Day 9: A Good Solid Day

It was another hot day down here in the American South. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday, but not cool by any means. We were really feeling the heat at our lunch stop today. Stepping out of the car onto the sun baked pavement we were hit with a wave of hot air. A couple of stops in the air conditioning, and some long, higher speed roads down shady paths helped keep us going.

Those long stretches were a bit of a mixed blessing. The directions were pretty simple, the roads were nicely shaded, and they were occasionally quite beautiful. But on the other hand, they were monotonous. One stretch in particular, down the Natchez Trace Parkway really got tiresome. It felt like the longest stretch of road we had been on. Hardly any signs, hardly any speed changes, and the scenery looked virtually the same the entire way. Later in the day, we ended up on some other wooded back roads. They were far prettier with leafy overhanging branches.

At the end of the day, we finished plenty strong. We managed to avoid the majority of obstacles, including a train that delayed a number of team several minutes, and made up any time lost quickly and effectively. Our finishing score was 31.79. And while that score is a little higher than yesterday, today’s run consisted of more timed legs. We still have yet to score an “ace” (and subsequently get Tony a haircut), and we’re starting to feel a little pressure there. But we do have some good news. Today, our solid score brought us back to first place in X-Cup! We’re also currently 41st overall. So with that, we hope to at least keep making some small gains and keep our class lead, and maybe we might even pull off an “ace.”