The Trip....The Arrival

After months of waiting, planning and getting ready.... the day had finally arrived! Time to leave for the Burn! The day was Saturday August 23rd. We went to pick up the rented RV (a beautiful 26 ft. 2008 Tioga with a side pop out). We took our time loading all of our things into the RV and getting it organized. We had decided that we were NOT going to rush ourselves, we would leave when we were ready.... it was all good!

As we were loading up, my best friend Jenni (TruBBle) stopped by to lend a hand and drop off her counter-part Playa Jenni. Jenni herself will NOT do the camping thing (even in an RV) so she had this doll made to go in her place.... she was the cutest thing ever....

Playa Jenni
Complete with boobs, earrings and
ball necklace.

Once everything was loaded... we were off on our adventure...

Enjoy how clean the RV is.... it wont be that way for long...

With Jenni seatbelted in... we were off
it was about 6pm when we finally hit the road.

We fueled up and got a phone call from another Burner friend of ours and fellow Drunken Dragon, Mark. He was running hours late and was just leaving as well. We met up with him at the top of the Cajon Pass and caravaned from there. Mostly the trip was uneventful. We stopped for gas (getting GREAT gas mileage by the way). We finally stopped in Bishop about midnight and had a sit down meal. Mark wanted to make it to Topaz Lake about another 3 hour drive. We had hoped to make it to the rest stop in the mountains, but were not sure how far it was. So, Magic & I decided we didnt want to attempt the mountain roads that late, we found an RV park and crashed for the night....I believe it was about 2am when we finally got some sleep.

We got up early the next morning (Sunday August 24th), both of us not really sleeping all that well ~ the excitement will do that to you. We topped off the gas tank and headed up the mountains into the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. The landscape there is simply beautiful. Some wonderful places not yet tainted by buildings, houses and people. Highway 395 is the main highway into the mountains. People heading for Mammoth, Tahoe and the ski resorts all use this highway. About 2 hours later we found the rest stop that we had wanted to stop at the night before. (next year, we will make it to this spot to crash for the night) It was beautiful! Tall pine trees (the smell was incredible)... we stopped to take a break and enjoy the natural beauty around us!

Magic & our RV at the rest stop

We were in the Inyo National Forest
Inyo means: "Dwelling Place of the Great Spirit"
how true it is!
There is something spiritual about this place
you can feel it!

The tall pines had the most incredible smell to them...
hard to describe, but just a deep forest smell

After several more hours of driving we reached the other side
of a mountain range in a town called
Bridgeport. Cute little town with some VERY interesting
yard art in front of the hotel!

We decided to go the local market deli and get some
sandwiches, which were delicious.
I saw this sign and it just struck me as funny!
Makes you wonder what other "services" they provide! ;)

After about another hour drive, we were now following the
path of a wonderful river. It was calling my name.
I asked Magic if she would mind if we stopped
and enjoyed it for a while. She was a little hesitant, but
being the wonderful friend she is, she said ok.

The water was clear, clean and cold. It was refreshing and cleansing.
I splashed the water all over my head and face and allowed it to wash away
all the "ick" of my spirit. It was the reason the river had been calling me.
It was what I needed.

We just hung out for a while, quietly reflecting and enjoying the beauty that
surrounded us. Magic was VERY glad that we stopped after all.
I splashed more water on me... and drank some as well. It was
truly a cleansing that I needed. I felt so clean and purified afterwards.

Back on the road for a while, we finally got to Topaz Lake.
Yes, we want to go "that way"!

The picture doesnt do the lake justice. The color of the
water is the most incredible blue.... hence the name
Topaz Lake...

After several more hours, lots of quaint little towns and beautiful views. We reached Reno, NV. We wanted to get the supplies that we needed: food, water etc. After a little run around due to my GPS not knowing "where" WalMart was, we finally landed in the WalMart parking lot. (Just a little travel tip: WalMart has a policy that allows RVs, travelers etc to "camp" over night in their parking lots for FREE!) I guess we were not the only ones who know this little tid bit. When we arrived there were already about 20-30 RVs parked (all BURNERS). It was perfect because it was a WalMart SuperCenter and there was a grocery store in the shopping center as well.

The plan was to get our supplies, take a nap and then head out about 9pm to the burn. (you cannot get onto the playa before 12:01am on Monday.) We thought about napping first, but again the excitement was so great that we we couldnt sleep. So off the to the grocery store we went. (of course after we had a Corona to help us relax!)

Jenni enjoys her beer!

Packed up and heading to the grocery store.

We saw this "limo-van" in the parking lot of the grocery store...
Amazing the vehicles that people travel in to the Burn! You can barely see the "Man" logo on the back left door.

It was a good thing we went to the store when we did. They were running out of some VERY important items:
We got the last 3 cases of Coronas, and they were running seriously LOW on bottled water! After gathering our items and paying our bill (about $300) we asked the clerk to pose with Jenni.... little did we know what he was gonna do to her!

OH MY! You naughty boy! *tee hee*
Love the look on his face!
Hey, where are his teeth? LOL

The WalMart parking lot, pre-burn party!

Thank you WalMart for hosting our
pre-burn party and allowing us to
stay for our "wait" time.

At 9pm, we headed to Black Rock City... home of the Burn. We had about a 3 hour drive so we thought we would be good to head out..... There were a LOT of RVs on the road, but the traffic moved smoothly. When we finally reached Gerlach, we could see the lights coming from the playa and our excitement grew even more! It took about 45 minutes to reach the dirt road to the playa.... we got our tickets out and ready to present!

Magic is scared of the camera flash! LOL

See, its easy, just open your eyes!

There ya go! LOL

Our first look, smell and taste of playa dust!!!

YUMMY!
Playa dust tastes....
like playa dust! ;)

The line to get in.....I think it took us a total of
2 hours to get onto the playa!
This is the kind of traffic that we DON'T mind!

Finally we reached our ticket taker! When he asked how many live bodies we had, I slipped and said, "Three!".... uh wait! Playa Jenni is NOT a live body! LMAO! He thought we might be smuggling someone! LOL
After his partner checking our RV for stowaways we were cleared to enter the playa and the 2 mile drive to the greeters..

This was our greeter! Yes, she is topless! (you see a lot of that and naked people on the playa)
She was very sweet and cute and had a lovely "fake" English accent!
She loved Playa Jenni and was happy to pose with her!
Notice the "grey" on the greeters...
that is the infamous playa dust!

We found another greeter to pose with Jenni!
WOW! Jenni was the first to find a hottie! LOL

The greeter's job is to welcome you home and make sure you know where you are going and have all the things you need, answer questions and do what they can to help you. If you are a virign, you get to ring the bell or get a spanking or whatever tortures they want to bestow on you...LOL. This is only part of the reason it takes SOOOO long to get on the playa! But we love our greeters!

We were HOME!!!
We were finally HOME again!!!!!

We had originally planned to park near 6 o'clock about D street, but found that all those areas were reserved for the theme camps.... so we headed towards 9 o'clock. We found a nice little spot on Hummer Street at about 7:50. (The city streets are listed A thru J from the center of the semi-circle towards the outside of the circle.... the streets that come down from the center are numbers like on a clock.) We were on Hummer between 7:30 and 8 o'clock. We were close to the privies (porta potties) and facing in a Easterly direction. We finally got landed and parked about 2:30 am. We decided to wait until the morning to unpack and set up camp.

We enjoyed being home on the playa... the sights, sounds, smells and wonder of the playa was before us again. We couldnt believe that it had already been a year since our last visit.

We finally got to sleep about 3:30 am and then woke up at about 6:30 am.... the sun had just risen and was shining a golden glow on the playa.......