This blog is about our personal Burning Man 2007 Adventure. Later blogs will be about how we prepared, about how we'd do things differently for 2008, and resources for those dreaming about going.
Our first Burning Man was like Cirque du Soleil, Mad Max, and Thunderdome on steroids 24/7. I will never again miss a Burning Man. Why? It is a spectacular huge adventure. I love the entertainment, I love the people, I love how unique it is, I love the sense of community. Burners greet themselves with the words, "Welcome Home!" I know why.
I can't believe we both slept all night long once we went to bed. Just outside our rv the entertainment continued constantly.
This
is the YouTube playlist for all my personal Burning Man 2007 videos. 4 of them made Most Viewed list, and Welcoming Signs made the following honors…
31 - Most Viewed (9/4/07) - Travel & Places
35 - Top Favorites (9/4/07) - Travel & Places
56 - Most Linked (9/4/07) - Travel & Places
3 - Recently Featured - Travel & Places
40 - Watch on Mobile
Cuz the embedded player sometimes stops after a few videos, asks u to click if u want to see more, and then it didn't work for me, if you prefer a url address for the playlist it's here.
If you watched these videos in my past blog, 4 more have been added, including a segway video, bubbles, and a few others.
This
is my YouTube playlist of my videos (u can skip thru them) and other YouTube videos that I found interesting because they captured things I saw, but didn't capture in pics or video, or they captured things I didn't get a chance to see and can now view on YouTube, or the last video is a how to video for enhancing your time at Burning Man next year. I'll be adding to this playlist as I discover videos I'm interested in. Here's the url for this playlist.
Mark did a huge amount of research and preparation. When he called to reserve the rv 3 months ago, all rvs west of the Mississippi were rented except one in Nipomo, a 3 hour one way drive for us to pick it up. We reserved it. We picked it up Sunday, only to discover the rv's air conditioning didn't work. The truck's air conditioning worked. Just not the "kitchen" area air conditioning. We'd have to drive it to Oakland to have it repaired on Monday. That was the day we'd planned to pack the RV, leaving Tue morn 4a.
While driving the rv home, we realized that I have a portable rollable air conditioner in our home bedroom, and we could use it for the rv's bdrm. We decided not to get the air conditioning fixed.
I kept telling Mark (I was driving the van following him us using ham radio to communicate) the rv was leaking water out the side. He didn't believe it was a problem. He found out our potable water was low when we arrived in Burning Man.
We picked up the rented all terrain Segways on Monday.
Mark picked up food techniques online for Burning Man, mixed omelettes ahead of time, put them in food saver vacuum bags, frozen. They were boiled for breakfast and tasted outstanding. He made chili and I made spaghetti sauce, using foodsaver. We took hardboiled eggs, cheese, crackers, grapes, omg we didn't use a third of what we brought. Each day had omelette, and dinner, snacked the rest of the time.
Our first day arriving Mark came across a corner lot that looked like we'd fit. A Burner came out to say it was kitty cat pussy wash day spa campground, but we were welcome to take the space. They had an ongoing spa. Get your hair and body washed. Our neighbors offered us some special brownies. We kindly refused.
Our neighbors across the street were the Virgitarians with a dancing pole cage.
I was melting and couldn't believe I'd signed on for this and vowed we'd be leaving and never coming back.
That day Mark worked in the heat of the sun to put up the awning he'd built. He realizes now he should have waited to build the structure at night.
Next day walking to portapotties Mark was naked, and I can't remember if I was topless. Someone called out, "Naked man! Come here!" We walked to the pink flamingo laden campground and were corralled into a sudden "wedding". Mark became the father of the bride and I was the bridesmaid.
At the Saturday Burn the Man we arrived after dark, and ended up in our chairs that we'd brought with us only 10 rows from the front of the crowd. Most people seated on the ground, some refused to sit. A yelling fight broke out. The family in front of us, parents, their adult kids, the kids' spouses, altogether. They were smoking grass and offered us ecstasy. We kindly refused. We all shared each others' liquor. A large young man was feeling the need to move further back in the crowd because of the people yelling "sit down!". I stopped him to offer him my chair, and I sat on the milk crate of the family in front of us. Yes, I was topless. I had a skirt on. The guy in front said to his sister-in-law, "I feel like I'm having this really intimate experience with strangers." His back was next to my left shoulder. I reached to put my hand on his shoulder and exclaim, "Uh, yeah."
