The First Couple Of Days At Black Rock City

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.