The Evolving World Burning Man 2009

I tried to clean up my tent. The winds had blown little dunes of dust on the inside floor. All around me, people were cleaning up, packing, preparing to leave. A guy was giving away extra bottles of water alongside the road. At the porta potties, I could see down the street at the line of cars lined up for exodus, already bumper-to-bumper. My plan was to stay for the Temple burn, then make my exodus. Once I was off-playa, I figured I'd pull over alongside the road and catch a few hours of sleep before hitting the road for Beatty. I'd never left that early before. I was looking forward to it. It had been a still morning, but by 10 AM the winds started to pick up. Part of the shade structure over the bar, which had been ripped by high winds, was missing that morning.

When I got up, the sky was white with dust. I walked to the potties. I walked along with a girl who was drunk as a skunk. She said she hadn’t slept in two days. I sat in the bar listening to music. Relaxing back in my camp chair, I almost fell asleep. I talked to two guys from the Bay Area; it was their first burn. I spoke with a pretty blonde girl from Perth, Australia named Stephanie. She just got her law degree and had recently traveled through Europe. She highly recommended the west coast of Australia. She said there were long stretches of beaches with hardly any people at all.
 
We were joined by Stephanie's friend Sara, who was born in Singapore. She worked as a waitress and bartender. Sara wished there was a burner event in Australia, near where she lived in Melbourne, but another bartender from the South Bank said it "wouldn't be cool" to have a burn after the recent brush fires in Melbourne-- it was a big disaster for the country, the biggest fires in recent history. Stephanie's brother ran after a water truck --with his clothes on-- to get clean under its spray of water. He came back soaked and said, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Stephanie left for a while, then came back for Sara, who was dozing in a camp chair.

 

I pulled the stakes for my tent, dropped & folded it up. Except for the one camp chair in the bar, I was packed up in no time. Rupert came through enlisting help to take down the statue at the Silicon Village archway. It took about a dozen of us, but we got it down in one piece. He shook everyone's hand in appreciation. I saw Billy talking to Spoon, who said, "You need a beer." And I did! Billy wore a shirt that said QUIT WORK MAKE MUSIC. Dot and her camp were gone when I got back from the pin ceremony. The plan for the bar was to wait until after the Temple burn, then take down the big sections in the calm of the night. That way, there would be less to do in the windy daylight. D-Mo slept all day so that he could help take the bar down that night. I decided to delay my exodus until after dismantling the bar that evening. Above, the sky was beige with dust. I ate some bacon with Anne, Lisa, D-Mo, Billy and Mark. Mark told me about some beermaking Hobbits that had an annual homebrewing event in the Bay Area.
 

I sat in the bar writing notes. As I sat, a serious, dark-haired girl with a ring in her lip sat at my table. She took out a notebook and started drawing furiously. The wind was relentless. Alex sat talking to Spoon. Alex's week had been sidetracked by an unknown illness. When she finally felt good enough to go to the Med Tent, they said it was a virus that just needed to run its course. It was good to see her up and around.

A guy called Diesel drove up on a mobile stripper pole and headed for the bar. It was turning to late afternoon. Looking down the 6 O'clock Street, a constant parade of cars, trucks and RV's headed towards the exodus, disappearing in the clouds of dust.    I spoke to a lovely girl called Madalena, who had some impressive dance moves: classical ballet stuff. I told her about my dream with Mom in it. She suggested maybe it was Mom's way of telling me it was okay for me to move on. When Madalena left, she danced off into the dust; hers was a gentle soul. I looked around the bar for my camp chair, but I couldn't find it anywhere. A stranger said, "Sorry, man."

I looked around at all the art cars around us, and quickly saw the beginnings of a traffic jam. It would take a long time to get untangled from the various vehicles, so I decided to just walk back to camp. I took off walking and navigated my way around the vehicles until I was back in open playa. I had a flashlight, but the bright Moon lit my way very well. It was by moonlight that I came upon a bicycle, alone and orphaned, lying in the dust. No one was anywhere near it. I saw that the chain had come loose and figured somebody must have just abandoned it. The pedals didn't work, but I could stand on one pedal and coast along on it. So, I rode the orphan bike all the way back to the Esplanade. That's where I made my last visit to the Med Tent. Since I was getting ready to leave, I thought I should have my foot looked at one last time. There were lots of people coming and going through the Med Tent. Some drunk girls cut in line ahead of me. A nurse looked at my foot and put a new bandage on it.
 
I left the orphan bike at Ranger HQ and walked back to HOTD, ready to go to work dismantling the bar. When I arrived, however, things seemed to be pretty normal. Folks were sitting around drinking, talking, and listening to a banjo player on stage play bluegrass music. It didn't look like the takedown would start anytime soon. So, I climbed into Satori to take a little nap until work got under way. I was asleep almost instantly.