burning man! (it is over.) (it isn’t over.)

Right! I am once again falling into the trap of having so much to write that I don’t write anything. Bits and pieces are better than nothing. And so, bits and pieces.

In short: on Wednesday the 20th of last month I left home absurdly early and drove westward to Black Rock City, NV. I took a northerly route on the way there and went through Ohio, Duluth MN, Fargo ND, Billings MT, Custer National Forest, Yellowstone and Jackson Hole WY. I got to the burn in the afternoon on Monday the 25th, stayed in the desert until stupid-early in the morning on Monday the 1st, and got home around 4:30pm last Sunday the 7th. On the way home I went south to Las Vegas, and then drove through Albuquerque and Santa Fe NM, Tulsa OK, Little Rock AR, Memphis and Nashville and Knocksville TN, Pretty Everyplace PA and Sleepy Hollow, NY. I drove a total of 7,253.5 miles in my friend Molly’s little 2001 Honda Civic Something Just-Pre-Hybrid, which was a complete doll and got me an average of around 45mpg. I was gone nineteen days (Stephen King, where are you?) (The number 19 carries a huge significance in the Dark Tower series); my cats expressed their unequivocal disgruntlement, and are currently over it.

It was exhausting and exhilarating and exactly the cathartic road trip I wanted. I saw some friends I hadn’t seen for a long time, met new and fantastic people, had the best burn yet (of my meager three), and spent a lot of time thinking and singing, sometimes at the same time.

Neuromancer is a bitch to experience as an audio book if you’ve never read the paper copy before. When I told Mark (who gave me the audiobook for the road) about the difficulty I was having understanding anything that was going on, and mentioned it was my first pass through the novel, he looked downright sheepish. I am glad to report that, after several false starts, I did listen to it all the way through, and am now listening to the whole thing again. It is brilliant and well read.

It’s 11:18pm, and i’m sleepy. Many more thoughts on each of the above-mentioned places.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 10:19 pmand is filed under big wide world, burning man, community, love the world, self, strangeworld, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “burning man! (it is over.) (it isn’t over.)”

  • carl Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    Thanks for chronicling. I drove a few thousand miles in a borrowed Civic, too. It was fun. Sorry I missed you to give you the Beatles CD before you left – my bad.

    Glad it was a good trip and a good burn.

  • Debby Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am

    How did the durian candies work out for you?

  • vika Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 11:13 am

    Carl – thank you, and somehow I ended up with enough entertainment anyway. :)

    Debby – they were great for a while, but too strong for their size I think. I couldn’t finish them, and that – er – soured me on the experience. So, sort-of-hit. Chock full of amusement on the drive, though!