Home again home again… jiggedy-jig. Burning Man was great.., but It’s so nice to be back here with Diane and Gabe in cool lush Vermont. Today is labor day.. and I did nothing of the sort.. we spent the day chilling out. More on that in a bit. I wanted to share a few pics from our last day (sat) at Burning Man.
The big news on Sat was the sandstorm. It started around noon and lasted unitl just after 8. It was unbelivablly cool to walk around as the milky dust swirled around us. At time you couldn’t see 15 feet in front of you. At one point I walked about 20 yards out into the playa and found thta I couldn’t see anything.. not a person. not a camp… nothing but milky whiteness and howling wind.. I even managed to get lost trying to retrace my steps back to esplanade..
The wind wsa so firece thta it trashed many folks campsites…
It tried to take us down.. but we survied.. Here’s Max and my tent at one point in the storm..
We did loose our tarp at two points ..
Sara and Jeff dind’t seem to mind
Max and I cruised around in the storm just checking it out.
He looks good with a touch of grey !
Yeah… right..
At one point feerless leader Ben dragged us out in the storm to serve blender drinks at 4:30 and Esplenade. It was cool working there.. people just appeared out of the grey.. Our drinks were nuch appreciated !
The drink stand was fully personed.. so Max and I wandered out to explore soem more. We stopped in on my friends Jeff and Michelle.. they were doing a bizzarre craft experiment that I can’t really go into here.. But.. it was great hanging out with them and their friends Shelby, underwear-dude and Ben..
We finally braved the storm and went back home for dinner. We passed this parade on the way
Ben was on for dinner.. and really outdid himself.. cous-cous salad with capers.. tuna stuff and gralic bread.. and fresh waffles for dessert. It was really good.. We left a plate on Duane’s belly so he could eat it when he woke up.
Neighbor Woody dropped by with a shirt he’d made,, cool and spooky. He sort of adopted us after I picked the lock on his cars bike rack for him.
Then we took off for the Burn.. It had been put on hold because of the dust storm.. but the wind died.. and we we’re back on ! We were right up on the perimiter at about 3:00.. The art cars were all out behind us. We all sat down.. nearly 50 thaousand folks sitting out in the desert waiting for an 80 foot wooden man to be burned to the ground..
The brrn started at about 10..
First on came the lights.
Then fireworks.. lots of them…
Then a few massive explosions ..
Then more fireworks !
the Man was really burning at that point.
The air was thick with sparks.. We were showered with burning embers.
And then…… he stared to go down.. first an arm.. then the other. then the pedestal just toppled..
The crowd roared.. and surged forward…
Unfortunately.. in th e rush.. Max lost his camer and all of his pictures… We spent about 30 minutes looking for it.. then decided it must have been picked up. It was a hard blow.. and took th wind out of us for a while.. We walked in and put a lost and found request on the camp computer. Max was amazing and managed to shake it off .. The two of us walked back out to the man then walked over to the temple.. Once again that was an emotianl experience.. I was glad to be sharing it there with Max. I wish we’d been able to hang out on Sunday and watch them burn the temple.. they do that silently..
We walked aroudn the playa and saw soem of the art that’s in the far north..
Including theis buildig sized Tetris game..
Then we clibed the 10 story tower of babble . I took this 240 degree snapshot from the top using several pictures. This is what the lights of camp look like from 12 oclock .. As you can see, the playa is pretty big.
Then we walked home… It was about 2:30 at that point.. max went out again to find freinds and dance.. .I took a shower under the stas then managed to get 2 hours of sleep. I woke at 5 ,, and finished the packing. max came hoem at sun-up and helped me strike the tent and pack the car.. We left Duane’s World and Burning Man at 6AM .. it took us 30 min just to reach the gate of Black Rock City.. then about 2 hours back to Reno..
