After getting our Night driving permit, Rebar took a few of us on a tour of the playa in Fluffy.It was after midnight .. so technically Sunday already.  It meant so much to me to be able to actually drive around in her.. after so much work, this is the only time I’ve been able to participate in the Fluffy experience. Even though there were only 4 of us.. it was like my own private burning man !.. We went out to the trash fence.. which is the outer perimeter of the 25 square mile burning man venue.   Got to see some art along the way. We also ran into Danny and Arron … coem to think of it.. the only folks I ran into that I knew outside of our camp

Then home to bed.. tonight I slept on the front top stage of fluffy.. .. Here’s the view I woke up to 

 

Here’s the view looking back at me

 

We got up, ate.. and started working. Today was the first official day of burning man week.. and most of our teammates were filtering in. So great to see all my old friends !I’d hoped to spend the day exploring the playa and finding friends. But there were a number of small problems with the fire system that needed work ..I was tryign to get a little more ‘oooomph” out of the poofer.. eventually got it working.  Gizzo helped me which was fun. . I didn’t get out to explore until 3… and I had to head out at 6PM.. still had so much fun !

 

The two folks from Amsterdam came buuy.. Fluffy is goign to be part of their wedding on Thiursday.. cant wait to hear about it 

 

All the folks from the rest of the camp started filtering in. I loved catching up with them.. even though I was super busy trying to get the fire working correctly… 

 

Eventuially I got out on a bike.. and saw some art.

 

One of my missions was to get a samstone into the temple The temple is a beautiful building where people [put memorial objects and wishes in tribute to others.  Its always burnt on the last night of burning man with a totally silent crowd. I always but samstones in there. This year the temple was still under construction because of the earlier rain delays .

I met this guy who was guardign the entrance of the constructions site. I asked him if he’d put the samstone in for me. We talked for a while about families, loss and beuty.. He promised to put  the samstone in a nice place foir me and for Sam. 

 

After that I headed in to ch3eck out some camps.. I dropped by my friends at Ill-ville (illumination village) in search of a part for the El Pulpo guys. .THey needed an 1/8″ to 1/4″ bushing. Tarak took me around searching for parts. Finally Sam had what I needed.. aI gave him my last SamStone . Both Tarak and Sam are good friends of my good friend James

 

time to go.. I rode back to the man to say goodbye

 

THen back to camp to say goodye.. Duane and Rbear offered to drive me the three miles to the gate in Fluffy..   Felt like leaving the playa in style 

 

 

Fluffy couldnt pass the gate without major hassle.. so I got out , prepared to walk the remaining 2 miles to the highway. Luckily this nice guy Jack was right behind us . Super great guy.. hes a cvoluteer with the heavy equipment team that his sun runs. He offered me a ride into Gerlach where I could meet my driver back to Reno

 

 

He dropped em at Brunos.. a famous landmark in Gerlach.

 

We got to watch the sunset over the lien to enter the burn.. very glad we were heading the opposite direction 

 

Minutes later my ride James and his wife showed up…  I really enjoyed talking with them on the 90 minutes ride back to Reno.. We talked about Burning Man.. which reminded me again why I love it  so much

Bye playa.. see you again.. i’m sure

nite all, nite sam!

woke up early under the bus.. crawled out , had breakfast then got to work. 

First order of business was to finish rigging the fire .. Rebar did all the high wire stuff for that. Theres a SamStone at the top !

 

Our friends Danny and Aren came by for an early morning visit.. They are so great !

Today we had to get all three of Fluffy’s permits. First a Department of Mutant Vehicles (DMV) day permit, then a Fire Affects Safety Team (FAST) permit. Later on we went for our DMV night driving permit.. All three were fun.  We got to see some art on the way over to DMV and while in line. 

 

DMV day just checks the structure and operation of the vehicle. We got soem nice comments from the inspectors.. They said “it’s hard to do clouds  well”.. and that we had done  a very good job at carrying it off. Clouds are a common theme out here.. and they dont all turn out so well. We got through our day permit with the one request that next year we do more to disguise the front of the bus so it looks less buss-like.. duly noted. We got our sticker !

 

ext we had to get our FAST (Fire Arts Safety Team)  permit to use our poofer. FAST says their job is to “Make Dangerous Art Safe”.. kinda like that !   I was happy that the Fire Inspector said that he was “lookign for things to nitpick about .. and couldn’t find anything ” 🙂   Made my day . I’m pretty proud of the system we built here. 

 

 

Now that we could drive, we got to take in more of the sites. Lots of building goign on.. lots of it delayed bacause of the rain earlier in the week. Some great stuff !.. Most of it still under construction,

 

The.  Man and the Temple were still under construction

 

Around sunset we got ready to get our nighttime driving permit. Beautiful sunset !  Got to hang out and talk to friends !

 

THe drive to the DMV was great. lots more art complete.. and lights coming on !

 

Wonderful day out here

nite all, nite sam

-me

We woke at sunrise and got right to work !  Not many pictures from that… but the main thing is that we got fluffy put together !

 

We even had a rainbow to bring us luck !

 

My friends Danny and Aren came by.. I was in the middle of everything.. so only could talk for a short while.. it was so good to see them. I learned that they are pregnant !!!! 

 

By the end of the day, every cloud was up, every cable put in, the fire pole and poofer were assembled and the music was all rigged. We were ready !

Here are some of the test vids from after sunset

 

And many more…

I took a long walk.. then  fell asleep under the bus again..

a good long hard day !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

We got up early, packed the bus .. and went to Two Chicks for a great send off breakfast. From there we headed to the playa. Duane, Rebar and I were in Fluffy and Squatch, Marie, Aaron and Gizxo in the rental van. 

It’s only 90 miles to Black Rock City (BRC)  from Reno.. but it can take anywhere between 90 min and 11 hours !

The traffic g-ds were smiling soe we were in line to get in just 2 hours

 

A quick stop for fuel…. then we were off

the ride in fluffy was fun.. it was loud and hot.. but it was great.. I got to explore the stickers on her front

 

the lien to get in was about an hour.. but not bad as it goes.. we were surrounded by other folks eager to get in.. .The gate had been closed the last 3 days due to rain

(queue the spooky foreshadowing music.. I’m writing this on Sept 3.. after all the rain during burn week) 

We used the tiem to do stuff like put our campsite info on our phones incase we lose them

We got ready for the paperwork at the gate.. got our tickets and WAP (work access permits) together.. and finally pulled into will call to pick up a few more tickets.

 

Finally we got in.. our site location was changed… we got there and got to work.. The earth was like concrete after the rains

 

We’re camping near our friends with El Pulpo.. Duane Flatmo their leader is sitting this year out because he just got a liver transplant !

 

great to see the other builds around as well

 

Ae settled in as best we could.. and began unloading the clouds.. we didn’t have any place to put them.. so we layed them on the ground.. turned out not to be the best idea ! (it rained !)

 

 

We sat down for a yummy  meal then all found places to sleep. I chose to sleep under the bus.. turned out to be a great choice !  Here’s the view from there.

About 3A I woke to the sound of rain !  Our poor clouds !

The adventure continues !

nite all, nite sam

-me