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Stage 6, June 30
Rockford, IA, lunch stop, home of the 'Peaches' from 'A
League of their Own'. One of the items in our goodie bag
was a bobblehead 'Peaches' player, a big hit with Janet
who pitches softball. It redeemed the day for her.
The weather is beautiful. A cold front moved
through last night: we had the Rover all buttoned up for
the thunderstorms we thought would surely hit us, and then
not a drop. Especialy since we tempted fate by washing
it. Today dawned clear and cool, and what a relief that
was.
We looked out of the window of our hotel
room, and there was this Ford flathead V8 engine sitting
in a handicapped parking space. Not the whole car, just
an engine. No matter how bad we think our day is, there
is always someone else who has it worse.
We had a lot of fun rallying today. The
Wisconsin countryside is gorgeous.The roads were well chosen
and the course was fun to work. We hit our marks today,
really on top of it. In the TR3 it would have been a good
:15 second day. The reward for our efforts with a :58.
Crap!
Each day presents new challenges, and the
terrain changes the nature of the course. We
crossed the Mississippi (Short MPEG of the river crossing)
and had more running at 40-50 mph today, a speed range
where the Land Rover has a lot of variables in acceleration.
We had some hills that we couldn't hold our speed on, and
a start that was on a long grade that we had to take 'on
the fly', which means we started down the road so that
we could accelerate before we got there. The trouble there
was it was near an intersection and we couldn't get back
far enough. We did go past one road and got back to it
quickly, and the dumb driver ran a fuel tank dry (climbing
a hill of course, it couldn't have happened on a downgrade,
oh no...). We recovered before we hit 25 mph, but that
makes it really hard to know what our loss actually was.
But if we finished each leg early, and each
leg had a fumble that we overcompensated for, the Rover
is still capable of getting the scores we're looking for.
Regardless, it was still a fun day rallying, despite our
lack of ability to master the beast, and the truck continues
to run exceptionally well (as long as I keep an eye on
the gas gauge).
Delavan, Wisconsin pit stop, as seen from standing on the
tailgate of the Rover. Big crowd!
We had a wonderful 'pit stop' in Delavan,
Wisconsin. Huge crowd for a weekday. The course wound around
rolling hillsides with the corn a lush dark green contrasting
against a china blue sky with wispy high clouds. We would
crest a ridgeline and the scattered farmhouses, barns,
and silos are as representative of middle America as they
could possibly be. The other racers all enjoy the small
towns and atmosphere of the farm country just as much,
and certainly more than fighting city traffic.
So, once again, here we are, reviewing the
day's course instructions, trying to figure out how we
gained all of that time, yet still having had a great day
of rallying. Go figure.
Steve & Janet
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