Burning Man 2014: We Get the Truck Back

And rain it did. The sky grew dark in the middle of the day. It became a torrent on the top of the tent. One would have thought the entire annual rainfall was happening over the course of an hour. It was excellent for sleeping, after a long night. It was certainly cool. But whenever I woke up I would think of the truck, certainly now trapped out wherever it was, in the impassable mud.

When the rain stopped, and the clouds started to fracture enough to let in a bit of light, the playa started drying up quickly enough to allow a bit of walking, albeit with mud. But all our food and water, and our changes of clothes, etc., were out in Black Rock City somewhere. I couldn't help but laugh at myself, and the irony, that after a year's planning, and all the effort, I had wound up with only a tent and an air mattress, the same as last year.

Kevin came back at some point, and said that Tommy was still out at the Airport with the truck. All internal traffic was shut down by order of the DPW.  The Gate was shut down as well, meaning that thousands of folks were trapped out on the entrance road waiting to allowed into the City. I was thankful that my problems seemed small.

By mid afternoon the sun gradually started to dominate the sky again. The playa was now a series of big mushy puddles, but solid ground was reemerging. The downside was that it was getting hot. Red was sitting in her sandals on the air mattress, her feet just inside the tent. Not comfortable, especially on one's first day ever at Burning Man, but she was a trooper about it in the best way.

When another hour went by, without Tommy showing up, I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. Okki lent me his bicycle (since ours were still in the truck), and I started piloting my way towards the 5:00 road, which is the access road to the Black Rock City Airport.

Hardly anyone was moving. Moreover the outer edge of the city was denuded of population as of yet, even on Monday afternoon, since so many folk were stuck at the Gate entrance. The state troopers had been turning people back at Reno and Wadsworth.

Despite being careful, I managed to get plenty of mud on Okki's tires while riding his bike to the airport. I easily found the truck, which was still connected to Tommy's trailer, and parked smack at the gate entrance to the airfield---probably the worst possible place for it to be.

Tommy was nowhere to be seen, neither in the truck, nor the open air tents of the camp around the airport, as well as the giant tent for the waiting lounge.

There was nothing to be done in the meantime. The truck was going nowhere. So I opened up the back of the truck (I had left it completely unlocked), and finding all things in order, I set up the new outdoor folding chair I had bought at Costco and sat down in it inside the truck, looking out over the camp around the airport.

An accidental situation, to be sure. But these kinds of twists and turns, and the exploration of them, I come to realize, are the very reason that I enjoy the whole thing so much.