Out of the bubble......... One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.-- Henry Miller

My last entry seems years ago and yet, it was only a couple of weeks...

Our pedal strokes lead us through Phoenix where we were taken in by a sweet couple and we felt so much at home, that we spend another day/night with them before continuing to more remote places north/east into the mountains. 

Time to be surrounded by nature, part of which was rain and wind on the Apache Trail riding to and in the Tonto National Forest towards Canyon lake,

camping at Tortilla Flat, a pleasant campground, flat areas to put up the tent, picnic tables...toilets. We made our dinner and prepared for rain in the night which started right after we put all our dinner stuff away, covered some of our belongings on the bike and settled into our cozy tent. Raindrops falling on the tent the rhythm to enter our dreams. No clue how long we slept, I am never really that interested in time when I wake up at night and when I woke up, it was because my hand reached over head into a puddle INSIDE the tent. I sat up in a panic, picked up my iPad....water gushing out like a water fall. My camera, my phone, my fanny pack with my two fancy passports, my clothes, my pillow, my sheet, my thermal rest, my down sleeping bag.....everything was swimming in three inches of water. Waking up James, I jumped out of the tent into the rain only to discover that we had set up the tent in a not -so- flat part of the camp ground. Basically the size of our tent (Sure wasn’t apparent in daylight).  It had rained for hours....no indication it would stop either.....Not sure what to do, I went back in the tent, hoping it would be daytime soon and we can evaluate the damage. Sitting/lying there waiting is not easy, not knowing the time, not knowing how deep it’ll get. James and I finally decided to get out and drag the tent with all our contents (hoping not to damage our shelter any further) to higher grounds which required taking the stakes of the tent (all 5 of them) out and pounding them back in after the dragging action, in the dark, in the rain. It went better than we thought - James naked, me in my pjs -. 

We dragged it one tent length and the water drained out, leaving us soaked, my head spinning: what electrical devices are probably done for, where can we dry off, when is the rain gonna stop....and so on....

(The blue lines mark where we dragged our tent out of the puddle in the middle of the night)

 

Somehow we managed to stay warm and somehow we managed to sleep for a few hours.

The next morning granted us with enough “no rain” that we were able to wring out most of our clothes, cooked and ate breakfast and loaded up our bikes, which were now twice as heavy (just picture the down sleeping bag). All my electrical devices seemed to have survived the flood, except for my iPad.

Loaded up wet, ready to go on cycling further into the mountains east towards Austin....but I got a WhatsApp message from my mother in Germany...the only message that came though. A death in the family. I’ve got to find my way back home now asap.