Not only was there dust.....there was also mud at Burning Man this year. Why not? At least my tent did not blow away and it was only muddy for like half a day. In 2016 when I went to Burning Man with my brother......hold on, wait that was TEN YEARS AGO and those ten years flew by and the reality of that is making me feel all kinds of weird feelings. Anyhow, in 2016 me and my brother arrived, put up the tent and the shade structure and then biked out to see some stuff. And when we returned the shade structure was gone, it blew away. That is when I learned to bring the proper stakes to keep things in place. We located the shade structure and put it back up but it was like mangled. Anyhow during this year's dust storms and winds I managed to squeeze in some activities.
The Temple. I went there three times and put up pictures of my loved ones that passed on.
I went on a couple of art tours. This one was on the Cencus art car. My company was my friend Ming that I met at Burning Man a few years ago, we kept in touch.
Sometime around 7 am or so on Friday I woke up to the sound of raindrops that just would not stop. It rained for a while and I was hoping it would not be a repeat of 2023 but by the early afternoon I was out walking on the playa.
Friday evening I hopped on The Monaco for a sunset art cruise. We made it to the trash fence when the fuel pump went out and Danger Ranger, who happened to be onboard as well, came to the rescue and towed The Monaco with his truck back to camp. Danger Ranger is amazing, I really wish I would had asked him if I could take a picture with him but I felt too shy to ask. Instead I stared at him like.......wow.
You should bring everything you will eat, drink and use to Burning Man. Unless you stay at some plug-and-play camp, which even if I was a millionaire I would not do. I want to have the whole Burning Man experience, even the struggles. Here is some of the food that I brought to Burning Man. Not pictured, chips and beverages including water.
And we had this luxurious set up. I did not need to unpack my camp stove or the propane that I brought. Yeay! Our kitchen was underneath a large canopy that provided shade and shelter and we also had a large table with seating. So nice.
Join me on my first couple of days at Black Rock City. The best city on the planet! I drove my car from Oregon to Nevada. It was the first time traveling to Burning Man by myself. I arrived at the line of vehicles going into Black Rock City around 3 15 am and I was thinking ok......maybe three hours or so until I get in. Well, I was wrong. It took about seven hours and it was brutal once the sun came up. Then I was asked to go to the D Lot, which was a first, so somebody could inspect a small piece of carpet that I brought to decide if I could bring it in or not. That took time as well. I was tired and hot, sitting in a car for seven hours inching forward is not fun. It usually does not take this long, it all depends on when you arrive. So I got to the Black Rock desert the night between Sunday and Monday September 5th. And got my ticket about 9 30 am. Brutal.
Holding my ticket, the vehicle pass and the survival guide. Feelings of anticipation and happiness inside my soul.
Then I found my camp, said hello to my campmates, most of them I had not met before. And started to unload my car and putting up my tent. It was sunny and hot and I got tired fast. After I struggled past that and got some food in me, I biked out on the playa and looked at the Man. And biked around some more. I can't really describe in words what Burning Man is about. A lot of people come back year after year, I am one of them. This is my home for about a week a year. It truly is a place of a lot of amazing things.
Center Camp under the moon.
Some art inside Center Camp - Objectify Me.
Question. Dear Humanity, What is one thing only a human can become? My answer - Human. I wonder how AI might change Burning Man in the future? I need to go back while things are still "normal".
Tuesday the wind picked up and it stayed windy basically through Thursday late afternoon. Windy means dusty. And it was VERY windy. My tent ripped at some point but not until later in the week. The tent rattled around violently non stop, I am surprised it did not blow away. It was so dusty inside the tent that I woke up on Wednesday morning with completely shut eyes with green eye pus. I spent the next two nights in my campmates RV. Because of the wind it made it difficult to do anything and see anything. I tried but it was hard. I biked far out on Wednesday afternoon with one of my campmates to go look at some art and we ended up in a complete whiteout. It was his first Burn and he had arrived in the US from Saudi Arabia the day before he left for Burning Man. I really wanted to go dancing that night but didn't because of the weather. You need long tent poles, here is my collection (not all of them of course, I have like 10 of each or so).
One of my fave art installations this year.
Covering up the face and eyes is a must when it gets dusty. The sand is very fine and soft and blows everywhere. We had strong winds, up to 40 miles/hour. Or more, I am not sure. The wind was so strong that I did not have to pedal my bike at times, I just sat in the saddle and sailed around with the wind. Crazy.
