In the morning I went on one last ride around town to garage sales to look for a cheapo bike I could use at Burning Man. I was unsuccessful until I decided to hit up one of the goodwill stores and scored a junker for $15. It needed a new tire and had no brakes, but it was my foot-pain saving pink beauty for the week. I got a $10 tire at Walmart and rode it around a teeny bit to get used to having to stop with no brakes.

By about 4pm my friend Craig arrived at my house. He hung out for a bit and watch my cat obsess with his shoe while I finalized my checklist and gathered everything I needed for the week, which was a LOT, considering we had to prepare for extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme survival, and extreme party mode, for 8 days! We packed up his truck and hit the road to Reno.

We packed up his truck and hit the road to Reno. Which is where we were meeting people to make the final ride in to BRC the following morning. Notice how CLEAN the truck is, how CLEAN our stuff is and bikes too. *snicker*         We got to Reno in no time and found a hotel room for fairly cheap and went to sleep early so that we could wake up at 6am. Going to sleep early was no problem at all since neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before.

When we woke up we took our last real shower for the week and walked to the registration desk where they were having a danish and coffee thing. On our way over we saw this Burning Man art car parked in the parking lot of our hotel. We admired it a little bit but didn't bother digging through our mountains of stuff to get our camera to take our own pic of it right there.         We did a bit of shopping around town to get a few last minute items, as well as hit a coffee shop to get a final caffeine fix before hitting the road. We eventually had to meet Jen and the rest of the crew at the Target, so we got there early and goofed off in the hat section taking goofy pix of ourselves in the mirror.

Finally Jen and the rest of he group got their shit together and made it out to Target where we all reviewed the road plans and then went to fill up our gas tanks for the last time. To the right are pix of Craig and I on the road. I have no idea why the hell I was not smiling, I was so damn excited. I think I was just still quite tired. Not that that's any excuse :-P

This was our view for the next two hours (from the end of our caravan of Budget-truck, RV, then us) as we were about halfway between Reno and BRC. It was SOOO boring and featureless on the way in, but on the way back it was SO interestingly featured compared to the blandness of the playa.

The larger pic to the right is the sign to Gerlach, the closest city to BRC. The town of Gerlach is sooooo tiny, but it is also where the Burning Man headquarters is. Then a little bit after we pass through Gerlach we make our final approach to the glorious BRC, pictured in the smaller thumbnails to the side of the Gerlach sign pic. The top pic was photographed farther away than the bottom one, but you can still kinda sorta see the city if you look hard enough. (I didn't crop these pix as small as all the others, so that you could get a little better of a view of the barely visible city.

Finally we got to the gate and took a few goofy pix of us, happy to finally be on the playa, and the final pic of Craig's clean car. We caught the first gust of dust while driving in and the first breath of that stuff made us both gag, but that was the first and last time we really had a problem with is as the adjustment was very easy after that first gag. Of course, dust masks were much needed no matter WHAT to make sure that we didn't choke to death when it was a severe dust storm.         We had a little bit of a scare as the ticket counter had a problem locating Craig's will call info, but after about an hour it was all straightened out.

Here's a rare sight.... clean and untouched playa. I made sure to snap a pic of it as soon as we got there and scuffed up our designated area. This is pretty much what the entire playa looks like year round, until the burning man event and there's so much foot, car, and bike traffic that our little city gets pummeled into dust.

We finally unpacked the van and started helping everyone who had arrived early with us to the camp set things up. I had underestimated the heat and hydration issues and within an hour and a half of work I was already dizzy and seeing stars. So I went to the car and sat there for a while, drinking water and eating rock salt to help to retain the water. Within half an hour I felt much better. I felt a little bad that I was not helping to set up during that time, but also there was some pretty major dust blowing through at that time, so I was safe and comfy in the shelter of the car.

