On the positive side, day three was the shortest of all the legs. However, Russian rap returned during that morning, and even scarier was that I caught myself humming along. 

Getting out of Dallas at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday should've been an easy drive. Little did we know th­at we were smack dab in the middle of traffic for one of the biggest football games of the year: Texas Longhorns vs. Oklahoma Sooners. This also explains why people and their trucks were decked in orange and flashing hand gestures (hook 'em horns) at us.
 
After the traffic jam, we engaged the cruise control and headed toward our lunch stop, Wichita Falls, Texas. Like my initial reaction to MMI, I began the trip at odds with Audi's adaptive cruise control system. The driver sets it much like a traditional cruise control system, but it gauges the distance of the vehicle in front and adjusts the car's speed when that distance changes. If traffic stops suddenly and you don't react in what the car deems to be a reasonable time, a warning tone is sounded. Though you can easily change your speed and select your following distance, even the closest setting is more than two car lengths. I found myself shutting the system off when a driver was hogging the left lane and I wanted to pass. By day three, however, I learned to anticipate traffic a bit better and got used to the adaptive cruise control. 

The fuel economy competition started to heat up during day three as journalists pulled out all the stops to get ahead. Drivers resorted to outrageous tactics like taping the panel gaps along the car's bodylines to make it more aerodynamic. Others went so far as to skip bathroom stops and keep the windows up and the A/C off. This may be OK in Illinois and Missouri, but temperatures in Dallas reached into the 80s. My partner and I agreed to drive the Q7 TDI as we would any other vehicle in order to get a sense of its real-world fuel economy....and we both enjoyed bathroom stops and comfortable cabin temperatures.

Our lack of creative fuel economy strategies began to show by the end of day three, as our averaged slipped to 26.0 mpg. We weren't the only ones affected by the change in terrain and temperature, however. Day three's winners averaged 29.1 mpg, down over one mile per gallon from the previous day.  

Later that night, everyone was treated to some panhandle-style nightlife at the Cowboy Church's Arena of Life rodeo. The show consisted of cowboys attempting to hang on to a bucking bull for at least eight seconds, cattle wranglers, and bronco riders. Audi had a way of putting its spin on the night's event, too. Clad in traditional lederhosen, the Germans were almost as interesting to watch at the rodeo as the rodeo.