Fire Spinning at BusCamp

Took some great long exposure pics at BusCamp one evening. They looked really cool as a fast slideshow - so i strung them together in iMovie. Fun fun.




The originals can be found here on Flicker

A very Burning Man evening

A early week snafu ended up cancelling some evening plans for me and left me in a funk for the evening. ( And let me tell ya - I know how to Stew..) But in a odd twist - my funk was crashed by strangers who managed to pull me out for a very fun - very Burning Man / very not Tom evening.
































It began basically out on Center Playa while I took sunset pics from a great temple. I was trying to put the brakes on my SNIT FLYWHEEL** ( which was hitting about 14,000 rpm) by distracting myself.

**- You may find that phrase strange unless you are genetically related to me - **


After a couple of conversations with very nice folks and a stop back at camp - I headed back towards the playa for some evening pictures and an attempt to walk off my funk.

But it was not meant to be!

2 strangers promptly stopped their 4 person bike and asked me to get on and then evening promptly took another direction. A wonderful Burning Man kind of experience to suddenly team up with people you have just met to share the evening touring the night sights of the playa.




























We stopped by a neat camp called Big Pink Heart and had our pic taken. The photographer Aaron Dressin had a neat set up that reflected in the eyes of the subject if you look carefully. I ended up at a camp all the way across the playa drinking rum(?) and hanging with some very funny people. It was a fun end to the night.

I still contemplate the evening for some reason.

I note how I can shut myself off when in such a bad mood - yet a random act can so quickly pull me out

I think i also focus on how startled I get to have 2 straight guys just want to be buds. The whole straight guy " you're gay??" awkwardness thing is too ingrained on my experience. I expect it always and on the rare occasion it does not happen... I just get spooked. I think you can almost see it in the picture. ( Which I love BTW) I have spent a lot of time since then thinking how/if this jades my daily life or whether BurningMan was the exception.
















How to keep the windows open despite the rain?

The Big Trip West Part 1 Syracuse > Reno























I returned home this past Friday evening - and really have been fighting off the urge to take a 3 day nap. I still feel very tired and the attention span is at Zero for just about anything. I think veteran burners call this decompression?? ( Or maybe I need a decompression...) Dunno but a nap is on the list. You think for this whole wind down - I could brag i was a wild man at Burning Man - but that would not be the case. In fact - I could be accused of not being engaged enough. Butwhattodo? In a nutshell - I think the trip was good in some ways and bad in others - and unfortunately some of the bad stuff got in the way of my Burning Man experience. The long solo driving in itself did not help. A run down for the trip -

As we last joined our hero - he was madly working away on his Subaru engine conversion - only to realize(!) time had run out~! And the remaining time before the trip was spent getting the old Grumpy engine to work right and prepping the van in general for the trip. (..And mentally mapping where the really really worst place in the country was to break down in the van.....)

• Got fridge working well after disassembly and cleaning.
• Installed new solar controller and solar panel
• Added extra 12 volt outlet.
• Added iPhone mount up by dashboard.
• Installed New optima gel cell battery.
• Added new additional grounds in engine compartment
• Cleaned AirFlowMeter and added capacitors.
• Wrestled and cursed with a 2(!) new oxygen sensors and put new catalytic converter on van....And Viola! Van was HAPPY!

Took off from Syracuse Sunday morning in the rain. As I got to Erie PA - eric gave me a ring to let me know our basement was flooding. It was a harbinger of small zingers that awaited me along the trip..... First night was in Toledo OH and trip was uneventful.




The next morning I took off West - making a stop in Chicago at Alcala's to get a hat. A mistake. If you need a simple $30 hat - an expensive city store is where you buy said hat for $80.



The day ended up at the Peru Illinois KOA.

I managed to get the time off for the drive with the idea I would be drawing for work along the way - which for the most part worked - I spent a good chunk of time on the laptop once I arrived at the destination of the day. The long driving helped in one - way - I spent ALOT of time thinking of the problems I needed to be drawing solutions for and once I opened up the laptop - things were sketched up fairly quickly. The drive however - was tiring and often all i could do after arrival was contemplate a nap...



This is the exit for the town we were chased out of in 2007!

KOA stops along the way included Toledo Oh, LaSalle Ill, Newton Ia, Grand Island, Ne and Cheyenne Wy.



By the time I reached Cheyenne - the KOAs were all starting to blend together - but I did get the time to make some PF Chang Orange Chicken the night before my Wyoming Crossing.




Our 2007 trek across Wyoming was hot, slow and maddening. And I have been complaining about it ever since. So this time around - I was not looking forward to the drive - but I figured an early start would possibly help - so I shoved off from Cheyenne around 5 am. As it turns out - it was a great drive. I guess we really just picked the wrong time ( hot afternoon) to cross the state. The drive into Utah was beautiful and I arrived in Salt Lake right after lunch.





I set out from my Salt Lake hotel in search of Greek food when i found the entire street in front of me wrapped in police tape. Half the Utah police force was on hand and my greek food destination was closed due to the street closure. A passerby mentioned a shooting.... as I contemplated my personal inconvenience from the whole situation......

- Sadly the next morning i found out details regarding the incident. A veteran recently back from Afghanistan had reached the end of his rope and committed "Suicide by Cop.." whereas he suited up weapons and all and sought a confrontation with police - which ended his life. I felt/still feel pretty stupid about my thoughts the night before. The next morning - it was like nothing happened - just the police tape in the garbage can.

Rest in Peace Brandon Barrett.

After two days in Salt lake getting last minute things for Burning Man and trying in vain to bring my NEW Optima Gel cell battery back to life -I headed out of Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon. The drive was long but not eventful.

I ended up at the Fernley exit on Route 80 around 11:30 and though I was being pretty clever with my timing. The festival is 80 miles up a back road from Fernley with the gates opening at midnight. People arriving early get punished by getting rerouted to a holding lot - so I thought I was being clever with my arrival. At first it went well and the drive up to Gerlach was fairly straightforward. But outside of Nixon - the traffic jams started and I found myself sitting in a line of cars with the engine off for over 30 minutes at a time..... SO I really ended up getting into the festival right at Sun up - just like last time.

















I found VW Buscamp in the empty Black Rock city - parked and promptly put myself to bed after meeting my bus camp neighbors Ramona, Cameron and Joel. ZZZzzzzz!!!