The Journey To Black Rock City - Where To Begin?

I've been thinking all weekend about where to begin my story about our three-girl road trip to Black Rock City, Nevada. It's difficult to pick a starting point because once we arrived it seemed things were happening all at once. Wherever we were things were going on, music was being played, people were dancing, everyone was saying hello to us and a smile would be shared with a knowing look that we were all about to experience something very special.

It took two days of driving 8 hours each leg and near the end of the first day, we started to see other burners on their way as well. We stopped for the night at a Best Western in La Pine, California knowing this would be the last night for seven days where we'd have a shower and a good night's rest after dining on real food. And tho it was obvious what conditions we were headed into, Kat and I really didn't register how big that change would be until we were in the middle of the desert for a couple of days munching on various trail mixes and 'bathing' with our baby wipes.

The second day was a beautiful drive. We received well wishes from the girl at the coffee stand, the grocery clerks and gas station attendants alike. More and more burners were converging on the same roads, making the final stop for water, everyone smiling and nodding knowing we were all headed for the same destination.

Pixie and Kat were both driving carefully. You didn't want to give the police a reason to stop you so they were extra respectful of the speed and besides that, once we finally started to see the line in, it wasn't moving fast anyway. All kinds of hurry up and wait - and an effort not to kick up too much dust, which was impossible.

I had heard stories about them pulling out the Burning Man virgins, stripping them down and spanking them in front of everyone else in line.. but Pixie assured me that practice had long been thrown out due to more respectful ways of welcoming the newbies. But when we finally got to our place at the front of the gate, our gatekeeper informed us the reason our line had gone particularly slow - and it really had - was because it was Make-Out Monday and he was kissing all the pretty girls. This was also true. And with that he pronounced he needed to continue on with that job and looked at Pixie expectantly who effortlessly and immediately claimed her non-singledom and oh how she couldn't possibly due to the shiny ring on her finger, but her passenger, ME, would be happy to oblige..... um.... I just want to state for the record that not only was I NOT happy to oblige, but I remember seeing a black tooth in his mouth. And I think other crooked teeth. And he smelled. Um... yeah. You do the math. The answer is ew no matter how you add it up.

So I hesitated.. like anyone would, thank you, and Pixie had to say that the man wasn't kidding.. which he agreed to with a nod. And I leaned in and closed my eyes - and held my breath. I think there was only a peck because he wasn't giving much back and then he blamed it on me and I had to really kiss him again. Whatever. I kissed the guy.. I don't want to talk about it further. It was ugly. I then chastised our fair Pixie after that and told her the rest of the black-toothed smelly guys demanding kisses were going to be up to her to appease and that was that. She just sat there grinning silently.

And shockingly, we still weren't actually in yet. We drove a bit further up and another guy announced to me that I needed to get out of the car. My thinking was that Kat, who was in the car behind us, had said she was with us and mistakenly slipped that she and I were both Burning Man virgins. But it was nothing horrible. They just made us get down and make playa angels. Screw the pristine and clean clothing you came in. Get down on the dirt and roll around in it, basically.. and so a few of us were out there doing this, were handed a crow bar thing of sorts and clanged a rusty bell, officially ringing ourselves into our first year of Burning Man. We drove thru the gate and I looked at Pixie beaming. We had arrived.

Then it was just a slow drive trying to figure out where friends of Pixie's might be so we could camp near them, but it wasn't working so we found our own space on the playa, which is set up on a grid like a clock with the times being the main streets connected to the Esplanade at the top where the letters going alphabetically started, which were the cross streets. We settled in on the fringe outside and away from the center because those areas were all reserved for the theme camps and found that 7:30 and Jungle (actually more like 7:25.. you didn't want to be late, we kept saying) seemed a perfect little spot to call home for the next week.

For the next hour or so, we got to work setting up our site. I don't know about the other girls, but every few minutes, I would get a massive head rush due to the heat or the elevation change, I wasn't sure which, and had to pause every now and then. Pixie or Kat would shove a bottle of water in my hand and tell me to drink and it sometimes seemed a bit dramatic, but with three tents and all our gear to set up camp and the heat streaming down unrelentingly, we needed to keep going.

Tho we all tired out very quickly, we eventually finished and there were high fives all around. So after setting up our own individual spaces and changing a bit, we headed out onto the playa to see what we could find. We set out on foot because we hadn't yet found Kat's friends who were bringing a bike for her and at least Kat and I didn't take into account how much walking we would be doing that night. The playa is five square miles and between the time we started our evening introduction to this adventure to the point we both finally crashed, we'd walked across most of the playa TWICE. I thought I was just exaggerating when I'd said it, but we really had walked closed to 10 miles on our first night there. Um yeah.. ow.

The three of us started out together, but it was clear the distractions that were arranged were made for pulling you in many directions and after a little while of doing her best to stay with us, finding the God phone and the dome where 'God' was actually manning the calls coming in from said phone, Pixie became a bit antsy and needed to wander off on her own little tour. This was her fourth year at Burning Man and she needed some time alone to regain her own feeling of coming home on her first night out.

Kat and I explored the sights on the Esplanade, the main road, met all kinds of people hosting different camps, some not yet completely set up yet like the DeathGuild's Thunderdome, proudly touting their history of 'Bringing senseless violence to the playa since 1999' and Dance Dance Immolation, which is Dance Dance Revolution - but with flame throwers. Pointed at you. No, I'm not kidding.

We were actually early, arriving on Monday night as most of the event really didn't get going until Wednesday usually, however, this year there was a lunar eclipse at 2am Tuesday morning, and we heard that there was more than the average population for a Monday because everyone wanted to be there to witness the eclipse from the playa. This, of course, was stunning to see, darkening the playa for hours and changing shape every time you checked the sky. It was also really warm and there were so many people out that Kat and I found it pretty easy to stay up with the rest of the city until dawn tho we weren't talking all that much. We were just trying to take in all the sights that we realized were going to overwhelm us very fast.

A friend of mine from Seattle surprisingly found me on the Esplanade (which would never happen again as the population of Black Rock City exponentially increased as the week went on) when he'd heard me introduce myself to a friendly stranger Kat and I had started chatting with. He was wearing this awesome United Airlines jumpsuit that was honestly.. um.. really hot on him and I couldn't help but notice and, of course, compliment, which I think was appreciated.

The three of us wandered around for a bit after that, but Kat wanted to stay out for a while longer and the morning was wearing on to dawn - something we noticed we did a lot of. My jumpsuit-clad friend and I were thinking of sharing each other's company further, so after making sure Kat would be ok on her own, boy and I set off for my camp to end our night.

Friendly faces, a lunar eclipse, a cute boy in a jumpsuit no less and my first night on the playa. I was liking Black Rock City and more than that.. I think it was liking me.