Today was my first// and likely last  full day on the Playa this year and I made the most of it ..   I woke up early-ish and worked with Steven to fix up a couple of bikes.. I thien went off in search of max and becky

 

I found them at the fear beast.. a work led by Tigre.. and amazing artist / maker from Santa Fe. They were friends with many of our friends from Meow Wolf so it I was great seeing them.. I ran into Taz, Cathy, and a few other folks.  It was so great being able to work with and hang out with max and becky. Thsi was a really nice project they were drafted in to help late in production. max dfi a bunch of fab and welding for them.. while Becky worked her project management and artistic magic

 

I  worked with max and becky on and off through the day doing odd jobs, mostly clean up around their build.  I also helepd max wiht the dmx mapping a bit. A couple of time i headed out for a few hours to look at art and find firends..

I visited Illumination Village (Ill-Vill) to see if any of my freinds were there.. it’s my favorite flame makers group… I didn’t know anyone there.. but had fun seeign the art and talkign to soem other fire folks

I visited my good freinds at thunder gumbo and saw my good freinds Jac and Bruce.. and got to climb on my old freind BOOGA the 6 wheel beast thats part of their art car.. I

(here’s what Max and I once did with booga )

 

 

I enet and visited Duane and Micky at el pulpo  to see their brand new El Pulpo Magnifico !. Diuane has been so helpful to us in building our flame effects.. THey are so great !

Early afternoon the truck showed up with Gizzo and Rebar and others started showing up.. our camp was beginning  to come together

 

Our friend Kane did a masterful job of organizing all of us around putting up camp

We took a few moments to watch the amazing sunset…

We kept building past dark..   and watched our neighbors come to life.. Flatmo’s  El pulpo magnifico..  Is just down the road from us .. and it is truly magnifico !

AND THEN ….  !

at 10pm … we were wonderfully surprised to see Duane and Fluffy driving in..    just  5.  days  late   

FLUFFY MADE IT !!!!   We were so happy.

We immediately started to unload her and get gear ready for putting her together tomorrow.

 

Once all the stuff was ready to go, a bunch of us went out on bokes to check out the playa.. it was crowded now.. just like burning man is supposed to be !

I got to bed around 3.. super excited to begin gettign Fluffy ready to roll tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

LOng complicated day with a good ending.. for me at least

I wokle at Sue and Jims and got to admire the view from their house !

I hurried back to the sierra to meet everyone for breakfast.. Because it was starting to look like I would not make it out to the playa this trip, I had an early flight ohoemn on Tuesday to make kevin and marges wedding.. If we/i didn’t get on the playa today, it might not be worth making the trip

For that reason, i’d agreed to give two sets of classes.. Light School and Fire School.. in case I might not   be there to help with set up and operation of the fire and lights.

we started with Light school where we went  through   all the assembly , wiring and testing of the nearly 1100 led strips, the ‘cluthulu’ pixel controller (a pixcon 16 MKII if anyone is interested). Our sparkling new Onlogic K800 ruggedized fan-less computer, the Entek Light mapping  (ELM) software, the wireless access point that linked in the iPad to control the software and two levels of back up devices in case that failed.. ..  We (marie, aaron S, rebar, gizzo and jack)  went through  all of Maries beautiful maps of the lights  , schematics, player screens.. ..stuff like this..

 

That took about 2 hours then we did fire   School ..  I  had to prep  the fire folks for the registration process at the department of mutant vehicles (DMV) where they safety inspect the fire elements. I’ve built a bunch  of fire devices, but never had to go through the approval  at burning man. They can ask you anything about the component ratings, fires protocols, failsafes, etc.. i have heard many horror stories of cars being turned away for not passing their fire safety tests.. and didn’t want that to be us !

we (rebar, gizzo, .. who else ?) went through all the safety docs that James and I had put together (I’ll be forever grateful to James for all the work he did  in  helping us write the safety docs !!!!!).  We went through the set up (which Rebar already new well).. testing, start up, tank changes and most importantly  the emergency procedures. Even though fluffy only has a sing simple poofer, we carry 200 pounds  of propane and shoot 10 feet of flame.. safety is a big deal. There has to be a sober person with her/his hands on the control at all times the device is running. Here are some  of the docs we went through.. Again.. a ton of stuff

