this is were we stopped in Utah to let my breaks cool and to eat a bite. Also I got extra keys made of my truck and passed them out. some of the simpliest things like keys need to be remmbered for burning man. There is no locksmith or key maker so if you lose your keys you have to go 120 miles into Reno for help! That can be quiet expensive!
Day two on the road.
We drove into
Allot happened this day.
We left
Then we cut across
In
Coming out of the city after lunch these deer just crossed the highway in front of us! Was pretty amazing!
Day one still. about 10 hours on the road now. Welcome to New Mexico.
We changed up riders several times. everyone got along real good the whole way. Yes there were trying times, mostly at night after driving 18 hours each day. But not as trying as it is with family. when you have a group of people with one goal everyone works towards that goal and things actually get done.
We stopped just north of albequqe for dinner. Kinda hassle but not too bad.
we stopped at a casino (Indian) one for grub but mark and I couldnt find anything we like so we made sandwiches out of his trailer while most ate inside the restraunt. Was about 6pm when we stopped for dinner.
was another 4 hours until we stopped for the night in Durango were we met up with toms wifes parents and left her. split hotel room, big rooms cheap. Getting a room was kinda hassle everyone butt ass tired and grouchy but we all came thru.
Up the next morning and on the road by 9am.
This is the 97 dodge dakota supercab that I borrowed from my Mother-in-Law.
Everything I would need it piled on it!
I brought 3 extra bikes for people flying in from New York. the people from New York were camping at the same them camp as I was and I volunteed to take them bikes.
The group from new york didnt know me at all so when they got to Reno (closest airport) they bought 3 used bikes themselves. This worked out great because Paulina and Tom didnt bring bikes, so woohoo now they had some and then the girls that sat up next to me had flown in from England (thats right the country England like across the ocean england) and they too had bought bikes but one of them wasnt worth spit, so the 3rd bike got a great home.
The only thing I had not packed/bought yet was water. We would pick that up in Fallen NV. the last big city before BM.
Stopped for Lunch in Amarillo.
This was our first major stop. Lunch in Amarillo Texas. I had met Mark, Tom, Rob and Serena one other time at Mark's meet and greet. visited about an hour before this. we changed riders all the way to BM. Serena drove my truck for about an hour after we left amarillo. I drove the rest of the way there. Rob and Serena were the only ones that knew how to drive a standard and since both trucks were standards left our options limited.
We left Burleson about 6am. we were already one hour behind schedule. This is amarillo were we stopped for lunch.
The way it started.
I started planning my trip about a year ahead of time. Since I knew no one else that was going I got online to chat groups and met some. A guy here in DFW area runs a theme camp and had a meet and great about 2 months before hand. Met my first "Burners" there. Great bunch of people.
We (that group) decided to caravan the 30 plus hour drive together. Share driving, gas etc.
Well two weeks before lift off, me and Mark the other guy with a vehicle didnt have enough riders and gas was around 2 bucks a gallon. So I went online and posted I had room for a rider and he posted he had room. I got an email from a lady in houston needing a one way ride. So she drove up from houston on Thursday night, she had to work late and didnt get to my house until 2 in the morning. She crashed on the couch. We were suppose to meet Mark at 5:30 at caballas but woke up a little late.
So up at 5:30 and already late. Me and Paulina (my rider) who I just met 2 hours before, jump in the already packed truck and haul ass after leaving a voice mail with mark to go ahead and take off for Amarillo and we will catch him.
We caught him about 90 miles down the road. and that is really when the trip started.
Paulina, my rider is 27 from Russia. she has lived here in the USA for 7 years and was doing interperting for NASA. she speaks flawless english. and much better than I. She had been to Burning-Man 2 times before.
Mark had a big duelly pickup with a box trailer and tons of stuff. He is in his 50's retired, cares for his sick mom. he had been to BM 3 or so times.
the other riders were Ron and Salina, newlweeds my age. Tom who is my age. Toms wife road with us to Durango were we dropped her off with her parents. None of them had ever been.
It took us until 11 that night to get to durango. lots of stops. Every 2 hours we would stop for snacks/gas/p breaks. those took 20 minutes each time. Its challenging to drive across country with people you just met. But everyone did great, no one got overly excited or upset.
