I recently did something cool. I went to Burning Man. My wife and sister went last year, and after they came back they wanted to go again. I was on the fence for awhile about joining them since I didn't think it was my scene. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I shouldn't close my world off to potentially amazing experiences because they don't fit my preconceived notions I have about what I think I like to do. So I went, and I'm glad I did.
Looking good!
The past few months were spent gathering supplies, making costumes, and preparing for a week of radical self-reliance. Since nothing is sold at Burning Man (except coffee and ice), you have to bring everything with you and plan to take it back out with you (except pee and poo). After plenty of prep we began the long drive up to Sacramento to drop off the progeny with her grandparents. Then we drove through Reno and turned north towards the barren dry lake-bed that gets turned into the most creative city in the world for one week a year.
Our house for the week
We arrived during a brutal dust storm and after 6 hours of waiting made it to our camp. We camped with a group camp that my sister & wife had been a part of. It was a pretty eclectic group, but everything about burning man seems to be built upon eclecticity (and not electricity, since there is no power).
Out on the playa
The cool part of the event is that everyone does something unique and creative, and it's all done as a gift to the community. Some Canadians put up a street hockey rink for anyone to come play. Another camp brought trampolines to jump on. There was a bike repair camp, a camp that gave out poutine at midnight, a camp that would take glamour shots of your genitals and hundreds more. They pretty much had it all. And there was no shortage of camps that ran bars and were out in the dusty streets recruiting people to partake in all the booze you could guzzle.
Nighttime on the playa
While wandering the various camps was fun, the real joy was going out into the desert where the Man is and so are all the great art installations. At nighttime the the barren desert becomes awash with neon lights, thumping beats, bikes and art cars which are almost impossible to tell they were at one time vehicles.
One of the art cars
The amassing of so much culture and art, with an expectation of it being all temporary and there to be experienced made me really see why immediacy is such an important component of the event. I really tried to embrace as much of the event as I could, and try some things I've never done (I went rock climbing!), do some things that were right up my ally (the canned fish/meats symposium was terrific!), and still avoided other events (shoving guacamole ingredients up your butt and pooping out fresh guac - I'm not making that up). I guess I have a reason to go back.
Greetings fans. A special shout-out to my international readers.
It's been 4 days since my last post and I've gone a long way since Phoenix. I've visited Manhattan and Las Vegas. Sadly the Manhattan was in Kansas, and the Las Vegas was in New Mexico.
After staying with my buddy Jon, I started making the 2 day drive to Kansas. The first day I drove north from Phoenix and turned East at Flagstaff. After turning onto I-40. I started seeing cops every 5-10 miles. Since getting a ticket would hurt my budget for the trip, I played it safe and put the cruise control at 77, which seemed reasonable on a 75MPH highway. About 30 miles and 6 cops later, I got pulled over for speeding. I was pulled over and issued a warning for going 2 over the limit because as the officer told me "In northern Arizona, 75 means 75". He was also pretty convinced that I was hauling large amounts of methamphetamine back to Michigan in the large containers that had my camping gear. Unfortunately for him, I didn't have time for him to get a chance to find out.
University Stadium - New Mexico
After getting a little behind, I made it to Albuquerque where I grabbed a snack with my cousin Meg. After that I went north to Santa Fe and eventually to Las Vegas, NM. I had picked out a state park that on the map looked like a really cool lake surrounded by the forests of the southern Rockies. It actually was a large dirty and rocky field with a dried out lake. To make matters worse there was a burn ban in effect so I couldn't even have a fire. It wasn't my favorite night camping.
Camping in New Mexico
On Wednesday I woke up and hit the road for Kansas. It was another long 11 hour drive plus I lost another hour to time changes. After an uninspiring drive through Kansas, I made it to my buddy Jones's place around 7:30. We grilled some burgers and drank some beers and watched 3 episodes of Jeopardy. It was an overall terrific evening, and since we hadn't seen each other in about 3 years it was great to catch up and a quintessential element of my current life goals of keeping in touch with people.
Bill Snyder Family Fun Football Facility - Kansas State
Thursday I left to drive to Chicago which was another 11 hour haul including a brutal stretch across Missouri. In Chicago I stayed with my old roommate and went to the bar to watch the blackhawks game. We ended getting back to his place around 11 and then stayed up until 2am half watching the Larry Sanders show and mostly bullshitting. I always enjoy Chicago and this morning we slept in and got a late breakfast before I left for Michigan.
Memorial Stadium - University of Kansas
I got into A2 around 4:30 and met the two guys who are living in the house that I'm subletting a room in. It's right next door to the house I lived in in college and I've had 3 sets of friends live in this house when I was a student, which was part of the reason I picked it. Within 10 minutes of getting to Ann Arbor we left to go to the Heidelberg for free wings and $2 beers. That's why college towns are awesome.
I've provided some pictures of the house as I came across them moving in. This is exactly the same condition the house was in when I was a student. It's going to take some getting used to living in filth again, but I think I'm up for the challenge. For your sake I'm not picturing the bathroom. It's good to be back in Ann Arbor though. Sorry if the pictures are upside down.
