairs to tie the luggage to the roof carrier one last time on this trip. We then had breakfast. Ruhi had trouble swallowing but she managed to have some idlis. We all had a few helpings of the fresh mixed fruit juice. At 8:47 am, we started on our way back.

I pressed the "Take me Home" button on my cheetah's navigator. We were 422 kms away, an estimated 7 hours drive. Since our hotel was on the outskirts of the city, we got on to NH 53 pretty quick. In less than half an hour, we crossed the Bhatia Toll Plaza using the ETC / FASTag lane and shortly therafter, merged on to NH48 / NH 8 aka New Delhi - Mumbai - Chennai highway (part of the Golden Quadrilateral). Luckily there wasn't much traffic and I was able to maintain a good speed. We crossed Navsari, passed the Boriach Toll Plaza using the ETC / FASTag lane. Thereafter we passed the town of Chikhli, then Valsad (where we had stopped on our way to Ahmedabad on Day 1) and then crossed the Bagwada Toll Plaza using the ETC / FASTag lane before passing Vapi.

Soon after, we passed two checkposts, one that belonged to Gujarat state and the next one belonged to Maharashtra state. It felt good to be back to our own state. I did not want to break the momentum we had gained so I continued driving. After crossing Talasari and Manor, we crossed the Khaniwade Toll Plaza using the ETC / FASTag lane. In 3.5 hours, we had entered the Thane district. It was 12:30 pm in the afternoon. We had spent an hour and a half to cover 5 kms on Day 1 at this very stretch of the road. Being day time, there weren't too many trucks around and it made a huge difference on this particular highway.

I continued making the most of the good traffic conditions till we finally came to the dreaded Versova creek bridge. This time around, we hit traffic around a kilometre away from the left turn to Ghodbunder road. We spent a good hour waiting for our turn to take left. After taking Ghodbunder road, we zipped passed Thane city, crossed Ghansoli and then Airoli. The toll plaza at Airoli had an ETC lane but they did not recognize FASTag, so we had to pay here and spend time. The kids were hungry and so we decided to stop for lunch at Hotel Saiba at Airoli. It was 2:15 pm. Ruhi wanted to take rest but we told her that she needed to have some food to feel better, and upon knowing that she would be able to have her favourite Pav Bhaji, she eagerly joined. Having entered Maharashtra, most of the gang preferred to have Vada-Pav and Pav Bhaji, while Anant and I had Onion Uttapam. By 3:15 pm, we were done with lunch and were on the road again.

I had been driving since morning, but being the last day, I wanted to drive till we reached home. No driver changeover for today I said. Anant understood and let me continue. From this point, it was a clear path. We crossed Turbhe, Belapur and were on the superfast Mumbai - Pune expressway. We passed the ghat section, then Lonavala and the last toll plaza at Khalapur at 4:25 pm using the ETC / FASTag lane. I cannot stress enough on how much of a boon the FASTag had been for us during the trip. Not so much for cash, we had carried enough, but for time and exclusivity. I would highly recommend FASTag to everyone.

Exactly 9 hours since we started in the morning, we were in the parking lot of Shivtara Garden society, a place we all called home. Everyone had smiles on their faces - for nothing gives you comfort like home. Ruhi, who had been pretty morose throughout the day, suddenly found energy to go play with her friends. Trisha preferred to spend some time with her friends as well. We got the luggage untied and handed everyone their bags for good. The accessories - tarpaulin sheets, cargo net with hooks, car tyre inflator, rope, backup rope, stretch ropes were kept in a separate backpack, which I dedicated as the road trip accessory pack. After ensuring that everyone had taken their belongings with them, we bid each other goodbyes and thus came to end a fantastic road trip. While it was awesome doing all that we did, we also appreciated the comfort of home which we so often take for granted..

'A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.'
- George Moore