Day 2!

I had the Grand Slam at Denny's this morning: pretty good, but their pancakes need work. I did like the two sausage links I had, they were like mini-kielbasas. Doug had the Grand Slam as well, and was quite pleased that grape jelly was available.

Team Mitsubishi says: "We love Denny's so much, we park there at night!"



Since the ice-slalom was cancelled, Jerry added another TSD to the days events. This one was entitled, "11% Grade" and was pretty hairy at times, lots of switch backs and required average speeds that were virtually unachievable. The TSD started in the parking lot of a local elementary school. The kids all came out to look at the rally cars.



We picked up 47 points over 7 controls. Car #10 (McMillen/Crippen) were the best on this one with 10 points. At least 4 cars took the 200 point max for the leg.

We headed back to Quesnel, stopped by the Tim Horton's for some Timbits, and, with just a little looking, found the start of the Black water TSD. Again, this route had lots of snow, hell, it was completely covered with snow! As it turns out, there were only two controls on the TSD, who awarded us a total of 11 points. At least 7 teams earned 0 or 1, while we were one of 6 teams to score double digits.

The end of this TSD left us on Blackwater road, and was the high point of the adventure so far! The road was close to 100 miles long, covered with snow and traversing some of the prettiest country I've ever seen. I mean covered: we didn't see gravel, (except crossroads,) or pavement for almost 100 miles. The truck worked like a dream, and had no problem keeping up with the BMWs and Subarus.

Here we are as part of a train of sportscars. We have both the TomTom and the Garmin GPSs going, and Doug's laptop with the TSD data on our RAM Mount.



We were even able to help a fellow in a Subaru un-stuff himself after he cooked it into a 90 degree left a little fast.



We followed the number 20 car of Marinus and Renee Damm for quite a while. The Damms have some friends with a restaurant in Burns Lake, and provided a late lunch for the entire rally! That's a class act that will be tough to follow.



We were almost late to the final TSD of the day, Fraser Lake, arriving at the start just two minutes before our scheduled out time. Doug did a great job keeping on pace, and we only really flubbed on of the 5 controls, picking up 31 more points for the TSD.

Our Day Two total was 89 points. The most recent scores, (which are not yet on the official Alcan site as of 2310 on 2/18,) have us in 9th overall with a score of 115, two points back from Car #14, Hansen/Perret. From there though, it is almost a 50 point jump to the next competitor.



Doug is asleep, and I will be soon. We're out of here, (The Robber's Roost in New Hazelton,) at 0630 tomorrow. The plan is to make the Dease Lake TSD by 1330. It is 330 mile from here, north up the Cassiar Highway, which is only paved for the first 100 miles or so. We'll need to average 47 mph to make it on time. Stevan and Kristin would like to visit Bear Glacier, which will tack on another 32 miles, plus whatever time spent there. We'll have to see how thing are going before we know if that is viable or not.

The Dease Lake TSD is short, only 10 miles. That's good, because then we go to Whitehorse, which is 400 miles from Dease Lake.

I think Doug has a bit he'll post up tomorrow morning early. Be sure to check out the other teams sites in our links, there is some good stuff out there!

-Bill