thePlayland

Vault of Heaven

I feel as though I have had quite a lot of different experiences through Burning Man, over the years. My first year was, of course, an eye-opener that gave me a tiny taste of what the event was all about. I met a few people and made some mistakes, but overall it was the community that drove me to keep coming back. We went extremely light on supplies and shade and we suffered through blistering heat and freezing cold, but we loved every minute of it.

My second year, we spent quite a lot of time planning our trip and, as always, our plans didn’t even come close to being complete and we, again, roughed it a bit. We had more shade and more tents, but nothing really changed that year, except that we met a few really cool guys that turned out to be more than just Playa friends and opened us up to a whole world above the northern US border.

The next year, the fruits of that meeting the pervious year came to light and I met someone truly special. Now, I know I was talking in terms of camp structure for the pervious years, but all of that flew out the window when I met her. The whole week was like a lucid dream. Everything was perfect and it was undoubtebly the very best week I have ever spent in Black Rock. I know it’s cheesy, but there was magic there and I can never forget it.

The following year was a let down for me, mostly because I had lost that magic and lost her. I went out there searching for that spark again and when I didn’t find it, I got depressed. Now, that’s not to say that the week wasn’t fun. The week was a blast, but my romantic expectations were shot to hell and it took some CPR and a defribulator to get me back to normal again. We had an RV, we had a giant dome that we had built the previous year (but, I forgot about because I was distracted) and we were on top of the world with our kickass resources. We had the shower and the sink and the generator, life in the desert had never been better.

Last year was an entirely different experience. The group that I had with me had changed a bit, but the energy was there. We had prime real estate, being right next to Pinky’s and we couldn’t have been happier. This time, the romance I had found was still at home, so I was a bit confused as to my place there. I still had those unrealistic expectations that the event was to hold some sort of magic that would just fall in my lap. Boy, was I wrong. This time, we had borrowed an RV, so we weren’t quite as comfortable with trashing the thing. Unfortunately, we did trash it to a certain extent and it showed by us having to spend a night alone on the exodus road when the beast broke down and we spilled all our transmission fluid all over the desert. We had the resources, though. We had a shower, bathroom, sink, genny and even the occasional wireless internet signal. We also created the largest amount of shade we possibly could, using a number of car-shade structures. We were so happy, until the shit hit the fan on the way home.

That brings me to this year. This time, a lot has changed and the way I am used to going to Burning Man is right out the window. I have always gone with at least 3 other people and am used to spending quite a bit of money to get there. Well, people have moved on from the event and others have returned, but this year, I am making the trek to BRC with just one other person. Travis and I will be venturing in to the great unknown together and will be doing so on the most limited budget ever. See, Travis doesn’t have the funds to be able to make it out there, so I will be funding the entire trip myself. I am not mentioning this to gain sympathy or to boast about the money I have. No, I mention this to give the clear impression that this year is the return to the basics for me. I started this fantastic journey with $500 and a ticket in my pocket and barely scraped by with a unsound tent and not enough warm clothing. This year will be very much the same, except that the $500 is going to have to cover 2 people. Let me just express how excited I am for this to happen.

Every time I have gone to BRC with the luxury of a large vehicle or a septic tank, I have felt like I am cheating myself out of a truly wonderful experience. That is not to say that I would go back and change anything about those luxuious years, but I am extremely grateful for how things seem to be working out this year. From what I understand, the playa is rough and dusty again and I have these beautiful visions of Trav and I sitting in camp, wearing next to nothing, or nothing at all and a dust storm swirling around us while we eat our cold spaghetti-o’s.