By nightfall we were all pooped from the drive and setup so we gathered in the tent for a bit of boozin. It's a horrible picture due to the lack of lighting and abundance of dust from the pretty bad dust storm we were in the middle of, but in the tent from left to right is me, Topher, and Michaelangelo. Craig took the pic. Topher had this little solar-powered lamp on a post that he had sitting outside that stood about 6-feet tall, and decided to bring it into the tent to save our battery juice in our flashlights and lanterns. With the wind blowing so hard outside and swaying the tent it eventually knocked over the lamppost and it went CRASHING down directly onto Craig's head. Lucky for us Topher is an EMT (even though he was outside when it happened) and jumped into action as soon as he heard the cries for help. After gawking about the MASSIVE amount of blood we all had a good laugh about how it wasn't ME... the accident-prone one, and how we were lucky to have someone medically trained right there within a voices call. I thought all the blood was awesome (damn freak) but couldn't smile or be amused because it just wasn't appropriate with everyone freaking out. LOL oh well.         Finally after dumping almost an entire bottle of vodka into half a bottle of daiquiri mix (fuckin drunken retards) and drinking most of it we passed out. Froze our asses off all night long. It was so damn cold.

Waking up the first morning on the playa was a shocker. A major shocker. It was so goddamned COLD the night before that we had all bundled up in our warmest clothes and cuddled down into our blankets and sleeping bags. But once the sun rose and cast its gaze onto the side of our tent for an hour, the inside of our tent heated up and was baking like an oven. Let me tell you, waking up in a 100º tent wearing two pairs of pants, two sweaters, gloves, and wrapped inside a blanket and sleeping bag is NO FUN AT ALL. You know how they have that stuff in sex shops that guys can eat to turn their cum a different color? I think they should make something anyone can eat that'll make your sweat smell GOOD, haha.         So we washed up with our baby-wipes, got dressed, had a quick breakfast, and by 8:30am we were all dressed and ready to go.         Why so early? Well, we heard about this camp called "Heebeegeebee's" that specialized in massages, reiki, healings, acupuncture, and other various forms of bodily splendor. But we also heard that they are VERY well known for doing all of these things tremendously well and usually have an insane wait list. So we decided it would be best to wake up early enough to get there as soon as they opened at 9am to get our name on the wait list. We rode out there and there was already a few people in line before us. We got a number (I was #4) and were told to return at 11am to get our next place in line. They only take 75 people a day and once they get their numbers in the morning they work on them throughout the rest of the day. So we were told to come back at 11pm for our massages.         Just before we were going to get on our bikes and ride out there was a MAJOR dust storm starting and it started to blow away our camps main shade structure. So we stayed behind a bit to help them get it secured back into place. We were MORE than happy to help, but that set us back in getting to our appointment about 15 minutes late. Especially since the wind was STILL blowing and we were riding very difficultly against the wind all the way to 8:30 and Delirium. So we got there and with our numbers from the morning were allowed to again put our names on the waiting list for a massage. The Heebeegeebee tent was SO amazingly relaxing. Craig and I both just laid down on the carpeted floors, watched people practicing various styles of yoga, and listening to the new age music playing in the background while the three gigantic parachute ceilings above us breathed and sighed in the wind.         We had been waiting a while when Craig decided to go to the bathroom. While he was gone the dust storm REEEALLY kicked up and actually knocked down the very sturdy-looking structure that we were under. I was thoroughly amazed at how everyone jumped into action. The poles had leaped off of the rebar and the parachute was lifting away, but since it was also roped to an additional set of rebar it didn't go very far, but there were poles flapping around, threatening to seriously injure people. So EVERYONE helped out, 4 people to a pole, and all stayed on for hours helping and holding while the proper repairs were made through the unforgiving dust storm that didn't lighten up until much much later.         I was worried about our camp site, as we did not really stake down our tent because we intended on moving it a little bit that day, but I was not going to leave the aide of the camp I was already at, and besides, I figured that if i had already lost everything, then what would a long ass bike ride through a storm help if I had no shelter to come back to anyway.         Luckily Craig had gone back to camp and assured me that the tent did not blow away. But unfortunately 4 of the main tent poles snapped unrepairably and it looked like we were going to be homeless until we figured out an alternative solution.         We spent most of the evening cutting and tying and reconstructing our tent structure with borrowed PVC tubes, duct tape, and strong string and a million more tent stakes. It wasn't perfect, but it was still a home, and we were happy to have it back by the end of the night.         Later on Craig and I rode our bikes around to search for my florida friends at that "unnamed camp". We couldn't find them once again and ended up at the 3 o'clock plaza drinking at the Bubble Bar, where Craig had to make a haiku, and I had to moonwalk to earn our privileges to drink there. The wind was still blowing ridiculously hard so we didn't stay out TOO late and just went back to our camp and crashed relatively early. With this being our first year we didn't realize how much we were missing out on by not partying early in the week.

