Day 1
They say your burn starts when you leave your default home, and this year that was Monday around 7pm after the gate opened. John and I had spent the whole weekend packing and prepping for our burn. This being the first year we did it together from one residence. And though it was so much easier, I still forgot pretty important items, like the yogurt and pizza slices I had put in a food saver. Sigh.
We arrived very early Tuesday morning at the Circus Circus in Reno. After some hours of sleep, we spent hours shopping for those last minute items in addition to the regular stops at Save Mart on Keystone and Black Bear Diner for breakfast. I had realized on the drive the night before I forgot to get the silverware out of the dish drain, which meant my Friday night dinner was going to be interesting to serve. The Dollar Tree was wiped out and when I tried to buy the ONE large spoon I could find, the cashier held it up and said “this is just one of a two pack?” I implored that I needed it, willing to pay for price of $1.25 for the solitary spoon. She threw it in my bag and shrugged. I found a few other slotted spoons that would have to do.
If I had been watching the weather report a bit closer I might have tried to boogie to BRC, critical error was made. We made a few stops after leaving 80, John was looking for googles. It turned out he couldn’t find the bin that had his favorites. The Nixon market looked promising, but even with all those stalls he could find the googles with regular sunglass arms like his very favorite pink ones. We pulled off the pavement and stopped to take a photo of the welcome sign at 3:40pm Tuesday.
As we approached will call dark clouds had taken over the south west and once in a while a flash of lightening sparked. By 5:50pm it was raining. We were about 20 cars from Apex (a spot in the line that breaks off to will call before you approach gate proper), and near a small bank of portos that had already run out of TP. At first it seemed like it might be a light blow over of precipitation, but no… it rained for a solid two hours. The ground around us with large puddles. I was immediately grateful I had packed a warm layer in my hotel bag. We had access to snacks and drinks and John pulled out a pack of playing cards for a bit of a distraction.
Waking up with a stiff neck freezing at 3am was not great. What was great, is John gingerly crawling over the bikes and bins to get a big blankie and our doubles sleeping bag (!). We draped the blankie long way and I used the bag as a giant pillow to try to get into a more comfortable position – impossible in the driver seat with the cooler on the right and steering wheel in front. My seat unable to recline due to bins and whatever else stacked up against. I know I got a few hours of sleep because the next time I awoke the sun had already come above the horizon. Folks were milling about. Carefully walking around muddy parts of the playa. The portos had not been pumped and the floor had a good 3-4 inches of playa. When the service truck pulled up I ran out to the workers and gave them some light/man lanyards that John had made as gifts.
I could see Will Call and estimated it was a 5 walk or less, I decided to wonder over and see if I could talk to anyone official. GPE was trying to shoo anyone outside of the flags to go back to their cars, not because the line was going to move, but because they were outside the permit area. Lots of yoga, tai chi, and people stretching. Someone told me they weren’t going to open any windows until the gate opened.
The playa was dry enough that setting up a little coffee making station was not a muddy task, there there still were some puddles. That cup of coffee was amazing! Just as I was about to heat another kettle for oatmeal, I could see the vehicles in will call moving!
Going to will call only took 13 minutes, and we pulled up to the front of the line to be processed. It was ***** . 20 hours on gate road. My longest ever before was about 7 hours when we arrived right before a whiteout in 2011. But getting through gate was just one more hurdle because as soon as we turned left to go the the 10 o’clock side, we were in line to chat with a Ranger. He instructed us to go to 6:30 and C and find somewhere to park and wait for BMIR to tell us the driving order was lifted. We got to that intersection and turned left, the road was bumpy, but it looked pretty passable. At least at 7 and C. Other vehicles were coming from 10, most of them trucks with 4 wheel drive.
We turned once to get to D as it looked dryer than C around 8:30. As I turned right I felt one of the tires slip and instead of stepping down harder, I backed off and we stopped. Stuck. When I tried to go forward, nothing. I’ve never been stuck before and wouldn’t you know it, we were stopped in front of Ranger camping! One of the ladies yelled out “you know there is a no driving order, right?” I felt tears welling up. I did know this, but we had just spent 20 hours in the van, no bed, no cooked meal, we were camping at 9:45 and C, rain was predicted to come again… I couldn’t spend another night sleeping upright in the van. I had to make my bed!
As I sunk in my seat wondering who would have some plywood, a friendly face came to the window. He said, “Your driver side back wheel is slipping, the only way forward is to rock back and forth and on the third forward, we’ll push, and hopefully push you out of the hole.” We tried it twice. I was starting to feel panicked, when I looked up and another van just like mine but newer was barreling down the other side. She fishtailed into the mud just as I felt my back tire get traction and rolled forward.
I had stopped on dry land. The lady ranger was yelling not to continue because of the no drive order. I was in no hurry to test the road ahead. The nice ranger that helped us get unstuck offered his advice – rest a few, then walk the route to see if I thought I could manage. Very good advice. We got back in the van and blasted AC. It was probably 95 and all we had was coffee thus far. We snacked and watered up and then headed forward to 9 on D.
Past 9, D was completely dry and 9:30 was no where near as treacherous. We thought as long as I could roll on with no stopping I could get to the dryer part and all the way to MetalMorphosis. They were an hour into the gift activity for Wednesday and it was buzzing as people were hammering on their pendants.
We turned back to the van and as we approached we saw a burner with a two wench had pulled behind the caddywhompus stuck van and another truck had tried to venture past me but stopped because the mud looked wet. We assessed what was left of the block and found the right spot to stage a crossing. I had to wait for a bit while John wrangled Burners to hold up so I could safely speed through. Once it was clear I hit the gas and powered through. YAY! We pulled into camp and immediately started throwing all the water proof bins and the bikes out so I could make the bed!
With my bed made, we got the dinner bell! Dinner was a bit early because Tuesday had gotten rained out and clouds were gathering. Large but sporadic drops were dotting the tops of the bins. John was insisting on setting up the shade while our PTSD campmates were fretting about the incoming storm. They had been there during the Saturday brown out. Many shade structures, even the EMT ones had been destroyed. I was sure I could secure my structure well. It’s designed by Black Rock Hardware out of Oakland. I think their camp name is Empire of Dirt. Cool people.
It only sprinkled a bit and as I pulled the van under the shade, my bed made, tummy full of veggie taco, I was glad John pushed to get the shade set up. We had already lost a full day on gate road. After just a bit more settling in we headed out on our bikes to see the man. Our usual first destination after camp on playa.
