Leaving the Mindfield, Hot Rod could have sent us along US-70A/US-79 in a nearly straight run to checkpoint 2 in Paris Tn., but that's just not the way they like to do things. So instead they ran us over to I-40 for a 16 mile jaunt on the big road, then dumped us off if the middle of Jackson Tn., for a little stoplight, cruise through town before we re-joined US-79 in Milan. James and I pulled into the Exxon gas station in Milan, across the street from the massive Oakwood cemetery. Two things had changed in the last 47 miles we had covered, it was seriously dark, and we were working through smatterings of rain and wet roads. After we fueled up, I called Boone to ask how far they had fallen behind us, but I barely had time to explain where we had stopped before I heard him coming over the hill to join us.