Happily Homeless

Day 35 – After we wiped down the dust off the major areas of the inside of our car and the bucket we used was definitely dirty afterwards. We headed to Salt Lake City, UT to try and see how we could help with the hurricane relief efforts and to visit my Uncle Tom and Aunt Paris Bottman. We arrived too late for the last Red Cross meeting they had that night, so we moved on to my Uncle’s and enjoyed the evening with them on their back porch that overlooks a city park and also views their beautifully landscaped backyard.

Paris and Tom, I have to say I still love your house and we appreciate letting us stay two nights in your wonderful hospitality and comfy house.

Day 34 – We decided to leave Black Rock City today, even though there was still one more event to happen, it just felt like it was time for us to go, and I have learned to go with my gut instinct. It was not too bad of a drive out taking in the fact that 10,000 other people were planning on leaving that day also. We reached the first town of the main highway and ate lunch and watched CNN to see the pictures that went with all the news we heard at camp. After the mellowing effect of the news, we moved on to the next town to bath our car clean of the layers of dust and our bikes. Than, cleaned ourselves and let me tell you, it took three shampoos and conditioner sessions to get my hair untangled and dust free. I also came down with a bug that night and had some bad stomach pain and a small fever. I was glad to be in a bed and sleep off the cold or whatever it was.

Day 33 – The night of the burn. We joined Frogma for the night of the burn and ventured out on the playa early to find a good spot so that we could watch the fire dancers and get a good view of the man in all of his splendor. Slowly people started gathering and making a ring around the man. The art cars or mutant vehicles also made an outer ring around the crowd that gathered. The mutant vehicles were cars, vans, or buses that were created into art by decoration, sculpture work, and just pure artistic inventions that could move.

The event was signaled with a single flare shooting up into the air… giving people about 20 minutes warning that they were going to start. It would have been pitch black out on the playa but this city is anything but dark. It looks better than New York City with all the lights that decorate the camps, art cars, and people. Everyone wears neon glowing bracelets and necklaces all over their clothes and bikes so that people can see each other at night as they ride around town.

The fire dancers preformed for a good 30 minutes before the burn, the ones in front of us were not as talented as the Utah group – but they did pull out an unexpected surprise, a fire playing tuba – it was pretty cool. Than, the fire works went off (they were located out of the mans arms and around the base) and gave a brilliant show at the end creating the big fire that burned the man. Everyone was so excited and cheering and jumping around. Except for the protesters that each year carry around signs that say ‘save the man’ 😉 The fire was the brightest white I have ever seen, and once the man fully burned down everyone rushes towards it and runs in a circle around him, along with throwing things into the fire to burn. After the burn we walked around and looked at all the fire sculptures and art that was scattering in the playa, and enjoyed a good night out with Frogma.

Day 32 – Today we met a great guy named Dale and a few of his friends stopped by once in awhile. He was gracious enough to Jason and I to offer to fix Jason’s bike when the pedal fell off while we were riding by his camp. We ended up spending about two hours visiting enjoyed wonderful conversations and his hospitality.

Day 31 – New campers came into town and set up next to us this morning. Nick and Lara were great neighbors and we really enjoyed chatting with them. It is hard to meet someone here that is not nice or not open to saying hi. This community is filled with the most giving and caring people in the world, and yes there are a bunch of people from all around the world that come out for this event of temporary society. Though, most of the people are from California and than a bunch from the Northwest, Utah, Colorado, and Canada to name a few other places. It really shows that even with 37,000 people you can create an open minded gifting economy where everyone is extremely respectful of each other and also looks out for the well being of each other also. It is too bad that we cannot seem to create as nice of a community that gets along in the states with as many people. There are neighborhoods that have great moral and care for each other, but nothing to this scale in the states. I think people are too afraid.

Day 30 – The day was a normal day of drinking water, visiting the port-a-potties, and exploring the city and art work. The night though was one of our best though. A soccer buddy of mine from the women’s team I played on in new york city was camping with a theme camp from Utah. Leigh was the one that gave me an idea of where we should set up camp and possibly run into each other there. The great thing was we ended up camping right next to them, it was great to see her – especially since I didn’t think we really would find each other during the festival. Their theme camp was called Beyond the Zion Curtain and they did a magnificent camp. They had four geodesic domes and a temple (going along with the theme) that surrounded with an open space with benches and a bar area. They had a huge entrance arch with lights decorating it all over and a strobe light. Tonight was their opening night of the camp, they just finished setting it up. They through a huge party which included a fire dancing performance. The camp had around 20 fire dancing members that were going to be dancing on the night of the burn also. They put on a show for us before the party started and were extremely talented and amazing in their performance, it was spectacular to watch.

Day 29 – After yesterday Jason and I didn’t know if we wanted to stick around if the weather continue on like yesterday’s, but we were graced with very pleasant cool wind from the north and no dust in our eyes or nose. We quickly found our daily routine of drinking as much water as we could as we rode our bikes around and than trying to find the closest port-a-potties. I think we visited the lovely port-a-potties more than anything else on the playa. We were drinking 2 ½ gallons of water a day between the two of us and probably could have drank a bit more because my skin was still dry – though it probably was from the playa dust also.

