Friday, 12. September 2008.
We wake up quite late, although my plan was to leave during the morning in order to get to NYC this evening. I guess we get to a diner to get a breakfast around noon.
We're both extremely tired,although Emily can go back to bed when I leave and I have hours and hours of driving ahead of me.
Anyway, by 1 pm we say goodbye, I load my stuff into the car and head towards the big, rotten apple.
No luck with the weather today either. It's raining and it doesn't seem to have the intention of stopping.

View at downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

I travel through Ohio, passing through Cincinnati and Columbus. Then I hit Pennsylvania and pass by Pittsburgh. I stop at a service station to get some junk food and drive away. It's getting dark and the rain isn't stopping.
I'm somewhere in the central Pennsylvania when the rain intensifies to the point I have to considerably slow down. Damn, I'm already behind the schedule; when will I get to New York?
The cars overtaking me to the left with all this rain make me a bit nervous. I'm even considering stopping. This just isn't the best scenario for driving through the night.

The weather was pretty bad most of the trip back. Somewhere in Central Pennsylvania.

All of a sudden, the car in front of me steers abruptly, hits the brakes, turns around itself... The headlight shine into my face. In that fraction of the second I think of the worst case scenario and fear for my own and his life. I keep the calm enough not to hit the brakes all of a sudden, but slow down gradually. Braking abruptly could be fatal in these conditions. The car in front of me hasn't stopped turning around. After I already had headlights in my face, the car turns around itself for the second time then hits the guardrail with the rear part, but it doesn't stop. The driver moves the car along the shoulder and stops.
By this time I've managed to slow my car to a reasonable speed so I move to the shoulder and stop right behind him. I get out of my car, at the same time while the driver of the car in front of me gets out of his. It's raining cats and dogs but there's no time to think about the rain.
"Sir, are you OK?" I ask him. I can see he's under shock, but he doesn't seem hurt.
He looks at his car then turns to me: "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for stopping though."
"It looked really bad. You're lucky if you're not hurt. Are you sure you're OK? Do you need anything?"
"No, I'm fine. Thank you. The car is damaged, but I'm fine."
"OK, if you're sure. Drive carefully, you're under shock. The road is very slippery. Be safe!"
"I will. Thank you again for stopping and checking in."
I get back into my car, all soaked in water, start the engine and slowly and carefully get back on the highway. I haven't been scared so much on the road in a very long time. It's good everyone's OK.
I keep driving quite slowly thinking about the accident. I call my friend Peter Ka in NY. I tell him the story and he suggests me not to go to NYC and then to Baltimore the next day, but to go directly there and then come back on the Greyhound. I listen to his advice and turn down towards Baltimore.
But right when I switched onto I-70 from Pennsylvania Turnpike I find out that the I-70 is closed a few miles down the road because of an accident. The police officers are advising not to take the highway as we'd just get stuck a little bit further down. I stay in Breezewood trying to find a free Wi-Fi network, but I'm not having much luck. I'm trying to see if someone in DC has replied to my couch request. I finally manage to find a connection, but I don't find anything in DC. At this point travelling further towards DC and crashing in a hotel there or finding a room in Breezewood doesn't make much difference so I opt for the latter, especially since Breezewood seems to have quite nice rates. This is my last night in a motel/hotel in the US, so I decide to treat myself with the best looking motel in Breezewood which is still WAY cheaper than the one I had to stay in Los Gatos.
I take my computer with me and spend the evening surfing the internet and downloading some cool songs I heard on the radio earlier on this trip.