Day 60

29. June 2000, Jamestown to Duluth

A very long day. We drive from North Dakota to Minnesota where we end up in Duluth on Lake Superior, the biggest of the Great Lakes. The Great Plains farmland is now gradually changing and there are more forests instead of grassland. In Minnesota there are also a lot of beautiful lakes, some of them surrounded by houses. The population density seems to increase and we have more traffic, but we mostly avoid it by driving over back-streets.
The people who greet us on the streets are often car enthusiasts who knew about our event in advance, but there are also a lot of Americans who start talking to us spontaneously. All of them are amazed at the idea of driving around the world, they are all very friendly and wish us best luck.
Concerning the sports-side, we are taking it more slow now and driving very safe. Add a bit of confusion about navigation on today's test section and we ended up with ten minutes penalty. The faster cars managed six minutes, but we only lose two minutes to the car behind us. With a fifty-minute gap between us and the Aston Martin behind us and only three test sections left, there is no possibility for them to catch up based on faster test section results. After the longest drive on our rally so far and six days of long driving, all of us deserve a rest day and we are looking forward to our day off in Duluth.

TC 224: Jamestown OUT
7:
17  
PC Fort Ransom
   
TC 225: Detroit Lakes IN
12:
07 340.33 km
TC 226: Detroit Lakes OUT
12:
53  
TC 227: White Earth Forest IN
14:
08 86.68 km
TC 228: White Earth Forest OUT
14:
09  
TC 229: Lake Itasca IN
15:
17 (ten minute penalty) 77.67 km
TC 230: Lake Itasca OUT
15:
17  
TC 231: Duluth IN
20:
47 376.46 km

Overall 1 hour 47 minutes penalty

The official results can be looked up on this website

Still cattle-land but there is more and more forest.

Crop treatment by airplane

Another lake at Detroit Lakes. Rally participants take a lunch break.

White Earth Forest: today's test section is part of the national American rally championships: ProRally

Car enthusiasts welcome and photograph us on the way to Duluth.

Brothers Jean and Paul from Luxembourg with their silver Porsche.

 

Historic fort in Abercrombie, North Dakota.

Minnesota's motto on license plates: Explore Minnesota - 10,000 lakes. This particular lake is explored by geese.

Time-check at Detroit Lakes. In the red shirt on the left: Matt, our rally doctor and part-time rally official. In the red shirt on the right: Dave, our "clerk of course", who has done a lot of navigation in World Championship rallies.

Wild river shortly before Duluth

Our first glimpse of Duluth and the Lake Superior.