Oh my goodness. All the things. I was gifted a pricey ticket and arrived at gate Thursday around 1pm. No line going in, about 30 cars queued up to leave on the one outgoing lane. A constant stream of playafied cars had passed me on 447. I thought I had seen my friend Lui in that stream, but I couldn’t be certain. I was streaming BMIR on iheartradio as long as I had a signal. When it dropped I switched to a best of album by the Talking Heads (my personal burning man sound track).
Super soft landing at the MASH #4207 camp in village 404 at 3:30 and B.
Made my bed and then a very stupid decision to bike to my old camp (D’nile) since none of them knew I was there. Had the wrong address and rode my bike up and down F (I think one of the worst streets in terms of washboard AND fluff) in 104 degrees. When I couldn’t find them, I had to turn around with only half my water and hot as fuck. I thought I was going to pass out three times. Stopped at a camp for blind people because there was a spot of good shade, they ran over to offer me a drink and I asked if it contained Alcohol, they replied “yes, of course!”. I was a solid “no thanks!” LOL. They did gift me a sweet cooling rolling yummy smelling thing and welcomed me to stay as long as I needed. When I finally made my way back to camp, I had a electro-light cocktail and sat my ass in the shade the rest of the evening. Lucky I didn’t get heat stroke! I KNOW BETTER. DUMB DUMB.
My friend Amie came by just as I was going to bed that night. We hung out for at least an hour. She is an ASL interpreter, virgin, and was camped with some playa info big wig at Donkey something Camp. She loved it. Got a free ticket, three meals a day, three showers, and an inner circle pass for the man burn (she didn’t know that till the day of the burn). We made a plan to meet at 7pm Sunday and ride out to the temple burn together.
Spent Friday in the village staying close to home and hydration. It was too hot until sunset to do literally ANYTHING. Friday evening had a lovely Thanksgiving with MASH 4207, and then ventured out at 10pm into the dust to see the man up close because I know they close him early. As I was walking up the stairs I noticed quite a few rangers milling about and soon after they started to turn other people away to “get him ready.” I tried to get photos but a white out was going on and everything was fuzzy in the lens. I left and went to the temple to hang a memorial for my friend Ed. It was too busy. A weird energetic vibe and I didn’t feel comfortable trying to a find a spot to put my memorial, so I left and found my way home by the lanterns on the promenades. There were four lanterns only on the spires from Center Camp to the man. The other three were two. When I mentioned this Sunday in the bar a participant told me they thought there might have been some broken lanterns in the off-season (usually there are four from center camp to the man and then continuing to the Temple).
Saturday morning I woke up early and left camp on my bike. I had looked at the map and camp directory with Amie Thursday night and found the right address for my friends. I went through center camp and found Amie’s tent but it was still really early and didn’t want to wake her. I left a note. Cruised around lamplighters and the Playa Info but it was too early for anyone to be there. I tried to check the whiteboards for population counts. I had forgotten my glasses so maybe it was posted and I just didn’t see them.
I was sad there wasn’t any coffee at center camp, but arrived at Metal Morphosis (old D’nile camp) in time to get coffee and Karin’s homemade cookies for breakfast! YUM!
I had missed their gift as the last day was Friday and they gave away every last pendant in the longest line ever the day before. Made a plan to meet at Center Camp at 8pm to walk out to the man burn together.
.oh more Saturday.
The ice rationing started on Friday so we knew something was up. It was three bags per person and after the bar got a couple the rest went around for personal coolers. By Saturday I needed ice. Then we heard it wasn’t just three bags person but one. All able camp members went on an Arctica exploration in the hot afternoon. I went through the line a second time because I needed both a block and a half crushed (the bags are HUGE). I noticed a “team”working the line by planting people almost at the front and then another team cutting through to take their place while the first two went through to get ice, and I confronted them. One dude got huffy and tried to say they didn’t know about the rationing and the other team was taking the ice back to camp and then coming back, but I had seen them drop the two bags in a wagon with another person, when I said that – he said “I guess I am just an asshole then.” And I replied – “Yes, you are an asshole.” fuckers. I told them if they needed more ice, to at least get in the back of the line as I had done. The line watcher had caught on by now and wasn’t letting anyone “catch-up” with friends. People are a-holes. Burning Man is a community and if you screw someone you are screwing the whole of the community, don’t do that. We are all in this together.
Saturday was another hot super dusty day. By evening I seriously wondered if the man was going to burn. Was a bit surprised to see the fire procession take off to the man from Center Camp when I couldn’t even see him! Like magic at almost exactly 9 the sky cleared, but his arms weren’t up?! The city was streaming in. I wondered if his arms were broken. My friends showed and we headed out. Had a FABULOUS seat and the man burn was GREAT, the only downside is that I wanted to sit near Nessa’s conclave and was out voted as they wanted to stay closer to an MV they had connection with and was near 5ish.
