07 September 2004 - 3:44 am

DAY FOUR - WELCOME HOME

SEPT 2: The roads over the mountains into Reno are beautiful. Lots of trees and pretty whites, greys & blacks of Granite. We arrived in Reno at about noon. We hit Home Depot & Kmart really quick to pick up some last second stuff. It was like they were expecting us, (they were...) as we bought a ton of water and some little parts like bungies and crap.

We got lost. We were supposed to hit the 447 to Gerlach, but we took the 445 which took us the wrong way around the gigantic Pyramid Lake. We back tracked, made it back around and hit the 2nd to last little town of Empire. Empire has 2 buildings and a bunch of homes & trailers. The vibe was already there. A vendor was selling bikes from his wagon, and a few 'official' Pottys were inplace there. The LAST town, only about 12 miles from the lake bed, is Gerlach. We drove through it. It's a bit larger, has a school and a motel that was the official housing for all the visiting Law Enforcement Offices...

We hit the dusty road leading into the "playa" (an ancient lake bed that's one of the largest in the country.) It's surface is a white dust that contains mostly alkali (the opposite of Acid?!!). It was everywhere, and clouds of it blew across. We pulled over and picked up our tickets from Will Call. It was about 3PM. We got in a line of RVs and cars with bicycles strapped to them. A man on foot, jumped out of a car and headed to the will-call line. He probably noticed my face expressing my tiredness. He yelled to me, "Hey, cheer up! You're HOME!!!" and ran off. The "fabled" Black Rock City, commonly known as Burning Man was in our sights.

At the gate, a greeter dressed in "Hare Krisnas" gear, goggles and a courier bag welcomed us home. "Welcome Home" were his exact words. I thought it was cute (I didn't think anything of if...at first.) He asked if we have been there before. I said, "no". and he asked me if I'd like to ring the bell. I did. I'm glad I did. I would have normally been afraid of such a thing. I wasn't.

Don't look at my butt!

We found a spot, found the nearest bathroom. Saw plenty of skin immediately. We needed Ice. So I was the first to head "into town" to Center Circle. It was still daylight, and I was itching to explore. What I saw was surreal. Straight out of an 80's cyberpunk novel. Everything and everybody was colorful and different. It looked like I was in the world of the Tank Girl movies. People looked at ME funny. It was because I just arrived and looked like... a normal american? I bought my ice, got caught in a sand storm and headed back to finish camp. The beers needed to be iced, so we worked on camp and had dinner. It was Margarita time. Several Margaritas and beers later, we decided to go out. At night, the world changes completely. We explored a bit of one half. What we saw stunned us. From an actually Thunderdome, Full sized Rock-em Sock-em robots. Numerous dance camps thumped music all night and day. Walking the half mile to the MAN across this flat was tiring. I think we ended the night at about 3 or 4AM. It was a LOT of walking. I thought I figured it out that first night. I said to myself, THIS IS JUST ONE BIG PARTY that lasts all week all night and all day.

I was wrong. It's much more than that.

leav note or sign here

previously and next