Im happy to see the peoples did wonderfully and the classes went well. After my room light score the rest of us headed over to the storage container again with all of our crew had turned off for the actual packing for the rest of the camp.. it was so great seeing everyone

while we were packing I had sort of an epiphany.. I realize if I got out to apply today I could actually go work with Max and Becky other project and still see a little bit at the Bernie name before I had to go. It turns out that Duane had to drive to Black Rock to pick up some will call tickets not just for me but for a bunch of other people who have to go the next day during Introdus. Getting them today before the pie was officially open which save countless hours the next day… So Duane seen my eagerness to go and see Max and the benefit of picking up these tickets agreed to take me to 90 miles to the choir and drive back on his own. What a guy with all he has on his mind. Anyway I quickly gather my gear I  borrowed a  sleeping bag  and other essentials.. and we took off for the playa..

a completely different day than anyone was expecting !

I really enjoyed the drive out with Duane.. he’s such an amazing man.. It was fun  getting to hang out with him  for a bit.. I felt like I was riding with the King !

the ride out to the gate was amazingly fast… About an hour and a half from Reno… But then we got hung up at the gate temporary closed the entrance. We got our tickets and Duane very  kindly drove me in to our camp. That was no small tasking given the sandstorm… But eventually he was able to drop me off say hello and then head straight back to Reno. That’s a long hard drive back especially  with a sandstorm blowing.. but he did it and  will always appreciate that given all else he had on his mind !

I quickly set up a makeshift camp thanks to Lara (PingPongs) grai=cious lending of a hexayurt tent. It was great getting to know her boyfriend Stephan and his sons Silas who just turned eight. They were so nice… Green spaghetti and then I head out in search of Max and Becky

It was great being out on the playa before the crowds… It was a little like my own private burning man..

 

Eventually found Becky but never ran into Max at night…. beres the peice they were helpign with.. it’s called the Fera Beast.. and its amazing.. made out of steel and tires..

I deffintely felt “home”

I got back to campe around 3 and slept great !

more from the playa tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Fluffy is still at the shop.. and the shop is not giving us any clue on when/if she will be able to drive on her own. Seems her catalytic converter and some of the sensors around that are the problem

not much the 7 of us  can do at this point other than wait…

even though most of the duaneswhirld  crew doesn’t come in to tomorrow, we headed to our groups storage bin to pull out some  of the stuff we’d need if we do manage to get out to the playa to catch some  of the early admittance build week

Our srargae container is right next tot eh Grand Sierra.. a  minutes drive or a very hot 10 minute walk .. I chose the walk

Its always exciting and a bit horrifying to open the door to the container..  It’s always jamed full of a tnagle of bikes, hexayurts, coolers, camping gear and other left behinds. THis time it was much cleaner as soem of the team had come out for a cleanout over the winter..

even still its a chore to find wha you need.. but the smell of the playa dust is strong and reassuring as we pull the stuff we need out and put it in the trailer.

Aside from that .. I spent the time finishing the fire docs and printing all the lights and fire stuff out for the fluffy manual.. the stuff is about an inch and a half thick at this point !

We’re now 3 days later than out plan .. and i’m beginning to wonder if Fluffy is gonna make it..

but hope springs. eternal..

the hotel is now filling up with dirty hippies (like us).. so there are no rooms. I called our friends Sue and Jim   who moved out here over covid. Jims out of town, but Sue let me camp over there.. It was great catching up with her and seeing their beautiful new house in the hills over reno.. I also got to know their cats !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Yesterday we learned that the bus had broken down in Salt Lake.. luckily some friend of PingPongs (laras’) lived in Salt Lake.. they came down and helped duane and left get fluffy running again.. the issue was a mx of clogs.. fuel filter, catalytic converter etc..

Thanks to the help Fluffy made it a good many more miles until breaking down again about 190 miles  East of reno..

We all started calling around.to find a diesel mechanic who could work on the bus ASAP..

long story, Duane ended up gettign the bus towed to Reno where a cash only diesel mechanic named Bernie promosed to take care of her..

All that happened while we hung out in the hotel in Reno on our 2nd ‘bonus day’. I say binus day because it was a an unexpected day of sleep, food and AC.

 

I used it to continue workign on the fire docs and light install plans..

We did get out to do some  more playa shopping.. look how welcoming the wallmart was .. Party on the Playa ?

SIngle burner..    soudsnlikeasadshortstory

Luckily  just after dinner Duane and Stein arrived from the tow in.. We took care of them

 

nite all, nite sam

-me