Burning Man... an event that I have wanted to attend for years.....It took a short moment of calculation (after all, I don't have a job). And really, how could there be any other reply? Of course I said yes. As with everything that Bill Peckham does (well, almost everything...) the trip is being blogged. We are using the "he said, she said format" my post is directly under his @ IHD. When the trip is over, I will repost my post in its entirety here - I am cheating though... most will be a repost, but a lot will be my version of the trip (not posted on IHD). You'll have to use this link to read Bill's version of the trip. Here is a link to my photo album of the trip.Saturday 8/29
I am still in NYC, packing. I fly to Seattle on Monday. Bill has been doing the brunt of the work. My sleeping pack is stuffed, my backpack almost packed and now I am just organizing myself for the trip. This will be my first trip to Burning Man. I've wanted to go for years and was instantly jealous when Bill told me about his past trips. Bill is officially a "Burner". Me, well, they have another name for first timers....
Burning Man encourages Radical Self Reliance. Fitting that we are writing about it on IHD. Was it radical when Bill decided to go it alone on home hemodialysis all those years ago? I know that people thought I was pretty radical when I followed in his footsteps. And for both of us, solo home hemodialysis changed our lives by keeping us healthy, active and well... self reliant.
And so, we will drive to the desert, set up camp and experience a city and a culture of 40,000 people that exists for only one week. (we'll be there for three days) Then we'll pack up camp, leave no trace behind and carry with us the what we experienced...possibly... burning the man, the sights and sounds of Black Rock City (fingers crossed, a sunrise or two), a lot of dust, pictures and memories of living for three days in the desert, years after our native kidneys stopped working and we rely on medicine, science & technology to be alive.
Monday 9/1
I flew out of Newark, with three bags. My day pack, my red backpack (from the Australia trip in the early 90's) and a sleep sac stuffed with a thermarest, my sleeping bag and other various sundries.
Some back story... I met Bill on the internet in 2007 at the dialysis support site IHD. He was a dialysis veteran 20+ years, and I was just starting. I immediately fell for his writing style. He is also an inveterate traveler and writer. Calling it a crush would be an understatement. But life is complicated.
I'd been to Seattle a couple of times in the past two years. My friend Denise is a nurse from Washington state. She was living in Seattle, and it was great to finally go out there, see her and meet Bill. On my last trip to Seattle, Bill & I spent a day walking around Mt. Rainer and it was wonderful. I was imagining that Burning Man would be the same.
But a lot happens in a year. We were facing this road trip with no expectations. Since the Mt. Rainer trip, I had a kidney transplant, five months later, I stopped writing about CKD advocacy and pulled my bio from Bill's blog. It was time, I didn't fit in anymore. And no matter how much fun I had with Bill when he first started the blog and no matter how much I had invested in it emotionally, it was not mine to be invested in. (more on that another time)
My flight to St. Louis was perfect. At the airport I stopped at Wolgang Puck Pizza Express, got a G&T and a pizza, then boarded my final leg to Seattle. My flight was early. I texted Bill from the tarmac, got my bags, and soon enough, he and Cairny pulled up to the curb. I threw my bags in the Subaru, and we drove off to West Seattle.
That night, for the first time, I sat and watched Bill set up for dialysis in person (having watched the video countless times), then I said good night and went off to bed, leaving him to sleep in his chair, while the machine cleansed his blood for the next 8 hours.
I had a nightmare that night and woke to hear Cairny fast asleep, but twitching (as dogs do) in the bedroom. I was groggy and disoriented as I heard the alarm go off on Bill's machine. My head hurt and I climbed out of bed and went to get an aspirin. When I peeked into the dialysis room, there was the glow of the computer, and I thought Bill was awake, so I stood in the doorway like a spectre and asked if he was ok. I scared the hell out of him. He had been fast asleep. That was the first of many surprises on the trip to Burning Man.
Tuesday 9/2
The next morning, I apologized, he accepted and then he had a phone interview with Salon.com. So, I walked to Bakery Nouveau and to check out West Seattle on foot. It is a great neighborhood, and people are so nice. Definitely NOT NYC. The bakery had some amazing goat cheese and mushroom quiche, I had a mocha, grabbed a scone for Bill and headed back to his place. I only got a little lost - which for me is amazing.
When Bill finished his interview, we started preparing for the trip. Bikes, u-haul, firewood, Home Depot, Food, booze... lots of errands to run. I put together the fire-pit, swept the front porch, and all the cleaning and loading the u-haul (the sofa we took came from the front porch - my project was to scrape years of dust off it - just to have the dust replaced in the desert days later...)
