I have no idea what too me so long to post these.... maybe I'm just now done decompressing. Here we have a picture-narrative of satisfactory quality for everyone to whom I did a shitty job of explaining the trip to Burning Man:

Our caravan, 5 vehicles long. We were being chauffered by the (super generous and awesome) Sutton family and a handful of their friends and girlfriends and THEIR friends and so on. This is in Tahoe:

Here's a cave on 80E on the way into Carson City, some cave or other...

And then....... kaBLAMmo. A piece of tire flies back from somewhere in the front of the caravan and hits our windshield.

While Penny and Martin replace their blown tire, the sun sets...

and we bip along through Reno in search of gas and snacks and hop back on the freeway....

And then, just when we were minding our own business...

Kablam. And this time we have no spare.


Interlude: Penny and Martin spend some time trying to figure out a creative way to find and install a tire for their camper at 9:30 pm in an unfamiliar Nevada city, where we don't know anyone or where anything is.... and they decide to stay the night, find a tire in the morning, and catch up to us. So the rest of us take off and drive, and drive, and drive, and......

Blac Rock City emerges on the horizon, a blue glow in the middle of the desolate Black Rock Desert (to its credit, it has a couple of tribal mini-marts). Next, and of this I don't have any photographic evidence because I was participating and not spectating: We lose the caravan in the entryway, and I get pulled out of the car and spanked when it's discovered that I've never been to Burning Man before... yatta yatta.

The next morning! Okay. Here's the billboard at the center of town, the only form of messaging available... we posted a sign hoping to lured Sean's uncle to our camp when he arrived.

On one of the cooler days, a bike ride out to the Man:

And here, a friendly neon robotic giraffe we encountered in the middle of the playa at god knows what time of night... it walked on its own and wiggled its ears and bent down to get a better look at people. Cute, and too bad it didn't show up on film better. Popular Science did an article on this guy.

AND this gigantic inflatable monkey man... who appeared in a camp neighboring ours on afternoon when my back was turned. And then disappeared and reappeared a number of times over the next week. VERY useful for finding my way home at 4 in the morning when trashed.

And the best shot I could get of the Man at night. he's a little different height and color every year. Heh I wonder if he knows what's coming...

Here, another daytime excursion, Sean wearing the latest fashions, with the "bird's nest" or "belgian waffle" on the left. It looked like a polar bear to me, but it was called "Message from the Future" and was effing gigantic.

Some people find creative ways to circumvent the huge ticket costs... as if skydiving was much cheaper, i guess...

The cathedral in the middle of nowhere, where we saw the aftermath of a wedding. With a viking priest.

My boy, on a long, rowdy, "well-fueled" night after his uncle and his friends arrived.

This is easily the best shot I captured the entire time: our friend the Boogie Man, who blasts the White Zombie and Crystal method and fires off giant fireballs, you know, the usual...

The propane blasts are incredibly bright and hot in the middle of the pitch black, freezing cold desert, and draw people in flocks like moths to a lightbulb.

Our S&M Devil ladyfriend:

And Sean owning it:

And the night of the burn, the Boogie Man took us out on the rack of his flame truck. As we approached the ruckus, the fireworks were set off...

A close shot of the man engulfed:

And then he's done in. The next morning, they open up ground zero to everyone to sift through, and this year I brought home a small piece of the man.

Here's some pretty decent footage of the fireworks display. It's kind of hard to tell what's going on, as the camera doesn't pick up on distant colors that well, and the dust in the air distorts everthing. Toward the end you can hear Sean talking some about the Belgian Waffle.

Burning Man: The Burn and Fireworks 2006

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The next night we made off before the mob and made decent time and let our heads settle for two days. And then, now that i think of it, I never finished unpacking. There's a prelude and epilogue to this story that i don't feel like typing out.... so thanks for your time eh.