Kevin at Speed Obsessed caught this shot just as we were pulling into the checkpoint.




After we left the checkpoint, the route instructions took us onto a bunch of little side streets, residential areas, small towns, and country roads, most of them with 30 to 50 mph speed limits. It also started raining a little bit, but we were following a rain system, and mostly staying just behind it. With the lower speed limits, the Coupe drove OK on the wet roads, I just had to dodge puddles. As we were cruising this lakeside road at about 45, suddenly I saw a rainbow, right on the edge of the road. No way will I drive past a rainbow without a picture! And right there was a little gravel pullout, so I hit the brakes hard and got the car off to the side of the road.



A few Drag Week cars passed us by, then we got back on the road. Only about 50 feet down the road was a low area, with about of 6" water flowing over the road. I carefully drove thru it at about 5 mph.




After a while, it dawned on me that if I hadn't stopped for the rainbow, I probably would have hit that deep water at about 35 mph, and ended up hydroplaning into the guardrail. Personally, I think someone put that rainbow there for a reason!

The gas gauge in the Hemi Coupe was not working for some reason, and I had no idea what fuel mileage I would be getting, so we stopped for gas 90 miles after the last fill. It only took 7.2 gallons in the 17 gallon tank, that made me happy.



Remember that measuring cup that we used for the Klotz octane booster? Well the inside of it melted, and the paper towel remains were all disoved into the plastic! Jeff tried to clean it out, but ended up throwing it away. That Klotz is some potent stuff.