Ok this stinks.
with my job I am on call one week out of 4. I get "calls" all hours of the day while on call. So they need to get in touch with me. up until about a year and half ago the company gave me a cell phone. They then changed policy and said they will only pay 25 bucks a month to a cell phone, there thinking was you will use your cell phone mostly for personal use and they shouldnt have to pay for that.
Well "The Man" was not getting away with that with me.
I dont need nor want a cell phone for personal use. Its one more way the "man" keeps you down.
So my co. said they would give me a pager. fine with me.
So for the last year or so I have not had a cell phone and all was right with the world.
I still have yet to hear a valid argument on why you must have a cell phone.
well my smart co. did an audit and found out they are paying about 120 bucks a month for my pager....OOOPPSSS
needless to say they quickly came up with a solution. get a cell phone and we will reinburse you for it. No dont go get the 1000 minutes blackberry enabled one, just get the cheap one be resonable etc.
So today I got the evil thing. My voice mail is "you have reached my cell phone, I dont answer the cell phone and I dont respond to voice mail, if you need me page me thru "XXXX" (our co's ticket generator) .
Basically means if there is a ticket I need to work, our ticket generator will page me and I will respond as I normally do.
You want to talk to me call my home phone or my desk phone.
I wont have the evil GW empire pumping there microscopic zombie drugs into my ear!
and cell phone co's do whatever they can to get every nickle out of you. What a scam. But if you know how to read you can keep above water. Dont let the man get you!
ok carry on
Burning Man
How do you explain Burning Man to someone who has never heard of it.
How do you explain it to someone who has but has never been?
How do you do this when its family members.
How do you do this when you communicate as poorly as the President of the U.S.A.?
I am going to try.
But I will do it by just jabbering over the next few months on this blog.
I first read something on burning man in the mid 90’s.
My first impression was of people running around acting crazy doing whatever they wanted. No limits, no commercialization, no big band playing. It could be compared to some of the “Hippy” fest from the 60’s and 70’s without the rock and roll bands.
Basically it looked like one hell of a good time.
A few years ago I started asking my wife to go with me. The conversation went something like this.
“It’s a big party in the desert, looks real fun”
“Hotels?”
“well uh no you camp in tents”
“Like a camp ground?”
“Um well no, there are no services, it’s the middle of the desert”
“Oh, well uh what kind of entertainment do they have? What kind of food”
“Well nothing unless you supply it, it’s a participation event you make the entertainment and bring your own food and water.”
“were is it and when?”
“Its in northwest Nevada in the Black Rock Desert the last week of August, they burn the man the Saturday before Labor Day.”
“Isn’t August the hottest time of the year?”
“well yes but the nights do get cold and they do have dust storms so bad you cant see, they call them white outs.”
“and burn what man?”
“Just a wooden man they build and burn on Saturday”
“So let me see if I understand this, we are going to drive 1800 miles to the desert of Nevada, AT the hottest time of the year. Camp in a tent with no electricity, no water unless we bring it, the only entertainment is what we bring or make except some wooden man they burn on Saturday, there are dust storms that are so bad there are white outs. No showers unless we make our own. No restaurants, nothing for sale and you want me to do this? Honey, you might have hit your head cause you have lost your damn mind!”
So I goto burning man and that is a whole story in itself.
Maybe I will tell you about it someday!
I left on friday before the huricane, arrive sunday morning.
found out the next Saturday that New Orleans was gone...hummm
the next morning I left, finally got to the interstate and got outside radio.
I kid you not the first news I recieved from radio or anything other than a naked hippy was this abc news radio...
Prsident Bush says, "we at the white house are going to do everything we can for the victims. We are having a blood drive at the white house and I encourge every American to go out and give blood"
What a stupid person (I cant call him a Man cause he aint one!)
Blood? WTF? and this was before I found out how bad it really was. That guy that is our president has to be the dumbest president we have ever elected. I cant even imagine anyone more stupid than him. My cats have more sense than that stupid fool!
I finally got a phone and called home, it had been 8 days since talking to my wife.
"well your sister and her husband had to evacuate"
when did I have a sister in New Orleans? Well come to find out I dont, it was another gulf coast city. Yea she probably lost her chit, but they saved the cats. Now me, I would have left the cats and grabed the videos!
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