Burning Man 2009 Part 1

Don’t ask me how many parts there will be. This is just going to be my best attempt to log what happened in whatever chronological matter my mind assigns events.

Friday, August 28th I worked a normal full day and made sure this year I remembered to change my voicemail message and set my email out of office assistant. I drove home to Santa Cruz and I finished packing. I had already been packing all week, so this was the last minute packing, the things I had to continue to use and then also take to Burning Man.

Saturday I finished remaining packing and took care of my last minute purchases including my bed for the week. This was my first year not in an RV/trailer and not on a real mattress. I was feeling inclined towards an air mattress, but what if it failed during the week? In the end I went back and forth between Target and Big 5. Big 5 was having a sale and I got a cot for $30. At least I knew the cot wouldn’t deflate and leave me on the ground. Then I waited for Tk to arrive from San Luis Obispo. Once Tk got to town it was time to deal with the remaining orders of business to be ready to head out. We went grocery shopping, after comparing grocery lists of food we already had. We returned the food home and went out for dinner, which was sushi and was delicious. On the way home we stopped at Home Depot and picked up 2 pieces of plywood to protect the hexayurt on our journey to the playa.

Once we got to my place we immediately began loading my car. This has pretty much gone according to plan thus far. A month earlier, when we got placement, I came up with the idea for Tk and I to be the early arrivals for camp. I was all over the eplaya, just about anything on the internet, to get my Burning Man “fix.” So I was aware that due to the decreased city size, 130 theme camps did not get placed. Areas usually reserved for theme camps until Wednesday were only reserved until the gates opened to the public. The land grab that occurs at 12:01 am Monday when the gates open would be far worse than usual. And so far no one in our camp could for sure be there before Monday. So emails were sent, I convinced Tk that we could do this, she agreed, we talked to camp mates, namely one Rockstar Librarian, and Tk and I became the early arrivals for camp. So we packed the car on Friday, leaving out only the food and the bikes. The most difficult part was the hexayurt. We couldn’t lift the plywood and the yurt as one package above our heads, it was too heavy. So we put on the roof of my car in sections, plywood, then the yurt, final piece of plywood and then tied it all down. By this point in time I believe it was around 11pm, and we stayed up for some time talking. Then we slept, because I knew I wouldn’t sleep much and would get Tk up at the crack of dawn.

Sunday I was awake by 7am. Tk and I packed the food in the cooler and in bags if it didn’t need to be cooled and into the car. Last we packed on the bikes. In the end the car looked like this:

There’s not much room left and we still need to stop for several gallons of water in Reno. Then we went to Samba Rock Acai Cafe for an acai bowl. I seriously love that place, they serve some yummy deliciousness. We made one last stop for ice for the cooler and then we were on our way to the playa. We noticed a weird noise in the Santa Cruz mountains that we resolved by stopping and buying more bungees to secure the front of the plywood/hexayurt sandwich shut. And then the trip was really smooth. We didn’t have to stop for gas as often as I was used to after several years of towing and an RV trip. Tk and I kept talking to each other about how we weren’t having any problems and how easy this trip had been compared to previous trips to the playa. Our drive up the 50 to avoid the I-80 construction was smooth and beautiful. There was little traffic and we had lovely views of Lake Tahoe coming out of the mountains.

We became worried we wouldn’t make it in time to be placed – we had to be on the playa by 8:30pm and it was getting to be close. We planned to make our Reno stop as short as possible, figuring out the exit we needed to take in Reno, I would drop Tk off in front of the store, she would run in and buy the water while I parked and removed the bikes from the back of the car and figured out where to fit the water. I think we managed to finish that water stop in 15 minutes, it was pretty amazing and coordinated team work. We got gas and were zooming to the playa. We made one more gas stop before the playa, and then we knew we had made our Reno stop so short that we would make it to the playa on time.

Once we got to Gerlach we could see vehicles lining up everywhere preparing for the land grab. We were just so excited – almost there, in time to be placed and of course ALMOST THERE! And then we had reached our destination – the entrance to the playa.

Oddly enough, the art car in front of me was one of only 2 that I rode on all week. Many of these vehicles are also lining up for the land grab.  The deeper we got on the playa the windier and dustier it became. I opened my doors to the dust so the ticket checkers at the gate could shove their arms into my packed vehicle to see if there were any hidden pockets where people might be. Then we were sent on our ways to the greeters. At the greeters station we got our packets and hugs. And I got a back massage! The greeters laughed at our camp’s concept and name and they called over someone with the placers to get us marked down as having shown up. He radioed our placer, laughed about our camp and stated that they were wondering if we were going to show. We were to drive in and meet our placer at Genome and the 4:30 plaza.

Eventually he pulls up in a golf cart and takes us to our location on Biology past the Mistikal Misfits and Animal Control. I park on the side of the space we’ve been allotted. Tk and I know we won’t be getting camp setup tonight. We’ve already discussed this exact situation – arriving with little daylight, in wind and dust. We take a trip to the nearest portos and get our first glimpse of the neighborhood. We determine what can be removed from the back of my car, to give ourselves a small place to shelter and maybe sleep some for the night. It was a small cramped space, but it was better than sitting in the front seats. We watched as people went out for the night, amazed at how much of the city was already built. And then we slept for a short time.