This is a partial post I wrote, but never published.
My Burning Man adventure began well before leaving for the Playa. Per usual, there was the drama of who would make it out there and who would not. With many changes to the lineup of attendees, I reserved myself to focusing on getting ready and packing, regardless of who would be making it up to the Northern desert of Nevada. So, the preperations began. We rented a large 14′ moving truck, agreed to share that space with some nice folks from Long Beach and arranged to pick up their stuff before leaving. Tuesday morning, Amanda and I picked up the truck (with Asha’s kind help) and headed to the LBC. We gathered a crapload of stuff and headed back to Pasadena. After a long and tiring packing job, we were all ready to go! I said goodbye to my new love and my Mom and we were off! Loaded down and tired, we started our journey to Davis, CA.
Nine hours later, we arrived in Davis and were greeted with a warm welcome from Michael. He graciously allowed Amanda and I to take a break at his place. We chatted for a while and then had a nice hour nap. We awoke and headed out once again. This stop-off allowed us to rest our tired asses and also made for a nice halfway-point in the trip to Reno and eventually on to Black Rock.
A short drive later, we arrived in Reno, Nevada. Still early morning, we stopped at Denny’s and had a rather disgusting breakfast. Next, we headed over to Big K to gather our water and extra supplies. Loading the water into the truck reminded us of how tired and spent we really were. With the sun up now, we began our last journey out the Playa. Still unsure if I would be able to get into the event, I was tired and nervous. The drive out there was really quick, though. Seeing as we were almost a week early for the event, the 447 was virtually empty.
We made our final stop in Gerlach, NV for gas. With a full tank and now ridiculously excited and awake, we headed down 447 for the final 10 miles before Black Rock City. When we arrived, we parked, got Amanda’s ticket from Will Call and found a gate shift-lead. We told them who we were and Pearl (gate-god) approved us for entry.
Once inside the city, we headed to our desired destination (6:30 & Amnesia), only to discover that this year they weren’t allowing early entries to pick their own camping spots. After some stupid negotiating, we decided upon 6:45 & Catharsis as our final resting place. We rested a while and then began setting up our home for the next 2 weeks.
Being there that early was fantastic! The city was so empty that you could see all of the major areas of the city right from camp. Those first few days were hot and the nights were remarkably warm. Tuesday night, we relaxed and had some much-needed sleep. Wednesday brought with it the yearly challenge of keeping yourself hydrated. We relaxed quite a bit, but also erected enough of the camp that we were nice and comfortable. That night, we headed to the gate for our very first shift. We got our laminates and to Amanda’s dismay we discovered that my laminate gave me full access to the Commissary and her’s did not. Well, with not much happening at the gate and a full crew of people there to help, Pearl asked Amanda and I to walk the gate road and tighten all the colored flags that designated the edges of the road. We did this and then hitched a ride to the commissary for dinner.
We were both tired and still a bit dehydrated, so we went to bed. Next day we relaxed during the day a lot and prepared ourselves for our shift that night. Again, we found that these early shifts were the easiest, as there were hardly and people coming through the gate. I got pretty drunk that night and had a fantastic time with the gate crew. These early days were all pretty much the same, relax during the heat of the day and work all night. Saturday was the day we were waiting for with great anticipation, as that was the day the rest of our camp was to arrive.
Saturday morning, Amanda and I sat in camp, watching the gate road. We were excited as hell to have our friends join us in our desolate desert adventure. Considering there was even more drama regarding who would be coming and not coming, we were anxious to get them there and start the party. Just when we were about to give up watching the road, the two cars turned onto 6:30 and we both leapt to our feet, got on our bikes and road out to meet them. We brought them into camp and both Asha and Chris threw themselves on the playa and rolled around with glee.
The event had officially began for us, at this point. Everything previous was just an effort to spend as much time on the playa as possible and make sure our camp was set-up.
