After about an hour, it had quit raining, and we hit the road again, Wouldn't you know, we got about 3 miles, and everything was bone dry! I hadn't even rained there, the radar was right.

The rest of the drive to checkpoint #1 was uneventful, with dry roads and not too much traffic. We got onto a 4 lane divided highway, and I was driving about 75-80 mph to make up time. The Hemi did not like to cruise at less than 2200 RPM, which meant I couldn't shift into 6th until 70 mph.
At 4:00 pm, we pulled into the checkpoint, an idyllic lakeside park, complete with campers, fishing, and people having picnics. I couldn't help but wonder how they all felt about having their tranquility shattered by a constant stream of thundering, ground pounding, race gas exhausting, drag cars!