Our daily routine was a morning ride, sitting outside our rv music and bubbles, popsicles, etc. Breakfast. When it got too hot around 1p, we'd retreat to bedroom air conditioning for a nap. Go for dusk and evening rides, otherwise sit outside our rv.
Random memories…
Ran out of potable water, no easy way to find the potable water truck now that we wanted a fillup. Mark searched by Segway, finally found out where their campsite was, learned that was false directions, found the right campsite, made an "appointment" to be filled up, he didn't show up, Mark and I went to their campsite to discover he'd gotten our "address" wrong. He filled us up with water. Cost $100.
Bedroom air conditioner said our room was 105 degrees, air conditioner turned on got it to 85 degrees.
Never needed the boots I brought.
Never needed a jacket, even at night.
Mark said, "See, this is what it would be like sailing the world and hanging out." I'm beginning to believe it's doable.
Didn't use a third of the food we brought.
Torch rocket art car would park on our corner out of sight and suddenly go off. OMG, you cannot believe the shock of the sound and the heat.
There is no cell phone reception. There is a Burning Hams' "club" and Mark was speaking regularly to them. We'd hear of the upcoming dust storm or rain.
We brought an automatic bubble machine, and began to run it day and night. At night we'd have a light under the bubbles. People walking, riding, past loved it. It was in the spirit of Burning Man each "camp" tries to participate and contribute to the Burning Man spirit.
We began to pass out frozen popsicles. If I'd thought about the grapes we had, I would have frozen them and passed them out.
I watched for a long time the young woman down our street very stylishly spanking passersby. I thought about getting a video, but just enjoyed watching the fun.
I had a handheld fan mister that I'd fill with ice cold drinking water, and offer to spray drive by bicycle burners, or pedestrian burners.
Went to the Playa one night to stumble on Thunderdome where they were doing that put hooks in your back and hang you up thing.
Heard about the couple driving in during the storm, left their car in storm, got separated, she was in burning man for a couple of days still looking for her man. The car was gone when she went looking for that. Don't know if they ever got reunited.
Heard of some medical nightmares from past Burning Man events. A man with serious heart condition refused to leave Burning Man. A man who fell and his broken glass goggles severed a facial nerve, refused to go into town and demanded stitches and to return to Burning Man.
I was playing my ipod on my ipod speakers, picking and choosing what songs I wanted to play, and a Burner stopped walking past when he heard his fav song, "I've Never Been to Me." He stood enraptured, "It's like being in church!"
I discovered Burl Ives Big Rock Candy Mountain on my Ipod. A Burner stopped in his tracks, "Burl Ives? That was such a surprise!" I told him, "To me too. I didn't know I had it on here!" He stood to listen to the song.
Mark loved the open playa mad max feeling and the cool engineering of some of the art projects and cars.
Seeing a sky full of stars.
Seeing falling stars.
Seeing flames in the night sky we thought were meteors and realized were skydivers with flames.
Virgitarians gave us raspberry infuse vodka on a tube that was "closed" with marshmallow, pulled off the marshmallow to pour the concoction in to our mouths, and fed the marshmallow from the pretty "kitty" fingers. We were invited to dance in the dancing pole cage. We kindly refused.
5 hrs to clean rv. We learned from another burner how to better keep dirt out of rv for next year.
Before my 2005 Aruba trip I'd been period free for 6 months. While on the awesome private island, HUGE period. Why do I mention this? My doc said recently tests shows I'm definitely done with periods. Uh, no. After Burning Man BIG period. Soul changing trips seem to do that to me.
We got home. Mark lost 6 lbs. I gained 2. wtf?!?
What happened after we got home? Our lottery ticket won us $10,000. They take 25% out for taxes.
Burning Man 2007 Map
Burning Man Theme Camps
Burning Man 2007 Art Installations look on right for links about the art
The What Where When book is 85 pages long. Here's a sample…
If you don't want to download the 1 page sample, here's a few entries…
Throat singing
Pee Funnel Camp (the book gives descriptions, this camp is, "Come on down to Pee Funnel Camp any time of the day or night for your very own pee funnel (or one to give as a gift)!
posted by rsb1953
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