I enjoyed a foot bathing camp were they have tubs set up with brushes to wash off the alkali from the playa dust with water and vinegar, and than some foot balm to help them not crack. After that visit I visited the place a few more times during the week  We also met some bootsnall members – Tiff, Jill, and Ben. It was great to hang out with them and talk about traveling and getting to know them more than just over the computer.

Day 28 – Woke up to a still morning that was chilly accompanied by an outstanding sunrise coming over the mountains, and techno music playing in the background…I have no clue who listens to techno that early in the morning. We were on a pre-historic lakebed that was dried up and cracked surrounded by mountains. The immigrants were still moving in to find their new homes on the already layout playa city, and there was a constant flow all day. The morning was so perfect until about 10.00, than the winds started up again and blew all day creating constant white-outs, sucking in fine dust and not seeing more than a few feet around us was a very unpleasant. We rode around the city a bit to see what was going on, and it was mostly people setting up their camps or art installations. So, finding shelter at the center camp café and listening to live musicians while watching people dance and/or practice their fire dancing movements was our only escape from the storm outside. Now we know why they suggest bring goggles to burning man. By mid-day the fine silt dust became our outer layer of skin and the wind had taken all of our hydration out of us. We constantly were drinking water and making trips to the port-a-potties.

That night we met our neighbors who’s camp’s name is Frogma (which included Martin, Dee, Trey, Rene, Terence, Raphael, and Giz,) and took company and shelter in their geodesic dome (the most come form of shelter here out on the playa). They had some very comfy couches and tables set up inside the dome along with a few carpets. We soon learned that this was not over doing it, but quiet normal here. People have allocated furniture used only for Burning Man.

Day 27 – Two lane highway on a very dark night with long segments of cars, thinking ‘are we ever going to get there?’ Finally, we arrive at 10.30pm to the dusty road of Black Rock City. A 5 mph speed limit is in effect and to help the time pass by they were very kind to place signs every 10 feet of poetry all they way to the ticket gate. At the ticket gate they check for stowaways and informed us of the weather, to drive slow, and to proceed to the greeting entrance. It was extremely windy and dusty that night – the wind was about 40 mph. We drove on slowly, again reading more great writing on signs posted down the road. We were greeted by a lady and nude gentleman. I don’t know how he could stand the cold wind and biting dust that was flying around. We were given a city map, a book of events, and general information. Than, we had to go sound a big bell at the gate before we drove through to let everyone know that there were two new burners in the city now. They made you feel like you were coming home, not coming to an event. We made our way through the city to find our new home for the next seven days. The area we ended up setting camp at was where a soccer-mate from nyc mentioned she might be staying. Did I mention it was windy and dusty?? We set up our tent with rebar as stakes and hopped inside for our first nights sleep in the city.

Here is a link to a photo album on burning man – not many pictures, it was more of an experience than a picture taking thing. For burning man & hwy 50 pics CLICK ON ME – you don’t have to sign in the website, just click on the album.

Day 27 – Black Rock City / aka Burning Man – This past week was spent in the company of virgin burners and burners – and we were part of the virgin burners since it was our first time to Black Rock City. I have to say it was the best experience that either of us have ever had and can’t wait to go back again. Black Rock City starts to fill in with it’s inhabitants at midnight on Sunday and keeps filling up until Saturday night – the night of the burn – up to a total population of 37,500 people! The layout of the city is in a radial grid with “the man” in the center of the circle and streets shooting out from the base of the man oriented by the hours of a clock, and rings of streets rippling out starting with letter A and to letter H from the base of the man.

What is Burning Man I will give you my best brief description, plus you can visit there website for more info www.burningman.com . It is a festival where people come from all over the world and all different ages to create and celebrate an experiment in temporary culture, Black Rock City. The only transportation for going around the city is in either an art car (a decorated car or elaborate machine) or by bike. Also, there is no money exchanging – the point being to create a gift society. Though, the city does sell two things ice and coffee (plus coffee shop type beverages) at the center camp. There is a ‘man’ wooden sculpture clad with neon lights to glow and give orientation at night to the citizens, he stands on a wooden structure that is usually interactive, this year the base was a maze with art work that lead to a viewing platform at the foot of the man. During the week the city grows, you live in the dust, heat, art, and a giving culture. On Saturday the big event happens (though everyday seems so great that it is all one big event) and a performance of fire dancers entrance us as we gather around the man, than a display of fire works go off and the man goes up in brilliant white flames and is burned once again. Sunday also has another burning event where they burn a temple that has been built during the week for people to leave memories or messages to remember loved ones or let go of their past. That is just nuts and bolts of burning man… but we will describe our experience later.

Black Rock City, is populated with three different type of campers: Theme camps, they create a camp with a group of people based on a theme and they decorate their camp and create something either edible, an event, or service for the general community; Group camps, where smaller groups of people set up camp together and decorate; and just campers like we were that come by ourselves and set up a personal camp. Some people also come in RV’s and camper vans.