Orient

Took the ferry from orient to Rhode Island. Took about 1.5 hours as we approached Rhode Island the clouds started getting grey. We arrived in Rhode Island and I managed to send us the wrong way down an interstate. By the time we had turned round we were in a torrential down pour the like of which I have never witnessed. On a five lane freeway traffic had slowed to 15mph and even at that speed we couldn't see a thing. Claire insisted on exiting the freeway at the next exit which we did. We came to the traffic lights and there was a huge lightning bolt which caused all the lights to go out. It was freaky...but worse was to come. We drove on about 100 yards and then a lightning bolt hit a power cable directly next to a petrol station. Right next to where we were. There was a huge explosion, we pulled in to Toy R Us opposite. After about 20 minutes we regained our courage and set off again. We pulled in to the first motel we saw although I was a big dubious given the 'god loves you' sign on the freeway. We went to the office and thought better of it. It was about 10pm by this point and we got back on the interstate and pulled into another hotel. We were given a smoking room -- walked into the room and smell of stale fags and bad body odour was overpowering. Being two sweet Brits they upgraded us and we moved to a far bigger non-smoking room. We also found out about the magic Travellers guide (green book) which is a book filled with coupons which is available from all travel stations.