I'm not sure what the route planner's aversion was to driving in Michigan, but we continued to head due west on US-20, through the remainder of northern Ohio, all the way into Indiana. I pulled into a BP at the outskirts of LaGrange, a town of about 2500, more for a big 24 ounce coffee than for fuel.
From the text Boone had sent me, they were only about ten miles behind me and doing fine. I was enjoying the fact that I could clip along at a leisurely pace without trying to catch Rachael, or strain my eyes in the rear view to see if the brothers were keeping up, and was pretty sure they would catch me before I had to guide them to our motel.

Ten miles later I turned right onto US-131 and headed north into Michigan. It was a beautiful night, the Valiant was purring along, and the cool moist air rushing into the car via the window wings was just what I needed to stay focused on the road.

The group caught me about twenty miles south of Kalamazoo, and our motel was just south of Kalamazoo, about three miles east on I-94, and fifteen or so miles south of the track. As motel choices go that was about as good it gets with me.

There had been lightning in our windshields nearly the whole time we had been driving north and we unexpectedly caught up with that storm front we had been chasing just three miles south of our turn off for I-94.

I was following Dale when he suddenly reduced speed, so I shot around him to pass, and noticed he was pointing at the road when I went by. It wasn't until the back of the Valiant gave me a little wiggle that I realized the roads were wet. By the time we made it to the I-94 it was truly raining hard on us and we had to navigate the three miles of busy interstate without getting ran over by 75 mph traffic. I managed to muster about fifty out of the Valiant, but the last time I looked back, Boone and Dale were crawling down the shoulder.

I had the rooms checked out and our luggage retrieved from the Valiant before the brothers rolled into the parking lot. It was after midnight, but still a darn sight better than watching the sunrise through our windshields. We settled in quickly and agreed to sleep in to around eight or nine, figuring rest was more important than an early start at the track.

"Did Darren find his motel OK", I asked Dale before he started snoring.
"Yeah, they took the interstate after we left Buffalo Wild Wings, he's probably been in bed for hours by now!"