In A New York Minute: Resting in Elkhart, Indiana

Another good day -- this was the longest leg -- and the day started out so beautifully with the weather. It was simply glorious... then the farther west I went, the cloudier it got; drove through some showers, but more like sprinkles.

Nothing too important to report until about 20 minutes from the hotel. I was zooming along Route 80 with everyone else when all of a sudden the cars/trucks in front of me came to a complete stop. I stopped in time, but I did steer a bit onto the shoulder. There we sat, not moving.

I tapped my brake light a few times to get the attention of the cars zooming up behind me. That's something I learned when I was in high school from the father of the kids I was babysitting and all these years later I still think of him when I do it.

I could see that whatever happened was about 100 yards ahead -- no cops, no ambulances... after a few minutes, the lane started moving and it turned out the accident had just happened, literally minutes previously -- no first responders on the scene. The cars/van that were stopped in the middle of the highway didn't look like they had been in an accident and then I saw a young man lying on his back with a crowd of people around him. Kept driving slowly along in a single lane and then I saw a very disturbing sight: an overturned motorcycle, still turned on, with lights blinking. I don't know if he was hit, got thrown or what. I said a prayer for him... he was just lying on the highway.

Whenever I see something like that, I think how incredibly lucky I was that literally three to five seconds difference I would have been part of that accident.

Got to the hotel; again a very friendly greeting. I had been thinking about chicken all day and so I didn't even go to my room, but went in search and found what I wanted. Now I'm relaxing, watching Suze Orman and all is well.

On with the pics:

This is the typical rest stop along Route 80 in Pennsylvania. I like it as it isn't a hike to the bathroom. Inside, there are vending machines and bathrooms. The only thing I don't like is that they have those high pressure hand dryers and how my hand skin gets pushed around looking makes me naseous.

The rest stop had this really pretty picnic area... this is where it was so beautiful... sunny, mid 70s, breezy -- so beautiful that I even got biblical and said, "this is the day the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad in it." Made me want to have a picnic.