Day 1: Orlando to Reno, NV to Burning Man Festival, Black Rock City, Nevada

Diane: We sensed hints of Burning Man even before we left the Reno airport. Those folks with the baggy pants or those with the greenish hair or the garish pink fru-fru outfit. We were all picking up luggage like we were going to a nearby hotel. But, in fact, we were off for a survival experience in the desert. First stop after the airport was an outerwear outlet store. We were all sucked in to the vortex of bargain prices for quality gear. We sucked ourselves out, while there was still enough daylight left to get us to Black Rock City.

On the way, we went grocery shopping. While at the supermarket, Tom had a dental emergency. He was chewing gum and a permanent crown came out. While Tom was dealing with finding treatment and loading up the car with 35 gallons of water and a week and a half worth of camping food, TM and Calliope disappeared. They were both responding to an ice cream emergency. I don’t think either of them had had any ice cream for at least a week. One must have priorities. Certainly getting to a dentist before closing-time plays second fiddle to a smooth, creamy, sweet dessert.

One ice chest and a dental visit later, we were on our way. We arrived after dark, received a warm welcome, rang the Burning Man Virgin bell, found Kidsville, and set up camp.

Calliope: Once we were at the airport in Orlando we had some extra time, so I went to Starbucks with TM. Once I had finished my Passion Iced Tea, I filled my cup with milk and honey from the condiment table, and we were off. The flight was uber, uber long. The snacks, as on all flights, sucked, but the view as were were going over Nevada made up for it. We stopped in Las Vegas, and I really wanted to get off the plane to stroll down the strip, but alas we were going to Reno. When we got off the plane in Reno, we saw many people who looked like they were headed for burning man. It was at that point that I realised that I had not brought enough funky clothes. On the way to the rental car place I told my parents that I wanted to stop in a thrift shop before we left Reno to buy some new funky clothes for Burning Man.

We got the rental car, got food and other supplies, and were on our way. The drive to Burning Man was long. It was I who got to sit in the back with the cooler and supplies, so you can imagine I didn´t get much sleep on the way there. Once we got to Black Rock City, I was wide awake. We arrived at our campsite at around 10, but we were all exashted (there is a 3 hour time difference between Florida and Nevada!). Mom and Dad are sleeping in their tent, and TM and I sleeping in the car. I can´t wait to explore Black Rock City tomorrow!

Tom: Up at 4:15 AM to make a 7:05 AM flight from Orlando to Reno. We got out easily, took the shuttle to the airport and discovered that Diane's driver's license had abandoned us at the hotel. Ease turned to mild distress as Diane left us to retrieve the errant I.D. and we checked in at the curb. Southwest graded our performance giving the timely three A boarding passes and the tardy one a C. Fortunately the person at the gate let us all on together and we were able to sit together. We had a three stop flight, Houston, Las Vegas, Reno and all went smoothly. At the baggage claim I noticed that not everyone looked like your typical Reno casino junketeer. The fellow in the matching puffy pink and black tiger stripe faux fur jacket and boots with the giant cowboy hat was my first anomaly. A woman in her twenties with spiked fire engine red hair, black patent leather ultra mini-skirt with matching six inch platform sole knee high lace-up boots and black and white spiral striped leggings was recounting the hassle she had gotten at security because her face had enough metal in it to set off all the detectors. The next person who looked out of place was a trim, athletic looking, clean cut fellow in his late fifties who had a huge grin on his face as he stood waiting for his luggage with his with his arm around a very attractive and much younger woman. He would not have seemed unusual except for the large carry-bag the woman had which contained two sets of large feathered wings, one white set and one red. I looked at them, smiled and said, "Burning Man?" His grin got so big I thought his head would split in two and he said "Burn Baby!" nodding the affirmative. She looked a bit nonplussed and asked me how I had picked them out. I nodded at the bag with the wings and she blushed.

We got to the car rental agency easily but they did not have the small suv we had reserved. Instead they gave us a huge, shiny, nearly new GMC Suburban with almost all the options, the manager helped us get settled and was great. We were ready to head off when he asked me where we were headed and I naively told him Burning Man. He stayed just as cordial but immediately began going over every detail of the car with a magnifying glass and telling me what the festival was all about as he had heard from some of his friends who work in law enforcement. It was clear he did not want his vehicle returned full of playa dust, I had no clue what he was talking about but I assured him that we would return the car in as good condition as we had received it. He gave me his card, told me to call him personally if there were any problems, then he handed me the keys and we were out of there with Diane letting me know at some length what a sap I had been for telling him where we were going.

While shopping for supplies I had a minor dental emergency that might have been major if had happened in the desert. As I was able to get to a dentist immediately tragedy was averted and after an extra two hours we were off to the Black Rock Desert soon to be Black Rock City.