Internet & Updates, as Promised!

My thanks to everyone for your patience during our hectic day. Our fearless leader, Josh, returned from welcoming his new daughter into the world just in time to give the Stage 2 briefing and see the racers off on the last half of the Atomic. A couple of hours later, we were able to set up shop and relocate to a more PC card-friendly location in order to provide our loyal fans with all of the news and updates which we were unable to give them while in the Dawson Forest dead zone.

Just a few of the day's events:
- The Etowah was pretty rough today - one team was heard to say that it was great for the first half, but the last was no fun at all and needed "less rock and more roll."
- 4 out of 7 teams who attempted running the tunnel on the Etowah flipped. One team was stuck for an hour in the tunnel since self-rescue was required while in the tunnel for safety purposes of other racers and the safety crew. Shortly after, the tunnel was closed for following racers due to safety concerns.
- The Arizona Brothers' canoe became trapped upstream, forcing them to grab a ride into Dawson Forest. Because of this, they became a non-qualified team and possibly chose to withdraw.
- Zombies Were People Too withdrew and one of the team members joined forces with 2 Old Guys in order to complete the course.
- Stage 1 was followed by heavy rains for some, while others were caught on the water or on the road when the storms broke. One after another, the trailing teams straggled in and took shelter beneath the meager tents, warming themselves up by the Ramen noodle pot. Even though we tried to keep the gear bags dry, the tent was no match for the water flooding the ground, and much of the teams' delivered gear for the stage break became soaked.
- Due to the heavy rains, the blue trail for Stage 2 was closed and teams were informed of the course divertation at the Stage 2 briefing in order to make sure no one would take the intended stream crossing which was doubtless to be a dangerous, raging river at that point.

Currently, teams are travelling through the night - the top teams will soon be reaching the ropes course, while the trailing teams won't reach it until later in the morning.

Stay tuned for more updates. We will soon be relocating media HQ from our cush location in the Dawsonville Walmart parking lot in order to greet the leading teams as they near the finish. Hopefully, there will be internet service to my PC card by the falls, but it was spotty this morning so I will do my best to provide what updates I can. I the meantime, keep an eye on ScribbleLive chat for any updates we send out via cellphone.