Rachael was laughing at me, "Dad, how come in the straight sections I'm on your tail at 2500 rpm, and when we get into the curves you run away and hide frome me?" "I was wondering why you kept fading back, figured you were getting tired", I replied. "She wasn't fading back", Dale added, "You were speeding up, just tossing that Valiant into those turns!" "Oops!" I shrugged, "Maybe I was enjoying them more than I thought".
I had completely forgot about Darryl's warning from our last phone call by the time we got rolling, and was just trying to get some miles under our belt on this lonely straight stretch of two-lane, when I noticed a barely flashing construction sign on the side of the road. The asphalt dissapeared beneath our tires, and we bottomed out both the front and rear suspensions, just in time to slam back into the asphalt on the other side, and get beat up again. I had bottomed out the rear once already, and was thinking of adding a few clicks to the rear shocks, but I don't think anything would have prepared me for that! Boone vocalized what I was already thinking, "Hope that 440 Source oil pan on the Belvedere survived that!" "Call Dale and tell him to keep an eye on the oil pressure". He pushed the pad, and looked over at me after a brief conversation. "Dale says everything is fine, it just rattled thier teeth pretty good!"
Darryl called about 20 minutes later, "Made the second checkpoint, Freiburger was there taking pics, it was pretty cool, lots of people around". It sounded like he was enjoying the trip so far, "Darn M/T's are taller than the Goodyears though, driver's side is rubbing on the quarter, going to have to try and fix that in the morning". "Well, if you don't hear from me before you get close to Dallas, give me a call and I'll give you directions to the motel." I instructed. I turned to Boone, "How far are we from the 2nd checkpoint?" He consulted his sheet under the phone's light, "About 60 miles or so". "Darryl just left there, so we've gained a little on him I think".
Paris Tx. is a college town, and our checkpoint is on campus, a mini-Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on top of it. I know there is an eighth-mile strip somewhere around there too but by the time we rolled into the area, I didn't plan on searching for it. Hot Rod's directions had us go right through the heart of town, including town square and the police station, which made me nervous as heck. Finally I pulled into a Kroger grocery store parking lot, "Boone, something doesn't feel right, I swear this thing is getting louder, let's just go over everything, and see if anything is loose, or if we've blown out a collector gasket maybe". Rachael headed for the store as soon as she shut the 440 off, Kroger is the parent company of the store she works for, so she couldn't wait to see how they differed. While Boone and Dale gave both cars a cursory once-over, I called the Motel I had paid for in Waxahachie. I learned on the last Drag Week, that most of them won't give you your room if you don't register before a certain time, or at least call and make arrangments, so I wasn't going to take a chance! A man with a pronounced Asian accent answered the phone, took all my info, and was so helpful, and efficient I was shocked, almost made me worry if he wrote anything down or just wanted to end the phone call!
We rolled into the parking lot, and saw the tower on the other end, the 2 buicks and Impala were just leaving. We pulled up to that end and staged the cars for our pictures. In the sample pic on our sheet, the girl was leaning against the fender like a model, so Rachael decided to jump up on the front fender, and lay out so Dale could get her picture, this was met with rousing cheers and whistling by the 15 or 20 college guys who were standing around, drinking in the parking lot, and watching all the cars come in! She seemed to really be enjoying herself, I was just happy to make one more hurdle on what was turning into a VERY long day!
