On our way to Tamil Nadu

Below is the list of places we covered in our first leg of this yatra. I will go through them in detail (as much as I can remember) in my subsequent posts. Also. I have to devote a paragraph for the Taxi driver we had for this portion of the trip.
The driver arrived around 11a.m. I minded it, the others did not. We loaded the car and started off. After a few minutes, the driver announced that he had to make a short stop at his residence to pick up his stuff. He stopped the car on the road near his place (which was in the interior section somewhere). He returned around noon. Now we were really going. After a few miles, we came to an intersection and were approaching a bridge. Rao noticed that the road was flooded (by the rains from Oct 28th) and cars would not go through the underpass. He asked the driver whether he knew any alternate route. The driver answered in the negative. He had no idea where he was! Rao guided him to reverse the car and ask someone for an alternate route. The other road was longer, but we were going in the right direction. It was potholes and water everywhere.
The following was our itinerary for this trip.
Nov 1st night at Tirumalai (Lord Venkateswara)
2nd, around noon, leave Tirupathi. Pass thru Kanchi. reach Chidambaram for night halt.
Cover the following Temples:
Vaideeswaran, Ramaswamy, Kasi Viswanadha, Tanjavur (Brihadeeswara Temple), Karaikudi. Rameswaram, Madurai. Palani, Chidambaram, Swamimalai, Tirunageswaram, Kumbakonam, Uppiliyappan, Sarangapani, Chakrapani, Kumbeswara, Nachiarkoil, Tirucharai, Navapashanam, Tirukkodal, Alagarkoil, Palamudircholai, Tiruppurakundram, Srirangam, Tiruvannaikoil, Samayapuram, Urayur, Uttamarkoil, Brahma Temple in Perambalur.
Reach Tirupathi on the 9th by midnight.
Nirmala and Rao did a lot of research and planning to make this trip happen and stick to the itinerary as much as possible. Rao did the internet search while still in USA and Nirmala talked to her friends who either visited these places or had information and recommendations that we could use and she documented everything. It was like a rough draft of a thesis!!!!( Well. they both had experience writing the thesis for their Ph.D.s)

I am sure there are package (guided) tours to visit these places. But the pros were less than the cons. This way, we had the freedom to stop where we wanted, eat or starve whenever we liked. And with five of us in this group, it was more economical. The language and food was no problem this time. Most importantly, Nirmala was able to get her first cup of coffee within minutes of brushing her teeth!