At that point, all the cool picture taking opportunities were over, the daylight was fading fast, and we were roughly 80 miles from our motel. We huddled around and discussed whether to drive back into Jacksonville and find a nice restaurant, or continue on the route and hopefully get to the motel before the cluster of eateries in that area closed.
In typical Drag Week fashion it was unanimous to continue forward, everyone was loathe to backtrack, even for food! We continued south on US-67, and the next 50 miles was pure automotive nirvana as the temp dropped, and the smells of rural USA wafted through the window to the strum of the 428 happily hammering away at 2800 rpm.
I sat in the passenger's seat of the Valiant dreaming of a nice meal, a hot shower, and a bed-time that didn't end with the letters AM! But alas, this is Drag Week, and the road portion of this trip still had a few throat punches left up it's proverbial sleeve!