Welcome to "Oral Sex Tuesday". No, I didn't name it that, but that's what it was. I gave a painted dust mask to one of my camp mates, pictured here to the left. We heard about the "Pancake Playhouse" that was located around Center Camp (6:00 and Esplanade) and decided to go there to get some pancakes. With Tophers bike out of commission he walked behind with a walkie talkie while Craig and I rode ahead to make sure it was still open. Lucky for us it was open, and we enjoyed some YUUMMMMMY banana pancakes.         Next we decided to go try to find our friends camp at 8:15 and Ego and rode ahead of Tohper again. We could NOT find that damn camp. But as we were riding around looking for it we hear someone yell at us "SUCK IT! DON'T LICK IT!". We turned around and they yelled it at us again! "SUCK IT! DON'T LICK IT!" It turns out that was the name of their camp! And they were just spreading the glorious word of their camp. They invited us to sit down with them and have some beer and we all just got goofy and crazy and we ended up staying there for hours. Really great people. It was also really fun helping them yell at people "SUCK IT! DON'T LICK IT!" We were yelling it so often and drinking so much that the words lost their clear vocal definition and eventually smeared together to sound like we were saying "PSYCHEDELIC TITS!". They gave me a painted up BLUE water bottle as well as a blue shirt with a skull and crossbones, and the words "suck it don't lick it" underneath. And I gave them two dust masks.         Topher was looking for a prom dress to wear and one of the girls at the camp gave him a nifty little pink dress to wear. Craig was playing a little thumb plucking piano thingie and obtained the playa name "ThumbGlove", and Topher disappeared got get some nookie with some random woman who walked up to the camp. He finally returned and then we left to explore the playa a bit.

We saw La Contessa (the boat on the left) and the man (on the right, it's a sideways view, so it doesn't really look like the man in that photo). In the picture of La Contessa you can see Craig on his bike and Topher walking beside him in the pink dress on the right side of the picture. I also took a series of pictures that I turned into a panoramic picture. Check it out. Make sure you see it at full view. And I marked the location of the man with a yellow dot at the top of the panoramic image on both sides so you can see the full 360+º of the photo.

Next we walked to the other side of the playa near 3:00 to look for my Florida friends again when we noticed these two art cars on opposite ends of the playa that would shoot puffs of smoke into the air, and as they rose up they turned into a black smoke ring that got larger and larger and eventually faded, but we got a pic of one of the smoke rings acting as somewhat of a dark halo around my head, and Topher still in his pink dress. Hehe, goofballs. We hit up the Bubble Bar again and played a game of GIANT Operation, remember that game where you pull things out of this guys body and if you hit the sides it buzzes and his nose lights up. Then we wandered behind their camp to this other camp where I got stamp tattooed by a big bunny man. He put a devils head on my arm and the word BURN below it.

We could NOT find these people yet again (the florida people at the unnamed camp) so we snapped a few more pix of the playa and surrounding things as the sun was just set and things were getting dark before we went back to camp to watch Topher do some fire twirling.