Some random pictures that spoke to me.
And some cute couple bikes. It is so cute when people make their bikes look fun and cute. I am too lazy, I have lights on my bike and that's it. No E bike for me, I pedal around. Great excercise.
By Tuesday evening I looked like this. A complete mess. My visions of looking cute and beautiful and taking some pretty pictures of myself flew out the window. My hair, coated in a layer of dust here, basically stayed in a braid to the side the whole Burn except when I went foaming and a few more times. White eyebrows, yikes. Make up? Forget it. I brough my make up bag but only used lip balm and a tweezer. I had dust and crust all over. You pull slugs out of your nose. I do not know how people manage to look flawless at Burning Man. They probably stay in RVs or camper trailers, which is much easier than a tent. If one can survive Burning Man in a tent for the whole Burn week one can survive a lot, that is all I can say on that. I told my campmate that my fingers were brown because I fell into a porta-potty. She believed me at first. LOL. I was eating trail mix with chocolate that had melted, hence the brown fingers.
This year's Burning Man art theme was Axis Mundi. Next year it is Spellbound. I hope that they (the BORG) make the art theme more obvious next year. When you first get into Black Rock City, which is a city built from nothing and becomes an amazing magical place, you get handed the What? Where? When? book and a map of all the camps and other important information. The 10 Principles of Burning Man are explained. Although there are Burning Man phone apps now (like iBurn), which are easy to navigate and tell you everything. I have all my books saved. All my stickers saved. I cleaned, organized and put away my Burning Man bins the other day. Took inventory of what I need to stock up on for next year, if anything. I think I will get a new pair of boots for next year, a robe to schlep around in when I first get up in the mornings, some soft slippers (I had a pair in 2023), a warm fake fur hat for the chilly nights and a longer coat. Yes, I definitely want to experience Burning Man (again) next year. I LOVE Black Rock City! I made new friends this year and we are planning on going back, most of us. A lot can happen in a year......so I am hoping that Burning Man 2027 Spellbound is in the cards for me.
Well reality arrived.....I reluctantly made it back from Burning Man last night. Not at all thrilled to be back. I have showered, washed my hair and put on lotion. And sat down on a real toilet seat. This was probably the dirtiest and crustiest I have ever been. Before I go to bed I will drink more water, layer on more lotion and brush my teeth. This is a picture of my Playa hair, which felt like a heavy cake resting on my head. It was in one braid off to one side for most of the time on the Playa. Hopefully I won't lose too much hair when combing it out.
I have cried leaving Burning Man before. Reality is different than Black Rock City. And yes I know that if I lived at Black Rock City year round it would become reality as well, a rather harsh reality because Burning Man is NOT easy. So yea....reality again, or the Default World (everything that is not Black Rock City) with everything that comes with that. I do not want to check my emails, go to the grocery store, sit in traffic, pay bills and go through the endless tasks on my to do list.
The art theme of last year's Burning Man was called Tomorrow Today. I had a ticket but decided against going. All my Burning Man gear was stored in the very back of a storage unit, I did not want to move stuff out in order to get to the Burning Man gear. It felt overwhelming. I also did not want to go by myself but finding somebody to experience Burning Man with is not that easy. I am not looking for somebody to latch onto at Burning Man but going with a friend is nice. I was also very sad almost all of last year and I did not want to feel like that at Burning Man. I ended up watching Burning Man online, there was a 24/7 camera at Black Rock City. I was a bit sad that I did not go but I survived. Here are some pictures that I took of last year's Burn while watching it on my iPad.
Wellllll.....there are people at Black Rock City right now, most of them have Early Arrival passes and are working hard setting up for the coming week. The 2026 Burning Man art theme is Axis Mundi. "Latin for axis of the world describing a symbolic or physical center point that connects the heavens, the earth, and the underworld." I love the theme and I am heading towards Black Rock City in a couple of days.
Friday evening I hopped on The Monaco for a sunset art cruise. We made it to the trash fence when the fuel pump went out and Danger Ranger, who happened to be onboard as well, came to the rescue and towed The Monaco with his truck back to camp. Danger Ranger is amazing, I really wish I would had asked him if I could take a picture with him but I felt too shy to ask. Instead I stared at him like.......wow.
