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Weather Takes a Turn for the Worse

Susan McKenzie / 04.10.2005

The rain began sometime after midnight, a torrent that sounded like bullets as it hit the roof of the car, prompting a mad panic to get shoes and gear into the car. The downpour continued all night, and this morning the transition area at Charrua Gas Station is a mass of puddles and mud.

“It was definitely coming in sideways,� says photographer Tony DiZinno, who slept under a bright orange and utterly drenched tarp on the grass with Snow White (and the Seven Dwarfs.) “I had a bit of a tidal wave under the tarp.� (More than a few people went over in the night to check on him, convinced there was a dead body, and not a live photographer, under the orange tarp.)

The gas pumps are closed at the Charrua Gas Station this morning, and the entire asphalted area under the carport is awash with wet gear, wet food and very wet racers.

“As soon as it started to rain, we went for shelter,� says Subaru’s Walter Brumniach. “It didn’t rain so long out on the trail, maybe half an hour, then we were able to go back out.�

It was a longer than expected night for Subaru.

“Yeah, we got twisted around a lot on the trail with the horses,� Brumniach laughs. “We just couldn’t make up our minds, couldn’t make a decision which way to go.�

“Hard candy or cookies?� asks Maria, who is doing support for Subaru.

“Hard candy,� he replies. “Hard candy for a hard day.�

It will definitely be a hard day. And a wet day. The rain has not let up, and the sky is that gun metal gray that suggest a steady rainfall.

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