Burning Man (Black Rock City) Part 1

On Sunday the 24th of August we made our way to Reno to stock up on supplies and pick up Brian's friend Sabrina, who was also going to the burn. On the radio they warned about the weather. Not a dust storm this time (like during build, that forced the building crew to rebuild a lot of the camp that was blown down), but rain. And when it rains on the playa, vehicles can't move. The dust turns into a sticky paste, that will stop even off road trucks. So they had to close the gates. Luckily we were not in line yet, but could camp close to the beginning of it.

The next morning, the rain was gone and they opened the gates again. During our long wait in line, we prepared the van for the heat, by taping safety blankets to the outside. It works really well to keep the inside relatively cool. After about 7 hours, we reached the entrance and were redirected to D-lot. That's were you go, if something goes wrong or you messed up. We were informed that someone had reported us for "mooping". "Moop" stands for matter out of place. Burning man is very strict about leaving no trace and we had definitely been respecting that. The woman lecturing us got a stern response by Brian, that we had not been mooping and someone must have been confused about the safety blanket thing. Then we were allowed to park our van and get in another line to pick up our tickets. The line was very long and it started raining again. So we got worried, that we might get stuck. Suddenly, the lights went out and a woman from the registers said something, that only the people at the front could hear. Word quickly spread, that power was down and we should return to our vehicles. About 50% did so, but we waited a moment longer. After a minute the power went back on and we were able to get much further to the front of the line. Sabrina and Brian had reacted quicker then Kirsten and me and got even further. They wanted us to join them,so we could get in before the rain might get worse. But good Germans as we are 😉, we did not wanna jump the line even further. So we made the plan, that Sabrina and Brian would get their tickets and the vehicle pass, get back in line with the van and Kirsten and me would join them, when we had our tickets. Good plan, only it did not comply with burning man rules. Brian had just passed the ticket check with the van, when Kirsten and me got our tickets and walked over to join them. We were met by very angry ticket inspectors, who informed us, that we can't get in without a vehicle. They berated us like we had committed a serious crime and at that point I was starting to get really annoyed. After paying a lot of money, waiting in several lines for about 8 hours, them not being organized very well and that rule not being obvious, I was not going to be treated like I just drowned a freaking puppy for making an honest mistake. Even me as a German thought, loosen up a bit! But Brian was redirected to D-Lot, there we were put back in the van and were told by the same lady as before, that "no mooping" included people 😝. After that we were finally allowed in. There is a tradition for first time burners (like me), to make a dust angel. As Brian and Kirsten had never done that either, they joined me. We dropped off Sabrina's stuff at her camp and then went to ours, were she had some more things to collect. And there we were, finally joining Cosmic Giggle.

The next two days, we were not able to explore Black Rock City a lot, because it kept raining every afternoon. I found the situation quite challenging, not being able to just go outside and wash or pee in the woods, but having to use pretty disgusting porta potties (they can't be cleaned when it rains, because of the mud). I felt kind of trapped. We did go on a little walk to center camp to check out art. It was fun stumbling through the mud and enjoying center camp almost all by ourselves. We also helped the camp to set up more things, that they had not been able to finish in time, because of the sand storm. Especially Brian worked a lot, he is talented with craftsmanship and has the energy of a Duracell bunny (haha, who is old enough to understand that reference? 😋), it's amazing! ♥️ We had our first camp party and enjoyed dancing, massages and getting to know more and more of the 40 people in our camp.

On Thursday the rains stopped and we could finally explore more. We tried to get a shower at the Dr. Bronners (saop brand) camp. They foam you up and shower you off, but when we arrived, they had run out of fuel for their generator. So we went to a camp with a sauna, but their stove was broken 😭 So, back to our camp and doing our own hair washing party 😋

That night we went out on playa for the first time with our bikes. It was absolutely amazing. All those lights from the art cars, art peaces, from bikes and people wearing LEDs, it's like a different world. The heat during the day was very challenging for me, but I really liked the evenings and nights...