Burning Man – Sunday

After sleeping late I awake to find that the weather is cool, windless and dust free. I spend the next 4 hours cleaning up arranging dirty clothes, garbage and breaking down my tarp, solar, pulling up the manhole covers and visiting with a lot of people who want a T@B tour before I leave. Lots of people are already leaving- I left at this time last year. The low wind is wonderful and distant clouds of dust rise where hundreds of cars are moving on the way out. I finally get to the BRC Post Office- which was a madhouse of activity –and send off postcards I’ve been thinking about all week. I swing by Camp Nomadia once more to say goodbye to the folks there and come back to camp and bid farewells to neighbors and lend a hand folding tarps and finishing the beer. The Temple Burn requires dress to combat the dust and only enough blinky stuff to avoid getting run over by a bike or an art car while walking the 2 miles to & from the Temple. The level of camradrie, community, respect and solemnity among the people who have been crazy all week is stunning. The wait is reflective, the burn is quiet and the traditional moving in towards the flames after the Temple falls is done with care (think 30,000 people moving in unison TOWARD an enormous fire) and patience. Art cars quietly rumble back to the city, the city is barely lit up as many camps are either packed or gone and a steady stream of cars heads for the exit lanes in what is known as the ‘exodus’.