This day started out really chill. We took a walk around the neighborhood to see some of our nearby neighbors we had not yet met. Jen and Michael were walking around with a huge inflatable penis assaulting each other and other people.         Across the street from our camp was the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet. I walked over there and filled out my soulmate form. They asked odd questions that I cannot remember right now, but pretty much everyone got different questions. They told me to come back the next day where they would give me the paper of my soulmate, as well as they'd give MY paper to someone else too. These papers also have you fill out your location on the playa so that you can be found.         Then Craig and I went out for another bike ride. We went to the Bubble Bar again at the 3:00 Plaza. Then we found out about this place where you can make your own pizza. So we went over there but they had already stopped, so then we went to the see-saw thing we saw yesterday. Waited in line, then we got ignored. I got so pissed off that the operator guy was putting people in front of us as if we were never in line so I said fuck it, I gotta go to the bathroom. We had to ride our bikes all the way over to the Gestalt loop.        On the way out there we passed a bar on Catharses that was playing some good music and looked like it had a good crowd. We continued on to the bathrooms then rode right back out to the see-saw thing. The line was retarded by then so we went back to the bar to waste some time until sunset which was when the pizza place reopened. I met a guy named Marshal right away. Plus some of his friends. I ordered a drink and it was WICKEDLY strong. I needed it and enjoyed it THOROUGHLY. Then a bunch of margaritas and strawberry daiquiri's were passed around, as well as some real coconuts with some really strong liquor in it.         Marshal had his friend Manny draw this really cool design on my arm. And then I drew a really cool design on Marshal's arm, all the while we were all getting really drunk. We all were having so much fun together and didn't want to stop partying together, but Marshal had to go back to his camp on 2:00 and Gestalt to turn on the sound system for their big party that night, since nobody else really knew how to. So while he was setting everything up the rest of his campmate's kept us company, fed us more drinks, they were all really nice. Then just before the sun set we went to the Bubble Bar for some champagne, and then as soon as the sun set we went across the way to this other camp that was serving Sake and Sushi that night. They were really late on the sushi so we just had some Sake and then left.

We found our way back out to the see-saw but got distracted by this thing across the way called the Chairway to Heaven. As you see in the pictures it's this chair thing that lifts you up 40 feet into the air (slowly) and you stay up there for a good few minutes. We all got a chance to go on it and took some really great pictures from up above. (Left to right.... craig up in the Chair. Me in the chair looking down at Craig and Marshal. A view of the city behind me, see that haze of dust sitting overhead?. Another view of the city. And a pic taken by Craig of himself up in the chair.)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st
        There was a surprising amount of people awake still at that point and we all rejoiced when the sun rose. Marshal and I walked back down to the dark rainbow room and passed out in the corner. The dirt floor was freezing and uncomfortable so I woke up Marshal and we stumbled drunkily and sleepily across the playa to the first camp on Esplanade that had couches. It was the Penguin Camp (Lost Penguin Cafe?) and they were VERY nice and were totally happy to let us crash on one of their couches. I slept for about 2 hours then woke up, unable to get back to sleep. I let Marshal sleep for another hour and a half while the people at the Penguin place fed me chocolate and Orange Juice. They were really great. Then finally I woke him up when i got bored and hot (wearing two sweaters and two pairs of pants and the sun was well on its way to heating up the playa) and we walked back to my camp where we crashed there for another three hours. Then Marshal left back to his camp to help set up the sound system for THAT nights party, as it was already 4PM by that point.
        Within 20 minutes of Marshal leaving I heard someone walk into our camp and ask for Blue (me). I yelled out "That's me!" But with my hoarse voice from partying all night the night before it hardly sounded like more than a bark. Turns out it was someone who got me as their soulmate.
        I told him to take a seat under our shade structure and a bunch of us sat around talking and realizing what a loony this guy was. And not the kind of loony that I LIKE. I mean, he was harmless, but he musta been really drunk or something. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt and we hung out for a few hours. We rode our bikes over to his camp. He made me a sammich with lotsa black olives (yum!) and then he fed me more shrooms.
        Unfortunately I got bored of him quick and made an excuse to leave and went back to camp. Immediately Craig and I went to the bar next door and got shit faced. I had many many many drinks that I do not know what they were, things that were blue, things that tasted like coffee, and some yummy absinthe.

