And the rain did come. Just a few drops at first, on my arms then visible in dark round blotches on the playa floor. It seemed harmless at first. We barely altered our gait. We were only a few blocks on the grid from camp, in any case.
We were naive. My inaugural (over three visits) experience with rain at Burning Man quickly taught us both a hard lesson. Get off the playa quickly when it starts coming down. The dust is insta-mix lake floor mud, from the end of the last Ice Age. Just add water---a little bit of it---and you get sludgy slime that sticks to bottom of your shoes. Back at camp, Ash was doing "moon boots" outside his tent, from just the light sprinkling we had gotten by then. I had not even had a chance to swap to my "playa shoes" that morning, and the ones I had been wearing were now slathered in tan goo.
Thankfully things dry out quickly as well. In mid morning, amid the restructuring of the Camp Eurotrash layout, it was decided that Scottish Tommy (who had come by ultralight) should take his airplane trailer out to the Black Rock City Airport, where his plane was (his trailer had been towed by Kevin). He asked me if he could borrow my truck to do it. It had a tow hitch on it, of course, so I happily said yes and gave him the keys.
Red and I stayed behind in the tent, which was the only thing I had gotten a chance to set up. Tommy left with Kevin with the truck and trailer, and then a little after that, when they were still out at the Airport, the heaves opened up and it really started to pour.
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