We went to Mark & Debbie's for dinner that night. After a quick attempt at cleaning myself up (I didn't have time for a shower) we went to their beautiful house. It is at the end of a dead end street and overlooks the ocean at sunset, the view was breathtaking. Debbie is Bill's best friend, and they have a relationship that is amazing. Just that past Sunday they had gone on a day trip to the mountains to celebrate Bill's 46th Birthday. It was just Bill, Debbie and the dogs and Bill described it as the perfect day. Mark (Debbie's husband) and I sat and listened as Bill & Debbie recounted their hike and they talked about trips past and future. It was a lovely meal, hearing happy stories, watching an amazing sunset.
Wednesday 9/3
Bill dialyzed, I slept, and was up early (thank you jet lag). We ran some errands, walked Cairny in Dragonfly Park (an amazing little park in the industrial section of West Seattle), then brought Cairny to Debbie's to drop him off. Good-byes were said, and soon enough we were back to hitch up the trailer (after redistributing the load) and we were on the road. Bill ran in for some coffee @ Diva's, we have goodies from the bakery... next stop Klamath falls. The trailer & car were fully loaded.
It was a typical road trip drive. We played the "How far is that?" game (I lost - repeatedly). We saw some breathtaking scenery - driving through the cascades. The i-pod gave us a sou
nd track, and mother nature gave us some surprises. The first was a huge fire that was burning in some fields in Oregon. We oohed and awwed, and then thought of Karol and the wildfires in Southern California. I wondered about the towering cloud of smoke - was this a sign? After all, we were on our way to Burning Man. We got to the hotel, unpacked the NxStage and Bill set it up. We had sandwiches from Bakery Nouveau, stopped at the hotel bar for a quick drink, and then it was time for Bill to dialyize, and me to sleep.Thursday 9/4
An early start, a nice crisp morning, coffee, loaded up the NxStage, showered and loaded the car, now we are going to have our last "Electric Breakfast" for a few days. I'm going for the waffles!! ( I actually went for the corned beef hash and scrambled eggs...)
We drove through Portland yesterday, and it was just as Bill explained, it is a little Jewel of a city. Some great architecture, fun modern buildings and a funky mini suspension bridge. Then we drove through the Cascades, and my jaw dropped. I had forgotten just how beautiful nature can be.
We've taken some pictures, and as soon as we get settled, there will be some uploading. (providing that the wifi cloud at Burning Man is working)
The long and winding road to Burning Man...
We drove through some desolate areas. No houses, no power lines. I saw my first tumbleweed. We stopped to get ice in Altruas (and resisted the free puppies on offer on the community bulletin board) As it was a road trip, I got a Mountain Dew. In the 80's Mountain Dew was the energy drink of choice - way before red bull...
And we hit the mountains. And we saw other burners on their way to the desert. In our final descent from the mountains into the desert, I got my first taste of the Black Rock Desert. (I will be tasting the desert for a very long time).
We stopped in Gerlach for gas (the cheapest of the trip) stopped at a temporary mall camp for Burners and had some fried spring rolls for lunch, then I had my first stop at a desert porta potty. (Bill has amazing patience for my Urinatior habits)
As we
turned down the access road to the Playa, we saw a cloud of dust. And as we drove closer to the entrance, we were surrounded by dust and it was a "tanout" (If a snowstorm gives a "whiteout", and a NYC power loss is a "blackout", then a dust storm must be a "tanout" - that is pure Anna logic at its finest!)Bill, having read the e-mailed instructions - drove into the wall of dust with complete faith that we would end up at the place we were supposed to be. He was right. We did.
When we got back in line to go through the check in/welcome/vehicle search, I was pulled out of the car by a bare chested "Greeter" having been identified as a Burning Man Virgin (gee thanks Bill), I was brought to a big brass bell, suspended on a structure and told to lay on my back and make a Playa Angel in the dust, and them ring the bell while screaming "I am no longer a virgin" - well duh, I am no longer a virgin (but it was so nice to be called one...) The bare chested hunky guy hugged me. (no complaints here) and then I was brought back to the car. Bill was given a quick rundown of where the quieter spots were (around 8:00 on the grid) and we headed off to find our campsite.