        This was the night of our big fire show. This is the one event during the week that our camp hosted that attracted a good 500 people.
        I rode my bike out to Marshal's camp at 2:00 to invite him and others to the show, but they were unable to leave their camp due to a party THEY were throwing. So I went back to my camp, joined everyone in a yummy yummy dinner with purple broccoli (damn mushrooms), and went into my tent and started getting ready for the big show. Did my hair, did my makeup really nice, put on a really cool dress I made. It got cold really quick and was still a bit early yet, so I curled up in a blanket and laid down to relax for a bit while I sobered up and warmed up.
        Next thing I know i am waking up. I look at my watch... and I am 45 minutes late for our show. I was not IN the show so it wasn't any great loss other than that i missed the high points of the show. Craig had fallen asleep too and I woke him up so we could go out and watch the final 1/2 hour of the show.
        I was so bummed about missing the show and well rested too that I just took off on a walk around the Esplanade. I eventually ended up back at Marshal's camp to check out their party. It was VERY MUCH not my kind of music, but the crowd was highly amusing since they were all absolutely wasted on one drug or another. I took more shrooms and drank a TON of wine, so I was pretty durn intoxicated too.
        To make a long story short, I made nice with a lot of the little raver kids out there and had a good time with them. We all danced and partied until the sun came up, and then kept going. We eventually lost the crowd by 10am and they turned off the sound system.

So even though it was 10am and nobody had gotten any sleep they still wanted to go out and party some more. I was really anxious to get some bacon that was being served with Bloody Mary's near my own camp so I suggested we go there, and they were all for it. I kept waiting and waiting for them, eventually an hour had passed and I did not want to miss the bacon so I just said "I'll meet you at the bathroom". I went to the bathroom and looked back towards their camp and didn't see anyone, and even though it's a clear view from the bathrooms to their camp it was a long walk and I did not want to wait any longer so I just left back to my camp, went directly to the bacon, then back to my own camp and chilled out in my tent with some of my camp mates.         I went to one of the bars and had a drink, I didn't feel like sleeping, then went back to the camp to chill out. I found some more mushrooms in my pocket, I have no idea how they got there, so I ate those. Then decided to clean up my tent and myself. I busted out the baby wipes and a razor and zipped up all the tent windows and sat there for an hour cleaning myself thoroughly. it was SOOO refreshing.         Eventually people started coming back to camp and we were all hanging out as I was trying desperately to stay awake when Marshal made a surprise appearance at my tent. He hung out with us for a bit and then whisked me away back to his camp while he set up for that evening's party. He had still not slept either. So we hung out for a short time then we retired to his tent for a little nookie and sleep. I only intended on sleeping for a few hours MAX but woke up with the sun. Oops. Oh well, I guess I needed it.         Notice how that day was shorter when the sleep was lacking and it also being the 4th day in a row I was on shrooms. Yippee.

