I washed the truck and began vacuuming the house. Burning Man was kind this year to keep the dust down. I’ve seen much worse.
Any chance of an internet connection disappeared on Tuesday as more and more vehicles drove in and parked. Many people were using their cell phone, though there is a warning about roaming. As far as I could tell, there was no way to tell whose network you were on, so no idea what the charges are. I’m sure I’ll hear when the bills come in.
Describing the experience at BM is impossible, as it is and is going to be an entirely personal thing. So I’ll keep it to the technicalities.
Driving in was very good for me, but I had my ticket in hand; those that needed to pickup theirs at Will-Call had a terrible time. Long waits in line on foot in the sun, then in the rain. When these problems develop, the BM people work on resolving the problem the next time. So Ingress works pretty well now, Egress was nothing at all for me, minimal delays for others. But Will-Call needs to be fixed.
If you consider going to BM, my rule of thumb is when you get within 100 miles of the entrance, allow ten hours before you are parked. Likewise, allow ten hours to get 100 miles away. If you beat those timings, you’ll be happy, not pissed.
It is obvious that Burning Man is becoming an international, global, thing. It has quite a number of attendees that fly in from every country hauling their large packs with the week’s supplies and equipment. The Reno airport sets aside a large area for folk, and buses take them out, to walk to their campsite.
I was disappointed with the sky diving this year. While vehicles were halted for about 12 hours, the airport runway wasn’t recovered for about 24 hours. They turned away a lot of planes then, maybe carrying divers.
I was not disappointed with the sculpture out on the playa, nor with the mutant vehicles.
As usual I had a lot of great experiences I’ll never forget. And as usual, I don’t want to think of doing it again until January when tickets go on sale.