Day 6, Stage 6
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Hotel: Holiday Inn
Weather: Sunny, mid 80s, perfect rally weather except for some strong winds.

Today the Great Race moved into the breadbasket of the Midwest as we began touring the vast farmlands of corn, soybeans and other crops. One advantage of traveling in these older cars that have no tops or with the windows down is that we are treated to the aromas of rural America. On some occasions, however, this is not so pleasant when we are passing cattle feed lots. As we left Gurnee this morning, we took a swing north for a quick visit into Wisconsin and a pit stop in Delavan. This little town really turned out and put on an impressive reception for us. A host family was assigned to each vehicle and we were well cared for by Sue and Richard Verrengia and their daughter, Michelle. We took our lunch break in Rockford, Illinois and our afternoon pit stop in Savannah, Illinois before finally moving on to the finish line at the Mississippi Valley Fair Grounds in Davenport, Iowa.

Today, the driver, navigator and vehicle all had miscues but we combined to overcome them and post our best score of 20 seconds. This was 5th best in Sportsman Division today, the 17th best score of the day and moved us up to 41st place in overall standings. We had scores of 4, 3, 2, 4, and 7 seconds on the 5 legs today.

The day began badly with the very first instruction after getting on course. The navigator told the driver to make a turn to the right when the instructions clearly showed the turn to the left. (The navigator now has a large "R" printed on her right hand and a large "L" printed on her left hand to help prevent this from recurring.) After a quick reversal of direction we had to race around a couple cars to get back in position and regain the lost time. Later the driver managed to make a speed change at the wrong speed limit sign. The "naviguesser" made her adjustments and, in spite of ourselves, we recovered to post a respectable 4 seconds for the leg. The rest of the day was not quite so exciting but was very, very busy with many instructions coming very quickly.

The score on the last leg was due in part to problems with the car. It began missing again rather badly and the misfires affected the electronic speedometer causing some wild needle gyrations. Many of the instructions on this leg specified a speed of 48 mph. Unfortunately, that precise speed seems to be the one most affected by the perturbations. It is pretty challenging to hold a precise speed when the speedometer rezeros itself about every 5 seconds. We thought the speedometer problems might be due to a damaged sensor so I replaced the sensor and cable with another (borrowed) one. That did not solve the problem. A mechanic friend helped me tonight and we have concluded that some of the spark plug wires are shorting out and need to be replaced. Unfortunately, there are no auto parts stores open after midnight so I will try to get the wires in the morning and hopefully get them replaced in time to make our start time. We are number 80 in sequence tomorrow so that is in our favor.

Another quick news item: Our son Darin works for Focus on the Family and he has been asked to drive the Focus car from Grand Island, Nebraska to Westminster, Colorado. So he will be meeting us in Grand Island on Saturday to take over driver duties on Sunday.