Chicago to Indianapolis
Linda and I just checked into Days Inn, one of the cheaper hotel chains in the US. We were quite sure that this would also be owned by a Patel. Indeed, the manager here is "Roger" (Ranjit? Rajiv? Rakesh?) Patel.
The Patel motel story is quite interesting. Apparently about 60 percent of hotels/motels (most of them cheaper ones) are run by Indian Patels (as opposed to East African or British Patels, of which there is a big number). I'm not sure how they found this niche for running motels in the US, but they sure have learned the art of buying small places, staying there for a few years, and then moving on to a slightly bigger place. Reedsburg didn't have a single foreign-owned place about 6 years back. Today four of the five motels in Reedsburg are owned by Patels! Impressive.
Anyway, we're staying at a Patel motel tonight. Getting out of Chicago was very slow this morning. The roads were jampacked with vehicles, even thought we thought we could avoid the rush hour. I suppose Chicago doesn't really have a non-rush hour traffic on some of its roads. The driving wasn't difficult. It was very, very slow, that's all. Linda took some photos of the downtown area through the car windshield. Here's a sample:
The tall building is Sears tower. The weather today was rather cloudy and, at times, rainy. It warm and a little humid (at last). I'm tired of the cold winter and am looking forward to some warm weather.
Anyway, after leaving Chicago we headed for the sand dunes of Michigan. These are the world's largest freshwater sand dunes. I didn't know that until today. The sand dunes are located inside a Michigan state park. Fortunately, the weather improved quite a bit by the time we reached the state park. We were a bit surprised to see only two or three cars in the parking area. We practically had to whole place to ourselves. Here's me with my baggage consisting of the camera bag, the tripod and the extra lens that I bought yesterday. Almost makes me look like a pro photographer....
Aagey ki kahani Linda ki zabani....
The Patel motel story is quite interesting. Apparently about 60 percent of hotels/motels (most of them cheaper ones) are run by Indian Patels (as opposed to East African or British Patels, of which there is a big number). I'm not sure how they found this niche for running motels in the US, but they sure have learned the art of buying small places, staying there for a few years, and then moving on to a slightly bigger place. Reedsburg didn't have a single foreign-owned place about 6 years back. Today four of the five motels in Reedsburg are owned by Patels! Impressive.
Anyway, we're staying at a Patel motel tonight. Getting out of Chicago was very slow this morning. The roads were jampacked with vehicles, even thought we thought we could avoid the rush hour. I suppose Chicago doesn't really have a non-rush hour traffic on some of its roads. The driving wasn't difficult. It was very, very slow, that's all. Linda took some photos of the downtown area through the car windshield. Here's a sample:
The tall building is Sears tower. The weather today was rather cloudy and, at times, rainy. It warm and a little humid (at last). I'm tired of the cold winter and am looking forward to some warm weather.Anyway, after leaving Chicago we headed for the sand dunes of Michigan. These are the world's largest freshwater sand dunes. I didn't know that until today. The sand dunes are located inside a Michigan state park. Fortunately, the weather improved quite a bit by the time we reached the state park. We were a bit surprised to see only two or three cars in the parking area. We practically had to whole place to ourselves. Here's me with my baggage consisting of the camera bag, the tripod and the extra lens that I bought yesterday. Almost makes me look like a pro photographer....
Aagey ki kahani Linda ki zabani....
posted by Avinash at 6:42 PM
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