This year's Burning Man was, as usual, a grand party. This year was unique is a particularly good way: Kristen (Answergirl) and I (Tool) went together, which is the first time either of us went to the event with someone else, and it really worked well.
We had planned to leave for Nevada on Friday, a week prior to the start of the event, to volunteer with the Rangers in setup and so on, but Whisker (Answergirl's van) had some coolant issues that took a remarkably long time to fix. We ended up staying in Santa Clara until Tuesday. It's amazing how disappointing it can be to stay at home when you are all geared up to go to Burning Man. Especially when all of yoiur stuff is in the van (and therefore at the shop). But it turns out that the weather on the playa during that period was quite terrible, and I couldn't have landed there (I flew in, Answergirl drove) in any case, so really nothing was lost.
In the meantime, we went shopping. Then best of which was in the Haight (in San Fransisco), where I score some great pajamas and a marvelous smoking jacket and Kristen found a couple of really nice outfits. Finally underway, we spent Tuesday night in Reno, did our last round of shopping, and arrived on playa Wednesday.
Pre-event at Burning Man is a lot like Saturday before the event was 5 years ago, where very few people are around and there is a lot of empty space. Nowadays, by Sunday, the city is pretty well filled in. Last year, Answergirl and I met Thursday night working a Ranger swing shift, so we went out on patrol Thursday night to commemorate one year together. That's also the night of Ladie's Night at the Commisary, which quite possibly the best party at Burning Man.
Saturday was my first shift as a Ranger Shift Lead, and I had a good time. It's basically a lot of dispatching via the radio, which involved listening to two radios at a time and so on. Fortunately, I have some practice at that as a pilot. There is also the occasional need to decide what to do about something, which gets pretty interesting. That involves knowing a few things about Burning Man policies, which I get a dose of as a Playa Info volunteer, and some common sense. What's cool is how fast we can react to important situations. For example, a parent got separated from a child one night. I got a description, called in everyone who was on the radio, and we found her in 30 minutes. It was immensely helpful that she was wearing a wedge of cheese on her head. (Note to parents at Burning Man: dress your kids so that they are easily identified; it's not hard and highly valuable.)
Answergirl and I left on Sunday for a break Winnemucca, where we could get a proper shower, do laundry, eat at the griddle. Answergirl knows people (everyone, it seems) in Winnemucca due to a previous-year adventure with the van and so we were well taken care of by the locals.
When we returned, the rest of our camp had arrived, found the spot we were saving and had almost finished setting up the dome. Geodesic domes are really nice at Burning Man. They stay cool and provide a large shelter. Heidi has a special magical talent for making it feel like home and over the next couple of days, it was quite a welcoming space. Carrie can organize the hell out of anything, so out camp was impressively tidy.
We had a great camp, with just the right people.