We wondered by foot after doing our circles and lost half our group, to art cars and dancing. Without Sean’s moon bike as a beacon shiny things were distracting. (2 of them were virgins and another had only been once before many years ago). Once we were reunited we decided it was best to stay on foot and walked almost all the art on the 2 o’clock side of the playa from center camp to the temple. We went to the art piece created by Sean and the girls I was with. It was the seahorse in the circle of all the wild horses. It had sold by Saturday and the new owners were going to take it off playa to Cedarville. Everyone was all very excited. Two of the girls were wearing NO SHOES. One cut her foot. Thank goodness she had a tetanus shot. We made it to the temple at the end of the art tour and I hung up my memorial… after that we separated and I went home to bed…
Sunday was sad because the CO had decided to pack up early due to the ice fiasco (Seriously?! Running out of ice?! WTF. That is a health issue, not to mention rationing is ableist as fuck, not everyone can stand in a line for that long). Other campmates were bailing early too. I spent most of the day barking to people to come in the bar during another daylong dust fest. At 7:15pm when Amie didn’t show I rode out to the temple and found a front row seat. Met some burners from the Library and SF. And loved the designs in the walls the temple as it burned. Beautiful. It burned a long time, an hour? People were very patient and there were occasional sobs. I did a quick ember visit when the sandmen let burners past the perimeter and then walked back to where I had left my bike near a very cool burning tree. I found my bike completely buried in lots of bikes, deep deep in. Some nice burners helped me navigate and move some so I could get it out. I went home and cooked some dinner and then helped campmates take down their carports. About 1/3 of camp had left already and everyone but me was leaving in the morning.
Monday was spent mooping and packing and after everyone left around noon I moved over to Elder Wrong’s camp. We were the only ones left on that side of the street from our village. Just a few folks from Death before Decaf were still around across the street by Monday afternoon. (Simon had left early and spent hours just getting back to Reno, only to have to turn around and come back for a trailer! UGH)
Monday was a beautiful if very hot day. Elder and I sat in the shade of our vehicles and caught up. We braced for a dust storm that never came.
Monday night I had planned to hang at the poofer party at Illville. Found out from my friend Rupert (Joyism) that the org asked them not to have a Monday burn off, so they did it Sunday. Rupert put the Joyism car at the man base and had a FANTASTIC DJ playing set up to a massive margarita bar. I wondered over to the burn pile behind and cold man base and chatted with a really nice guy from DPW. Not sure if he has connected with Adam yet to tell him “HI from Dani!” But if he doesn’t it’s okay. Sorry I missed you out there! Now I forgot HIS name but he was from Sebastopol and knew of Lily too. Super sweet guy. I’m sorry I forgot his name. 🙁 I handed out Fireballs, danced and chatted with a mellow Monday night group. When I had given away the last of the candies I headed for bed!
Got to camp around 11pm. Up at 5am to pack and watch the sunrise. I drove out while the angry yellow ball was rising and it only took 45 minutes from camp to pavement. Had to stop outside Sacramento for a 20 minute nap. Arrived at home around 5pm. I showered and washed my hair twice. It’s as hot at my house as it was on the playa.
Can’t wait to go back next year. XO
Heard a few things though: The roads were bad because there were new OSS people that didn’t know for playa dust abatement, they are supposed to do 25% water instead of 100%, but they didn’t turn it down and no one called condition alpha so the roads got fucked because everyone drove and biked all over puddles early on. True? Don’t know, but it makes sense.
Heard Ice ran out because Meco was 2 days late with water delivery early on and the org told people to buy and melt ice for water. I am pretty sure the consistent high temps played a role here too. When it’s hot people want icy drinks, simple as that.
Heard there were MANY MANY MANY medical calls. (Came upon the one at the man embers early Sunday morning as the ambulance arrived. ugh. Heard he fell in backwards. That guy was going to be hurting for sure. ouch.)
Very low law visibility/tickets. No gate gauntlet.
Couldn’t get BMIR on my hand held radio – no idea what the tower trouble was, but I had to get it on my car radio, which was a major PITA.
TOO MANY VIRGINS not carrying enough water or knowing things.
Too many Ebikes and One wheels speeding all over. The speed limit is 5mph for ALL CONVEYANCES. It’s about being able to stop for a pedestrians. Very rude entitled people made for a dangerous situation out there. I know burners hate rulz, but. Also – cars going super fast on Sunday/Monday through town to get out. Sunday night after the temple burn was kinda scary with actual cars driving way too fast for neighborhoods.
I predict another bike apocalypse. There were at least 14 at our porto bank last night, though not as many on open playa as I have seen in the past.
The gifted coffee with the business card was icky. (a neighboring camp)
If one more person compares BM to coachella within hearing range of me, I am going to lose my shit. Seemed to be a HIGH Los Angeles population.