Yet more Utah pics

• Glen Canyon/Capital Reef/Grand Staircase
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Parkway Motel, Orderville, UT
• Zion National Park

Parkway Motel was this random place we stayed at on the way to Zion. We got the last room in the place which turned out to be a very elaborate Indiana Jones "theme room". For $60, you can't beat it. Tell them Ed sent ya!

As always, you can check out the full gallery of my road trip pics.

Acceptance and Rejection at Burning Man

Needless to say, Wednesday morning was a bit rough for me. I swore off alcohol for the rest of my life or until that Saturday; whichever came first. Once we finally got moving we decided to go say 'hi' to Watermelon and Cherubic. On the way who should we run into but the Petting Zoo crew on an art car clear over on our end of town.

I went up to greet them but they didn't seem to recognize me standing upright. One by one, they figured it out. "Oh my god - He's alive!" We had a brief but hearty reunion and they invited us to stop by the bar again later. Later that day was the one and only time I used my laptop. My friend Pepper (formerly of SAS) and Sarah were going to arrive from San Francisco on Friday night and I emailed to ask him to bring some vodka. Lots.

We did stop by the Zoo later that day. It felt great to have a place where people were genuinely happy to have you around. Ju-Hui had a couple beers while I nursed a water.

That night I was full of anticipation for the Great Canadian Beaver Eating Contest. Where else but Burning Man can one experience competition in its truest form? The thrill of victory - the agony of defeat! I knew the organizers didn't allow spectators, only contestants and cheerers. Since Ju-Hui declined to be my co-contestant and no other volunteers seemed to be forthcoming, I was resigned to cheering on others. When Ju-Hui and I got to the front of the queue, the bouncer demanded to know what our cheer was. Huh? He wanted some rehearsed, junior high "Two, four, six, eight..." kind of cheer. When we didn't have one he booted us out of line (fine I suppose...his event) but in a very snotty, condescending way that made me want to punch him in the face. Not cool. The next three groups of people got booted as well.

Oh well, there were a thousand other things to see and do that night and every night at BM.

Excess at Burning Man

The next morning Ju-Hui and I discovered two unpleasant things. The first was that my tent heats up like a greenhouse by 7:30 in the morning. We tied bedsheets over the mesh parts of the tent to keep out the dust...at the cost of most of the ventilation. By 8:30 it was basically too hot to stay inside. The other thing we learned was that the Man was, in fact, burning the previous night. One guy didn't care to wait for the scheduled burning at the end of the week so he did some climbing and torched it early. The only problem was that it sits above a populated art exhibit up until the end of the week. The fire trucks got the fire out before there was widespread damage or injuries but the organizers decided to take down the Man and build a replacement for later in the week.

When we first arrived at Burning Man they gave us an eighty or so page booklet listing the subset of events which were scheduled. As the week progressed we learned that many of the most interesting things were spontaneous and many of the scheduled things just don't happen when they were supposed to. Still, the booklet was a place to start to figure out what we wanted to do that day. The simple act of reading and choosing a few interesting events in the 100+ degree heat required some serious willpower. Toss in the need for food, drink and daily hygiene and it was probably two in the afternoon before we were able to head out.

The first stop was a free sno-cone stand. What could be better on a hot day? Speaking of free, everything at BM is free except for specific ice and coffee concessions that raise money for local schools. Two of the main principles of BM are radical self-reliance and that it is a gift economy. You make sure you have what you need and you do what you can to improve the lives of your neighbors. Some people have an art installation or drive around an art car for people to look at or hitch a ride on. Others put on dance parties or yoga sessions or tutorials of various adult themes. One camp gave out pee funnels so the women of Black Rock City didn't have to stumble out to the port-a-potties in the middle of the night. Creativity reigns supreme and truly anything goes.

I was definitely on board for the self-reliance but the gifts are something I've never been completely comfortable with. I tend to want to earn what I consume and vice versa. Even knowing I would be participating in a gift economy I simply couldn't fit more stuff in the car to give away. I decided I would give buzz-cuts (I could run my clippers off a car power jack) and back rubs. In the end I didn't do either...I was always either exhausted or distracted.

After sno-cones we wandered by some people playing life-size Settlers of Catan. The game is a lot of fun but it was going to be a while before the next game started so we just watched for a bit. One of the players was already badly sunburned even though it was just mid-afternoon on the second day. He seemed largely indifferent; sunscreen could wait until the game was over.

We wandered around until a guy standing on a street corner brusquely yelled at us.