Everyone in that camp seemed to all wake up at the same time or still be awake from partying the night before... so we all got together and walked to center camp and got some fresh cold chai. Yum. Then half of us went to get bacon and the other half went to get ice. Eventually we all went back to our own camps to prepare for the burning of the man that evening.         I finished up everything I had to do really early so I bar hopped for a bit with craig, then took some time out to do my makeup and a temporary tattoo on Craig's arm. Then we bar hopped some more. Then the sun set and then half an hour after the setting of the sun I was supposed to meet up with Marshal at the Chairway to Heaven.         I was running a bit late since I forgot that we planned to secure our important belongings in the car, including all of our clothing and bikes, so that we did not fall victim to looting during the burning of the man. So after that was mostly done I took off.         Met Marshal at the Chairway, and we both took acid, then walked over to the man, at about the 6:00 location, about 4 people back. So we were basically, 4th row dead center. It was a REALLY good seat.         By the time it go dark and worth taking pictures the acid started to hit me. I totally felt like I was going to be completely incapable of taking any pictures by that point but I actually got a TON. But that doesn't mean they are any good. The majority of them are out of focus or look like what was seen out of my acid-soaked eyes LOL. Here's the pix anyway, in order. This first set of pix I tried to take with the intentions of making it panoramic, but it just didn't work out that way. So here they are individually of the view that was behind me, the crowd and all the lights and art cars that were around me. Quite an amazing sight: Here's 2 pix of a small small section of the crowd around us lit by the fire dancers flames. Then here's pictures of the man in front of us, then when the man's arms raised. Then of the fire dancers that performed in front of the man for a half hour:                     annnnnnnnd..... here's the short video I got of the fire dancers. I was so fried by that point hat all I was capable of doing was panning left to right and not even speaking. video 1 [4.8mb, 0:40sec] Turn up your volume, you can hear some of the closer drum circles going. Then here's some pix of the man shooting off fireworks and then burning to the ground: I only wish I got video of the man burning. So then Marshal and I walked about a mile to the only bathrooms we could remember in our state of inebriation and then wandered around the playa looking at all the pretty lights. I took four more videos, for some reason I felt the most capable of doing that than taking still pictures, even though the video's are not too focused or bright. video 2 [3.8mb, 0:41sec] This was taken after the man fell and everyone rushed to the center of the playa to begin partyyyyyying. We were waiting for Marshal's friend to come and unlock his bike so we could go to the bathroom, so I just video'd in a circle around me. The music is coming from some of the art cars that had clubs built into them. It was really windy that night, you can kinda hear the wind blowing into the puny mic on my camera. video 3 [2.2mb, 0.34sec] If you look closely you can see this video starts focusing in on these people wearing neon lights taped to their bodies to look like glowing dancing stick figures. Here's a clear picture of them. We were at the Lotus sumthin-er-other camp at 10:00 and Esplanade and I SAID that out loud to make a verbal note of where we were for the video... but Marshal didn't know I was filming and said "HUH?" After I said "We're at 10:00". Hehe. video 4 [2.2mb, 0.43sec] At this point we were WAAAAAAY out in the 11:30 area of the playa and I decided to try to get some video of everything going on in the distance. I was a bit too *ahem* fucked up to really know where things were so I did my best to slurrily narrate. Then I spun around like a retard. Woo-hoo! video 5 [2.9mb, 0.41sec] Here we were about at the 12:30 area and i had the bright idea to do another sweep of the city on ZOOM.... but it didn't work so well. Though I did get a good last view of the dying blaze of the man from hours earlier.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th
       Woke up rather early, sad that the bulk of the event was over, done, finito. It's like being on a long ass car trip and getting used to the speed and hum and vibrations of the road, then when you stop for gas you still feel a buzz from within your body, and still move as if moving with the motion of the road. I wasn't anticipating leaving today, but both Marshal and I expected to be individually occupied throughout the day, so we said our final goodbye's and I walked back to camp.
        It was great to come back to see an individual and special little glow to each of my camp mates from whatever it was that they all ended up doing individually. We sat around sharing stories and doing everything we could to delay the fact that this was pack-up the camp day.
