Ready or not...stage 2 begins today

Even though Thomas and Oscar did a great job driving, we didn't manage to beat Google's estimated time of 11.5 hours (even though we did technically gain an hour when we moved time zones). Our travel time included the 3 gas stops and food stop we made, along with the countless toll stops, so our actual travel time was less than 11 hours for the 700 something miles.

We arrived around 6 pm to our new temporary home in the Chicago area, where Joey was waiting for us. He had the luxury of a relatively short plane ride from Atlanta, as he was returning from his college orientation (he flew home from Boston last week after we finished Fitchburg). We actually have two host homes, Jafer and Joey are together and Thomas and Oscar are a few blocks down the road in another host home. We would like to thank them for their generosity and hospitality! After becoming acquainted with the hosts, we headed out and rode to stage 1 in Beverly Hills, where we watched a few laps. Then we headed on to scoop out today's race course in Blue Island, a very flat and open course. We expect a constant speed in the 30s for the course, as the corners are very open and shouldn't cause a bunch-up.

After the ride we headed out to a great Italian restaurant with Jafer and Joey's host family. Thomas even challenged our host's son to an eat off but was out gunned and resorted to a to go box. Once dinner was over we headed to the grocery store so we can prepare the rest of our meals. We got the essentials like last time nothing that special. Luckily, there is an Xbox 360 in the basement where Jafer and Joey are staying to keep them entertained all night long, as they take turns playing Grand Theft Auto 4.