Friday 9/4
Our first night was LOUD. We walked around the city in the morning - Bill stopped to post at a wifi hotspot @ the intersection of 9:00 and Biodiversity, we then walked on, gasping at the line waiting to buy ice, (not by the length, but by the variety) stopping for lemon-aid at center camp, and then on to see displays surrounding the Man. Some Art Cars, the MOM installation and an amazing art piece on Perspective where we got to speak to the artist, who came from Bristol England. Then we were drawn to the Stainless Steele Rocketship - it was like a magnet calling out to us. The irate man who was guarding the launch pad was in the middle of job burn out, and we got a front row seat as he barked at various people to "Get the F**ck off the Rocket" and "We're gonna launch this at 10:00 tonight - we were intrigued, this was not a rocket to be launched. Our curiosity was piqued, and we decided to return that evening.
Around 9:00 Bill & I made our way to the center ring of the city that the Rocket would launch from. We waited, and waited, and watched the crowd swell, and there was so much. a parade of flame spew
ing vehicles, a parade of "Little Black Dresses" (male and female models - there had been an earlier fashion show) and an eccentric parade of art cars and people. We decided to circumnavigate the center ring of the city, and as we walked, and avoided dropped bicycles, drunken revelers and "Dark Wads" (I was a Dark Wad - anyone who is not wearing neon - a very nice man stopped me, and gave me a necklace, so that I would fit in. (and maybe not be hit by a car or a bicycle). It was while we were working our way through the crowd, we saw the most amazing sight. An articulated city bus that had modified to be a party bus. I have never seen anything like it, and I live in NYC!Here is a daytime video of the bus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSx49NCfSU
Sunday 9/6
(click on photo for a panorama of our camp)
An amazing time, and
we have many pictures but Burning Man was really off the grid for us. We had ventured out to walk around the camp and find a wifi signal. Bill's last update was done while we were sitting in Camp Singularity - a camp for open discussion, where people met and a topic was spoken on, and the audience participated in a "salon". We stumbled across it not in use and it was a quiet, shaded place near the wifi hotspot of section 9:00. After that post, we were unplugged for the rest of our stay at Black Rock City.We are now back at the hotel in Klamath Falls, having left Saturday afternoon. Friday night was an amazing, exhausting night, but there had been terrible wind/dust in the night and by the afternoon on Saturday, the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH, and we made the decision to hit the road, rather than be a part of the mass exodus on Sunday morning. I'll admit it, "radical self reliance" for me, from now on will always include a shower. We tried a "bottle mister" shower on Sat am, although refreshing, the layers of dust still made my hair prematurely white and rather like I had some bizarre clay styling gel in it. The hotel has an indoor pool, and a sauna. That and a cheeseburger was our goal on Saturday night.
Bill has been amazing doing all of the driving. It was a sold 4-5 hour drive on Saturday, and I felt really bad that he was doing all the driving and that he may be exhausted, so I offered to drive. His reply "Well, that will definitely keep me awake." - He had declared back in LA in the Spring, that I am "not allowed to drive in Seattle." When we were driving around the day after we went to the RSN play "Who Lives" I may have run a stop sign or two - geesh... and maybe I cut a few people off... My friends & family are laughing and nodding their heads as they read this in admiration of Bill's self preservation.
We'll fill in the blanks and upload lots of pictures, it really was an amazing time for me, and an interesting look for Bill, having now seen such change. He was lauded as being one of the early "Burners". Some of our camp neighbors came to visit, share some food or drinks that they brought and hear about what Burning man was like back in the day. And for me, I am no longer a "Burning Man Virgin" - even though we didn't watch the man burn in person (we streamed it live from the comfort of the hotel).
Earlier, I pondered "if I didn't see the man burn, does that mean that I am still a Burning Man virgin? - was it like I only got to Burning Man third base?" As we were driving through the desert through the dust and wind to the "Default World" of highways, hotels and cell phones, Bill had a great answer "Nope, you made it all the way, there just wasn't any protection - @ Burning Man, an RV would have been the protection."
So, in the next few days, we will upload a lot of pictures, fill in a lot of blanks to describe what we saw, did and experienced. But for right now, it is all about washing off the layers of Black Rock City Playa dust & sunscreen. Today, there will be sauna, swimming, restaurant food, and then an 8 - 9 hour drive back to Seattle.
Thursday 9/10
I am back in NYC. On our last morning on the Playa,
Bill woke me up to see the sunrise from the tent - seeing the glow of the sun lighting the desert from the tent window (I was too exhausted to climb out of bed) - well, that is one of the sights that I will carry with me in my memories forever.Just a couple of things that I can say I have learned:
- Some new vocabulary - I will forever be chasing MOOP;
- Bill Peckham cooks an amazing breakfast with a frypan and a camp stove;
- A Gin & Tonic really is the perfect drink for a hot desert afternoon;
- Dialysate Boxes can be used as a platform, a storage box, and a solar oven
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