        While we were packing up, mustering any last bit of strength and energy that we could possibly summon from our weak and exhausted bodies, Craig and I both kinda mutually agreed that although we'd HATE HATE HATE to leave.... with the majority of the camps packing up today the magic and excitement is gone. Also the fact that after the man burns everyone tears down the street signs and It's difficult to know where you are unless you pay really close attention.
        So I went to the truck to get my final breakfast of canned mandarin oranges.... gone, all gone. I only got 2 damn cans. The one thing I was looking forward to were those damn oranges, and there I see in front of me is someone just polishing off the last piece from the last can. Grr, that pissed me off. What the fuck. Anyone ever heard of sharing and rationing? So then I went to grab an Arizona Iced Tea, all gone. What the fuck? Okay, I was highly irritated now. Craig had decided to go on one last bike ride around the playa and had already left, so I decided that instead of sitting around all pissy that I would do the same. I go to grab my bike, it's gone. My fucking campmate "borrowed" it without asking. That was the final straw. I was officially and rudely YANKED out of my amazing Burning Man gleeful mood. I wanted to just finish packing up and leave. I found a bike to borrow for an hour and went out anyway.
        When Craig and I got back we went to say our goodbye's to the remaining camp mates and swap info. I hate long goodbye's. So some of them were quite painful. Don't get me wrong, I love these people, but "Good-bye" is only two syllables and a hug only lasts a few seconds. Jen promised to teach me to breathe fire next year and was sorry she hadn't gotten a chance to do it this year. So that's certainly one thing i have to look forward to next year for sure! We swapped info with the new people we had just met this week at the camp and FINALLY got into the car. The minute the car door slammed shut I felt this overwhelming sense of regret. I no longer wanted to leave. I felt like just turning to Craig and saying "Just kidding, we don't REALLY have to leave right now, hehe. It was all a joke. Let's just roll out our sleeping bags for one more night" but those words never came out of my mouth. I realized we were tired and out of food, and pushing the additional attendance might not be a good idea.
        We started to drive out, turn onto Fetish, straight to 5:00 and then a right on Hysteria and then the exit road was I think at about 6:30-ish. We turned on the radio. BMIR 94.5, broadcasting from beside the info station at center camp. There was a DJ from Texas on who was playing all these sad slow country-like songs. I kept turning around to catch a few final glimpses at the wonder and splendor that is Black Rock City. I came so close to tears, I felt like I was really honestly leaving my HOME!
        Exodus, the process of leaving BRC, took us about an hour. While sitting in the traffic and listening to the radio we finally learned of the crisis in New Orleans. There were people walking around the exit lanes collecting donations for the tragedy and I happily emptied my wallet into their jug. I have friends in New Orleans who I have not yet heard from and I am concerned. I know that emptying my wallet isn't going to bring my friends to safety, but I still cannot get them out of my thoughts.
       On the way out from Gerlach and Empire we stopped to get an NDN Taco. It was kinda spicy, but once i wiped off the spicy part it was uber-yum!!
        We continued the 6 hour drive home, which seemed to go by in a flash. I was in a really fucked up funk the entire drive home. Not a good funk, not a bad funk, just a "FUNK" that i cannot describe. I mean, I was silent almost the whole way home. Did NOT feel like talking at all. I was happy to be left with my thoughts and dreams and memories that were in abundance in my mind. I hated seeing freeways, gas stations, civilization, it seemed foreign and... wrong. Craig and i were still covered head to toe in dust. Actually, by the time we left BRC I looked down at myself and thought I looked relatively clean in comparison to how I had looked throughout the week. But when we were in the REAL "clean" world, looking down at ourselves really put our level of filth into perspective, haha.
        Here's some pix of the aftermath and how filthy everything was when we got home:

        Talking with my local friends about it is really interesting. I act all giddy and can not even wipe the stupid smile off of my face as all the memories come flooding back to me. I keep remembering tons and tons and tons more as I do the storytelling that i know i had not mentioned here, but then the memories go back into hibernation by the time I sit back down at the computer. So as I remember new things I will do my best to write it down or add it to this page as soon as I can.

Thank you for reading and sharing my experience. And to all those who I did meet out on the playa, thank you for being you and making my experience so insanely WONDERFUL. One i will NEVER forget as long as I will live.