Not pictured - Laptop on the kitchen floor
Nativity Scene
Casual Carlos Rossi Jug chilling in the hot corner
Yellowstone was spectacular. I really enjoyed the park. After arriving I checked out the park headquarters in Mammoth and then headed off on a hike in the Northwest corner of the park. Since the trail was near the HQ I figured it would be a pretty popular trail, and there were a good number of people on the first 0.3 miles. But after that point it emptied out and I didn't see anyone the rest of the hike. I climbed about a 2 miles up the trail until I reached a clearing where the forest had been destroyed by a forest fire and many trees were burnt out and fallen. I spent a few hours up there exploring some ponds and hilltops. I saw deer and elk and many birds but and best of all, not another human.
Gardnier, WY
As I began my decent back down the trail I stopped to sit on a log and drink some water. I heard what I thought was another hiker coming up the trail. As I looked over, I saw it wasn't a human but it was a momma black bear and her cub. The cub scurried up a tree about 150 feet away while the momma bear just stared at me. I tried not to panic and grabbed my backpack and retreated to about 300 feet away from the bear which was still sitting there watching me.
On top of the mountain
I found a somewhat protected point and then fashoned two spears out of deadfall, in case it came to that. Since I pack light I didn't have a hatchet, machete, bear spray or a pistol. I got my phone out to make a video to document my impending death by mauling in which I'm embarrassed (em-bear-essed) to say I made more than one bear pun.
There is a bear somewhere in there.
After about 5 minutes the bear and her cub wandered off. Unfortunately they wandered off right down the trail I was also trying to descend. After giving it about 10 minutes I slowly started making my way down the trail afraid I was going to catch up with it. I made lots of noise, and was praying I'd run into another hiker. It wasn't until I got about a tenth of a mile from the trailhead that I saw someone else. It was a solid hour of an adrenaline rush.
Bison on the road!
After getting back to the HQ I treated myself to a chicken sandwich, ice cream and a cool beer to take the edge off. I then drove south to the Norris campsite where I made camp. I got into camp early which was nice and got everything set up and a nice fire going. It pretty much drizzled all night but the campfire kept me warm and I had a few blankets for the tent. It got down into the 30's during the night but didn't freeze my water bottle.
This morning I woke up packed the site up in the rain and got in my car. I stopped by old faithful to see the eruption. It was very cool but my phone crapped out so I didn't take any pictures. Then I continued driving south through the Grand Tetons which looked gorgeous but the low cloud cover made it hard to truely appreciate it.
Now I turn back west to head to San Francisco for the weekend.
I crossed the Continental Divide for the first time
I'm sitting in a McDonalds in Livingston, MT writing this. In the 15 minutes I've been here I've had 2 sets of Michigan Grads walk in and talk to me. Which is great because yesterday I was feeling a little lonely.
I woke up in Idaho and hit the road early. After some mega-blogging in Coeur D'Alene, I got to drive through Northern Idaho which I remember from my drive out west 4 years ago as spectacular. It did not disappoint.
I then turned onto the country roads in Montana to drive up to Kalispell. Even the two lane country roads in Montana have a speed limit of 70MPH, so the Camaro really got to hug the roads. I drove up next to Flathead lake which was georgous before stopping in Kalispell fol lunch. From there it was on to Glacier National Park. The going to the sun road was still closed with snow, but I went as far as I could from the west side of the park. It was spectacular but driving through Highway 2 to the east side I think I would have really enjoyed that portion of the park even more.
From there it was more country roads all the way to Great Falls and onto my campsite at the Lewis and Clark Nat'l Forest. I made camp at a roadside campsite which was very unlike the campground I had stayed in the previous nights. Instead of having 30+ campsites packed with people and crying babies, I was the only person at this 6-site campground situated between the road and a mountainside. I also didn't have a cell signal which made me acutely aware of just how alone I was. I ended up retreating to me tent early.
This morning I woke up around 5:30 and packed up camp and after a few rainy hours on the road ended up at this here McDouglass's. Today I explore Yellowstone! Upwards and Onwards!
I'm writing this from a bagel shop in Coeur D'Alene, ID that is open on memorial day for some reason. It's been a good journey thus far, but it has only begun.
On Saturday I got all packed up and said goodbye to my roommate of 3 years. It was anticlimactic except for him standing in the driveway watching me drive off into the sunset. I then hopped on the ferry one last time and went into Seattle to stay with my girlfriend. We went out to my favorite sushi place and then meet up with friends for buckets of High Life.
The state park I stayed at last night
Yesterday morning I slept in and then hit the road. I drove over the lush cascades and down into the dryer Yakima valley. As I was driving I began to think about cool things I could do on the trip. I really thought it would be nifty if I had a dashboard camera and could make a video of my drive condensed down to a couple of minutes. But I don't have a dashboard cam. But I did start taking pictures as I drive that I may compile at the end into a video.
Martin Stadium
I also decided to visit as many college football stadiums as possible, which luckily I decided in time to veer off route and head to Pullman, WA (Washington State) and Moscow, ID (U of Idaho). It took me a bit out of my way and I didn't make it to the Coeur D'Alene National Forrest like I planned, so instead I camped at a state park south of Coeur D'Alene.
THE KIBBIE DOME!!!!
Today I'm off to Glacier National Park and hopefully will be making camp beneath the giant ponderosas of the Lewis and Clark National Forrest.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)