September 2010
So I guess I have to report something about Burning Man here.  Me on the train to Burning Man.  Burning Man officially opened Monday morning, August 30th. It is widely known if you go the first day, you will be sitting in six to twelve hours of bumper to bumper traffic, inching your way up the two-lane highway, into the Black Rock Desert. Big decision: sit in traffic in the desert, or spend the day in Reno? Duh. So here I am at a park in Reno on Monday. Note I am not sitting in traffic.  Overnighting in the van in the Reno Walmart parking lot.  I arrived at the Burning Man entrance at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, spending only twenty minutes in line. After your car is searched for live plants and feathers, you are sent several more miles to the actual gates of Black Rock City. This is where they take your ticket, and make all the virgins get out of their cars, make "snow angels" in the sand, beat a loud bell with a stick, and yell, "I'm home!" towards Black Rock City. They must have had pity on me for traveling alone, knowing nobody, meeting nobody, and giving them no real reason for being there; I didn't have to make the snow angel. I did beat the bell with the stick, however. When they told me to yell as loud as I could, I told them I was physically incapable of raising my voice, so I waved instead. I'm not sure whether I can raise my voice or not; I haven't yelled in years. It's something I simply can't do. But if there were somebody playing on busy railroad tracks, maybe I could figure out a way. This is a typical view of a typical day at Burning Man.  The temple.  Interesting sights in the middle of the desert.  My rented bike, decorated with lights and Indian girl. Somewhere in the hustle and bustle, she lost a shoe. Not a big deal unless all you own are two shoes.  They say the weather this year was the best ever, and I believe them. The whole time I was there it never got over 85! I was planning for 107, and I was pleasantly surprised...waking up every morning in the comfortably cool rental van in the desert...maybe 50-degree mornings. I never even got to use my goggles or dust mask! Sure, I could have just wandered around looking bizarre, but eventually I would ask myself, "why am I wearing these goggles? It just makes it more difficult to see!" And that seems stupid to me. I guess my overall impression of Burning Man was this: too many frat-boy-types and ex-cheerleaders "woot-wooting" about everything and basically just there because it was another chance to drink beer! Woo-hoo! Really? And it didn't seem like a festival of personal freedom and self-expression as much as a festival of contrived bizarre outfits. Yawn. Spend a year in an apartment on Hollywood Boulevard - I'll show you self-expression. So yeah, it was interesting, but not important. The ways people came up with to decorate their bikes or transform a golf cart were the most interesting things. After Tuesday and Wednesday, I really felt I had seen enough of it...why is it I can't stay in one place very long? I hung around Thursday for good measure, but in the end it started feeling like I was just staying there because I didn't want to disappoint anyone else. And that is a ridiculous approach to life. So I high-tailed it out of there late Thursday night, and spent Friday and Saturday just hanging out in a cheap Reno hotel. The two greatest things about getting away (for ME, anyway) are 1) car camping or 2) hotel living. Throw in 3) sleeper-car train rides, and you can see I had one of the best getaways in my life. I might just do the same thing again next year, planning for the shortened stay at Burning Man. Hey, it's a destination. Maybe I'll include stops in Denver and Tahoe next time. Me on the train home from Burning Man...cool, huh?  October 2010 Bunkbeds Installed $20/Day How The Floor Went Down My First Tattoo |