Burning Man Festival- Arrival

8/31/09 Here at last! The scene at the gate was insane. The 2-mile long, 6-lane wide entry road is a solid washboard with fist sized rocks and 3-4 inch layer of talc fine playa dust. Total ‘whiteout’ conditions can blow up and disappear in seconds. I am greeted by the search committee looking for stowaways and anything that looks suspicious in near blinding dust. I get back in the truck after letting the guy look in the truck cap and the T@B and slam the door which became covered with dust in the time it was open and the inside of the truck is instantly coated with dust. My formal gate greeting is “Welcome Home!” spoken by a topless girl with green and auburn hair speaking in a very British accent. She’s from Lincoln, Yorkshire, UK. Drive around for a half hour looking for a suitable place to camp but most places are claimed close in and I finally wind up at the corner of “2:30 & Inherit” where I see several other campers closer to my age. It takes me forever to get oriented due to wind, dust and lack of identifiable landmarks. I dig out a compass and set up camp. Orientation will become important when I put out the solar stuff tomorrow. I struggle to put out the tarp and the wind hits it hard, rocking the T@B pretty well until I finally go out and reset the stakes (rebar) and poles later. As I work, people are cruising by on their bikes in kilts, evening gowns (men), underpants, no pants, Marie Antoinette wigs and one girl who must have had 500 bells on her bike and costume. I shall be very underdressed this week. An EZ-Up (tarp/canopy) flys by lazily spinning about 40 feet up. Suddenly, it loses altitude and crashes into a row of 20 porta-potties a ‘block’ away. I fill up the swamp cooler I brought to cool off the inside of the T@B and it is a dismal failure as the T@B interior goes from 94F /w20% humidity to 98F w/58% humidity. I escape to the dust and relative cool outside and dig out some furnace filters I brought as an experiment. After some cutting and careful placing I now have window and ceiling fan filters. I turn on the fan and the temps & humidity fall to comfortable levels. The “Swampy” is a bust, so far. I treat myself to 2 of the 12 beers I brought with and sit back and watch a vehicle shaped like a flying saucer covered with mirrors and solar panels go by. It is blasting rap music in Russian (or some other east European language). I spy a T@DA (big ‘brother’ to the T@B) in the distance but it disappears in the billowing dust. I make dinner, and dig out the goggles, face mask and do-rag and go exploring. I walk out to “the man” and back to center camp with thousands of people covered in electroluminescent wire, all manner of blinky things, and thousands of folks who really shouldn’t ride bikes at all- especially at night!!! I will take pictures tomorrow because I cannot explain a tenth of the stuff I saw in my @4 mile walk. Tomorrow I will be one of the idiots on the bikes.