Get your ass in our bar and have a drink!!

Huh? Well I suppose if that's an order. I guess I'll just have to roll with the gift economy. Thus began Ju-Hui and my friendship with the Petting Zoo.

The Petting Zoo is a bar that just had its eight consecutive year at Burning Man. It was built in a square with 3-5 bartenders on the inside and bar stools all around. Over top was a huge shade canopy which was always a fantastic incentive to stay for one more. The population at BM seems to lean heavily in favor of club people but here was a good, old fashioned bar. People swapped stories with their neighbors and the bartenders went drink for drink with their patrons. Every twenty minutes or so, somebody would donate a bag of ice or bottle of liquor to the bar and the whole place would cheer. After the anonymity and immense scale of BM, it was a nice change of pace.

Ju-Hui and I had a bit of time to kill before the next event we wanted to go to, so one drink led to another...and another. Eventually someone busted out the moonshine and things started getting a bit fuzzy. I remember asking (and fielding in return) some seriously no-holds-barred questions to a couple, the man of which was married to another woman who would arrive at BM in the coming days. Eventually the alcohol got the better of me and my stomach decided to go on strike. A lot. The next thing I knew it was nighttime and Ju-Hui, with infinite patience, was trying to guide me the two miles or so back to the tent without benefit of a flashlight.

I've thanked her before and now I do so publicly. Thank you, Ju-Hui, for babysitting me for an entire evening.


A kind reader has sent a link showing an aerial shot of Black Rock City. There's no other way to really appreciate the scale of a tent city of over 40,000 people.

More Utah pics

• Canyonlands National Park (with a little something extra for the ladies)
  
• Natural Bridges National Monument

Stay tuned for more on Burning Man...

Back home

I'm back in Raleigh, for a week or so anyway. I've got my Moe's burrito and some Rome, Season 2 on DVD. I'll probably be a couch potato for a few days; catch up on mail, laundry, etc.

End of the road?

Heather and I are in Pensacola, FL about to head to the beach. I've now been on a two ocean road trip and have racked up over 11,000 miles on my car. It's been fun but I think it may be the end of the road. I think I just want the comfort of my home (or the home of friends and family) for a while. I'd still like to see New England, especially during Fall so maybe I'll just think of this as a pause to recharge and attend to Real Life for a bit.

The threat of violence

One of the things I've learned on this trip is that I just don't care for big cities. I don't care that there are eleven coffee shops within a three block radius. One would be enough even if I did drink coffee. I don't enjoy trendy restaurants more than simple ones. I couldn't care less about some hip new nightspot. Museums are nice but are they really worth all the noise and traffic?

Still, I was looking forward to seeing New Orleans; a city known for being unique and enjoyable. Sadly, the Big Easy didn't feel any different than other big cities for me. What I did feel was a sense of poverty and desperation. Part of it was the historic nature of N.O., part was the psychic aftermath of Katrina and part was feeling immediately identifiable as a tourist and possible mark. At 6'4" and 190 lbs., I rarely even think about my personal safety but in N.O. I just felt like a soft white boy who's had a desk job for the past ten years.

The man above threatened to have me beat up "by those guys over there" when I only gave him a dollar. I saw the sign from a distance and thought it was a street vendor with a sense of humor. I tried to take a quick picture while his back was turned and he was helping other customers. I forgot that the flash was on which made the camera take an extra second to fire just as he happened to be turning around. All it turns out he was selling was the right to take his picture. Fine....whatever. I'll give you a tip. He told us hold his sign while he took our picture and then said he accepted fives, tens and twenties. I told him I'm sure he did and gave him a buck for maybe 30 seconds worth of work. Then he started getting ugly.

The next morning Heather and I went to the St. Louis cemetery which is famous for its very old above-ground crypts. We specifically went in the morning rather than evening so it would be a bit safer. When we arrived, we found it to be in quite a bad neighborhood and even the morning didn't feel so safe. We walked around for maybe ten minutes before calling it quits. Well, I called it quits and Heather thought I was being a sissy. She's much tougher than I am. The cemetery itself was a bit of a disappointment to me as well; instead of aged and historic it was just old, crowded and in disrepair. Ehh...perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had been relaxed.

Bourbon Street was nice enough but it didn't feel much different than the main drag of a Spring Break town. I couldn't really appreciate the architecture or wrought-iron balconies in the dark of night. Didn't even see any boobies.

By the way, Heather is blogging too. You can follow her account at http://navigatingnewwaters.blogspot.com