1st
Trouble in paradise
Burning Man 2010 - day one, Monday 1020p (+)
Big Trouble in Paradise
tl;dr car broke down, gotta be towed, bring rain gear
Oh, my, what a day it has been. The actual trek here was uneventful, perhaps even a little quicker than usual thanks to the unexpected early gate opening yesterday evening. I hit the playa precisely at 11am, and then spent the usual 3 hours proceeding through the entry procedures, alternatively napping and driving a few car lengths.
The iPhone Burning Man app had my camp, Camp ?, listed in a different place from what I expected. I was quite exited about the announced placement at 9:30 & Athens - I’ve never been past 6:00, and Athens is closer in than I’ve ever been. However, the app showed it as being around 2:00 and Edinburgh, a spot which has its own slight advantages, but was a disappointment. I downloaded the latest dataset on the way up, and I was not pleased to learn of this change.
What to do? I had no way to be sure which was which, and if I picked the wrong one first, I was in for a very long trek to the other side of the city - roughly 4/3 π miles, a good hour or so at the required 5mph, especially since pedestrians always come first in Black Rock City. I could have done it in 60 seconds in a straight line at full speed. I decided to head for the listed location first, because then I would at least be happy during the drive that I was at the place I’d rather be, otherwise I’d be annoyed at the drive AND the new placement. We were not, in fact, at the new location, so I headed to the original spot, and saw a few friends on the way.
Just as I pulled up to our camp… trouble. My car began to make a horrible grinding noise, and a few pieces of metal fell off. Truth be told, it had made that noise a little earlier, but right next to my camp, it simply would not move any more under its own steam. As of this writing, I do not know what the problem is. My suspicion is that the transmission has entirely failed, though a few other opinions have been floated, including something about a ‘CV joint’. Getting this taken care of is going to be a logistical nightmare, which I will detail more fully later. Yeah, that’s going to suck a whole bunch. My camp mates helped me push my car to the side of 9:30.
Hungry, tired and instantly consumed with trying to hatch a solution, I decided to take a quick run to the Man first. It’s beautiful this year, a lovely structure with three levels to climb to, with an open structure that ought to fall much more quickly and dramatically than last year. I only spent a minute at the top before hurrying back to camp. I slept a while in the ‘home dome’ - our private and concealed personal space - and while I slept, my friends pushed the car to a better spot. They rock, they just woke me
