Traveling with the Stanfords 2025

As promised here are the next set of photos. Click here to view the photos!   Unforgettable moment from the night on the Playa: Around 1am after cycling around for hours we were a long way out by the temple, and starting to get hungry. The next thing we know, a large art car stops, and someone yells 'Free quesadillas anyone?" A whole group of people in a brightly lit mutant vehicle were cooking food in the middle of the desert. I have to say those were the best hot quesadillas we have ever eaten!

The second day started with a discovery that the RV batteries have died.  Phil and I being over prepared both had volt/ohm meters, which we used to inspect and test the batteries.  We find one of the three deep cell batteries did not have enough water in the cells.  (Note to self, add this to the pre check list.)  Since all the batteries are wired together, if you have one bad battery it can drain all the others.  We disconnected the battery, and managed to start the generator to charge the remaining batteries, problem solved. After the RV maintenance we were all able to have a leisurely morning, finish breakfast, and use the delightful outside shower.  The we launched out for more photos.  That afternoon I was in the RV and heard a loud yell from outside ' Dust Storm....'.  I got up and looked out of the RV door and within seconds the dust was so think I could only see about 10 or 15 feet.  From that point on we experienced the infamous Bu...

WARNING WARNING the images and written content of this blog may be offensive. There is profanity and nudity displayed. Do not let your children see this blog. It could cause emotional scaring and confusion which we can not be responsible for. Impressions from Burning Man 2009 Wow, where can I start. Of course there was a huge build up of preparation and anticipation. It takes months of planning and provisioning. You must bring all your own shelter, food , and water. The only thing you can buy at BM is ice and coffee. It is a total gifting community. There are camps that give away food and drinks but you certainly can't count on that for your basic needs. The playa, which is the actual desert surface that you live on is such an alkaline dusty environment that you can't use an RV shower. The dust from your body gets in the RV plumbing system and gums it up and ruins it. So we had to build an outside shower with an evaporation pond. BM has a "leave no trace" po...

We are off the Playa, and out of Black Rock City.  Exodus as it is called went well, due to the 4am start.  We avoided the fate of a five hour traffic line and running out of gas as some people did.  Today is Phil's birthday, so we have stopped at an RV center in the center of Nevada for a well deserved shower.  When we first got to the event the greeter at the gate said 'You are at Burning Man now, you will never be the same', he was right!  What an amazing extraordinary experince, including the many challenges we all faced.  We will follow up with a complete write update and images of our Burning Man experience soon.  For now we need to head on back to Colorado.

The experience is almost over! Yesterday was a day of dust storms, almost zero visibility. We walked around in it all afternoon, very surreal. We took a ride in the jump plan, great aerial views. The day ended with the burning of the man. 44,000 people gathered around the man to witness amazing pyro technics and as the burned to the ground the energy was very high. We head out tonight or tomorrow morning.

Update from Burning Man. We are alive, we've leaned this is an event of submission. Everything is different from the real world, and the dust is unavoidable. We've had some unforgettable experiences, tonight should be the ultimate when the man burns. Onward through the dust....

Energy and excitment is increasing. We are fully fueled, topped up on water and made multiple last minute trip to the truck stop. Burning Man here we come!!!!

This may be the last post until we get back from the Playa. We are in Reno, need to do a quick shop for last minute items, then only 100 miles to the gate. Should be there by midnight. We are looking forward to five days of staying in one place, let the crazyness continue, fear and loathing in the black rock desert!

We just entered Nevada, about 500 miles to go.  We slept in a rest area with the truckers last night, after driving until 1am.  John got the worst driving slot, 2 lanes in the dark up soldier pass, with construction, very scary!  The bad news is Jim's foot isn't any better, he can barely walk, even with plenty od painkillers, so sadly we are dropping him of in Reno. :(  We just passed Boneville salt flats where they are racing bikes today, tempting to stop, but Buring Man is waiting - the man buns in 4 days and 11 hours..... This post didn't go out when it should have. Since I wrote we have blown a tire, and taken a detour to Battle Mountain Tire factory. Back on the road now heading to Reno to drop off Jim and pick up Janet and David. Onward with the adventure!