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Out and About

Once we were settled in, we began to explore Black Rock City and the playa. The preferred mode of travel is by bicycle. James's needed some work, so we went to BunnyBunny Bike Repair camp, where Stealth made it better than new! Thanks Stealth! That afternoon we ended up at the Temple of Joy, a three-story structure made of scrap from a wooden dinosaur factory, and hundreds and hundreds of man-hours. Visitors were encourage to write things that they wanted to let go of on the walls and surfaces.

Out on the playa, of course, there was plenty of the usual wackiness to see, including a roving wax figure of Larry Harvey, the founder of Burning Man, complete with excerpts of speeches he has made being played aloud.

Another afternoon, James and Ingrid and I set out to see the plaque with the names of burners that had died in the past year, located in the tower supporting the Man. I had sent in Mary's name, and looked forward to seeing it. Gaining access to the tower required tokens, earned by visiting various theme camps in a sort of scavenger hunt. We didn't have enough, and they weren't going to let all three of us in, but then an anonymous, kind-hearted person overheard our predicament and gave us what we needed.

For the climb to the top of the tower we were grouped with a nice couple from Spaghetti Western camp, where they served spaghetti every night in a mockup of an old Western town. We all exchanged hugs when they found out why we were there. Actually seeing Mary's name was both somber and surreal, though I was glad to see her acknowledged that way.

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