Day 29 and 30 would be days of resting. Probably not too much excitement, or so I thought...
On day 29 I woke up in my tent as I heard rain drops falling down and hitting the tents canvas. I got up and unzipped my tent flap to look outside. It was really overcast and gloomy. It was about 10am. Since I wasn't walking today I decided I would try and sleep longer to rest. I fell back asleep hearing the rain drops.
I woke up off and on for the next couple hours to the rain. At some points it would get so hard it would wake me up from a dream. Eventually I got up and decided to climb out and peek around. I wanted to stay out of sight so I didn't get kicked out of there, so I had to be careful.
I got out and looked around peeking from behind the corral. I didn't see anyone parked at the church and my electronics were dead so I decided to go get a charge from an outlet at the church. I walked up and sat under an overhang in the front of the church and plugged in.
I went on twitter and found out that Junior Saeu (a retired pro bowl football player) had committed suicide on the morning of this day and it was just released. I was in shock. He was one of my favorites as a kid watching him in college and in the NFL. Also when I lived in San Diego I saw him once and he looked like such a happy guy. It was very sad that someone with such a good life and who had so much couldn't find a reason to want to stay alive. He texted his family "I love you" before doing it. It was disturbing news and I was reading articles and watching twitter reactions on his death.
I sat there under the over hang for a while and charging my stuff. It began raining a little while later. It was a medium rainfall for about 20 minutes then it began to absolutely pour. It was pouring rain for about 10 minutes when I thought I better get back to my tent to make sure my stuff is staying dry. I had already thrown a garbage bag over my cart to cover it, but worried about my tent. I thought as soon as the hard down pour stopped I would run back. It was about 80 yards or so of open space I would have to run through and I couldn't afford to get my clothes wet.
So I waited. I sat there 30 minutes and it didn't let up once! There was lightning and thunder very loud and it was nearby. I really was worried that my tent and stuff inside might be wet. Finally after a half hour it let up a little. I ran back there quickly. I opened my tent and saw puddles on the bottom. My sleeping bag was soaked from soaking up the water. And my clothes were pretty wet from running through the rain to get back to the tent. Not good.
I found that the condensation from the rain was falling through into the tent. I jumped out and threw my tarp over the tent to stop that. I grabbed my shorts from my backpack and wiped all the water I could from inside the tent. My shorts soaked so much that they were soaked. I was worried how I would stay warm that night as all my stuff was wet.
I was stuck and didn't know what to do as nightfall came. It never stopped raining and it turned into a constant down pour! Very hard rain the rest of the day/night. When it got late it started getting cold. I grabbed the edge of my sleeping bag and lifted it a little and it dripped water down. I couldn't use my sleeping bag besides laying on its damp surface on the top side. My legs were getting cold so I sagged my shorts down so that it covered the skin from the top of my socks to my knees.
My jacket was also pretty wet and I usually use that as a pillow. I ended up having to use that over my torso to stop from shivering at night and just didn't have a pillow of any sort. I was laying on a wet surface, with wet shorts and t shirt, wet socks, with a wet jacket over me. It was a very miserable night and it absolutely poured all night and never stopped. The noise alone was hard to sleep with. I tossed and turned all night and didn't sleep well. I was shivering and coughing most of the night and it was the most uncomfortable night hands down. Many times I just felt like yelling and ripping my tent apart.
I got to a point where my head was pounding and I was sitting there very angry and frustrated. I yelled a few times out of frustration just to let something out. I didn't even know what to do and had no ideas. So I just sat there to get through the night hoping for sunlight the next day. The weather online said rain all day tomorrow too, but I hoped that wasn't true.
I slept horrible and it was physically the worse night of my life. I prayed many times to stay calm and get me through the night.
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