It was Pierre driving with Warren, Dal , Max and me as passnegers.. Very interesting conversations in the car . Pierre gave us another lesson in Matte making. I was the servador and served my car mates with mattee. Dal told us about his run for the presidency 4 years ago.. and his efforts to use his film projects as a tool to broker peace deals in Iraq. He also told us some more of his love life.. He’s a fascinating guy..
Pierre dropped us off at the airport and took the car to wash it. We all checked in and had most higly awaited breakfast .. THen.. it was time to say good bye.. It ws actually quite hard for me.. We all shook hands/hugged.. then Warren headed of to Seattlle.. Dal to Denvor .. (for the Republican convention.. as an ultra-leberal guest.. ) … a
Max and I went over to wait and ran into several other burners on their way back.. here are Wanda (chicago) and Heather. (amhurst) .
And soem nameless burners tring to recover on the floor
They had a great display for bruning man in the Reno Airport.. This case had a display of gifts folks had given out in prior years.
It cried out for a SamStone.. Luckily.. I had my lock picks.. max made a diversion while I popped the two locks, put int the samstone.. then locked it back up.. You know, Lock picking may well be the most useful thing I learned as an undergrduate..
I had to run to the Bathroom again.. I got in there and noticed that the urinals were missing.. uh–oh.. wrong bathroom.. I sprinted out just as tow women were coming in..
Then it was time for Max to go back to brooklyn and Pierre to head to the west coast.. and then back to his home in Georgia..
Just as those guys turned the corner, I had one of those uber-small world things happen that occur always in my life. My firends Al and Andrea and there kids walked by.. and they hadne’d been at burning man.. they’d just been out vacationing .. Wierder still, ndrea said that Al was now becoming obsessed with making high technology art.. I see joint projects in our future.. (Bob M. I can only imagine what you’re going to suggest..I’m sure I’ll hear from you tomorrow. . 🙂
the flight back was pretty easy.. there were some nice views as we took off after our short stop in Vegas. Here’s the ‘strip’
I got to albany around 10:30 got my car, grabbed soem food then started the ride back to VT. Igot hoem around 1:30.. pretty beat, but happy. I gave Diane a hug then fell asleep untill nearly 11 the next morning…
The three of of us took a 6 mile canoe trip down
the Winooski from the Bolton Dam back to our house. It was a nice way
to mark the day after our 22nd anniversary which was yesterday. . .. Hey .. I realized today
that it’s also burning man’s 22nd anniversary..
Things like anniversarys.. and the start of school are hard for me.. They’re more mileposts without Sam.. Man,,,,
Gbe helped me load the Canoe.. he’s now so big and strong that he can hoist the canoe up there almost by himself..
We put in by Bolton Dam about 6 miles up river from the house..
Diane got the ‘queen’ seat, while gabe and I paddled. We had a strong headwind.. so we had to work..but still made good time. It was a beautiful day..
One of our gols on the ride was to visit Co-Mar island where Sam and I camped a couple of times. We once left a flag there we used to be able to see from the road. We pulled up on the island and had a great picnic,
We looked for the flag.. but couldn’t find it.. no surprise.. this island floods all the time.. Gabe put a SamStone on soem of the trees that washed up here on some recent flood.
We got home around 3ish.. pulled the canoe up.. then Diane and I drove to fetch the car.. We took the dogs.. and took them for a hike up the Catamount trail Chai and I took a swim in one of the swimming holes up there.. Sorry no picture.. The blog has had enough nudity this week 🙂
It was so nice walkign through the gentle cool woods of our neghborhood after the sun, wind and grit of the desert..
The rest of the day was pretty quiet.. I hosed out my bags, rinsed out the tent and washed all my clothees.. twice to get the nasty dust out.. Quiet dinner.. then Gabe and I just spent a cool hour rigging his door to open when you pull on a gieant spoon hung on his door. I think he’s goign to be an inventor !
OK.. that’s all for the day.. It’s going to be a busy week.. More on that as it developes.’Nite folks, ‘nite Sam.
-me
