I am amazed and impressed by the compact-ness of your packing. Beautiful! I also want to say "floral wire" is just genius, small to pack, strong and multi use. I'm checking my own list and seeing what could be replaced by floral wire.

Martha, there's an active regional Burning Man community in Wisconsin. Hit up "wisconsin@burningman.com" to get in touch with them. Also, we have many folks come from Wisonsin to Lakes of Fire, the Great Lakes Regional Burn that happens in June in West Michigan. You can jump on the ferry and come ri...

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend Come inside! Come inside!" Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Karn Evil 9. I was part of a camp that built a roller coaster and hauled it to the playa from Detroit. Some of our neighbors did a little video about there time o...

This will be my 15th consecutive Burn. Every year I ask myself if it's time to take a break or to stop going entirely. Each year so far I've decided that the "once in a lifetime" aspect is still a big enough part of each year that I'm going back. Some years have been easy, some have been very diffic...

The current round of construction at the Detroit / Windsor Tunnel wrapped up end of June so there are now 10 inspection booths coming in to the US. Often better than crossing in via the Ambasador Bridge. Although depending on where you are coming from you might want to cross at the Blue Water bridge...

I'm not sure what the law is for this situation although I think a practical assessment would be "is there a place for each person to sit?" Driver seat, passenger seat, dinette, couch etc. do those add up to 10 chairs?

And, perhaps you could call the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and ask.

Winebuff -- just an FYI, if you pull onto the gate entrance road before midnight and you do not have an early entry pass you could be directed to park in what's known as "D Lot". D lot is the space where anyone arriving before the gates open who does not have early entry approval as well as folks go...

I concur with the advice to leave Sunday and spend the night in Reno. If you choose to leave after sunset take the caution about cows on the road seriously. They hang out on the pavement at night for the warmth and it's one hell of an expensive and time consuming problem if you hit one. A few ways t...

Oh, I also worked with someone last week who's wife was given a third degree burn on her face by the GigsVille Car-B-Que when a canister that was thrown in the fire exploded and shrapnel hit her in the face. Hmm, I was camped next to the car-b-que this year and didn't see or hear about this inciden...

dogsitter starts tonight

House almost clean

during the day I: do a moop patrol through my camp eat chilled tasty food and drink too much gin and tonic volunteer take a tour out in the open playa to see the art BS with my camp mates attempt not to have to use the blue room sauna during the prime heat soak my feet in drained cooler water then t...

Procrastinating, should pack.

I'm probably an extreme case of tons of gear... While I keep the bulk of my burn gear in storage in Reno, I also have a set of gear at home that covers my Regional, Decomp and other year-round Burn camping adventures closer to home. Not to mention the smaller stuff that I fly with and use for my bac...

I pay around $700 / year for a climate controlled 10 x 10 storage unit near the Reno airport. Holds all of my theme camp gear plus bar plus bikes plus personal camping gear for about 5 people. After paying $7 / cubic foot to ship it all back and forth every year I decided that storage was worth it t...

One of my favorite times to arrive is just about sunrise. Usually quick in the gate and it's cool enough to set up my tent and shade before the heat of the day. A note on trying to get there when the gate opens Sunday night... Last year folks arriving many hours before midnight without early entry p...

Playa Tom -- it's posted in an ever changing, ever updating e-version here:

http://playaevents.burningman.com/brc/2 ... _events/1/

This includes events submitted before the deadline which will be in the print copy available on playa. And events that people continue to add after the deadline.

We're currently holding a reservation for 12 days out of Reno for around $700 for a minivan. It's about the same as I've paid in prior years.

"Gigsville, no matter what you think of them and their arrogant demeanor, are again our next door neighbors."


Tee hee... too funny. I love to hear what folks think of Gigs. Stop on by neighbor! I'll be in Gigs at the Blues Oh CE, a yurt housing a nice little blues bar.

Cooky

For $1500 you have tons of options. Perhaps the cheapest is to buy a piece of aluminet shadecloth big enough to cover your tent and either fly with it or ship it out to Reno for pickup when you arrive. Once you've got your aluminet you've got a choice to make -- either drape it directly over your te...

I've used ez-ups for years on the playa as part of our shade. I have heard that the cheaper versions (usualy have tent type poles on top not the solid square metal bars) get beat up badly but I've not had many issues. My suggestions: Use good solid ropes off each corner where the side post connects ...

Hmm, if you know of theme camps giving away early arrival passes perhaps you could work with them to get passes. All of the theme camps I know got significantly less passes than requested and have been cutting their set up crews. Have you called BMan HQ to try to speak with someone in the artery to ...

Regarding bikes usefulness post event -- I took the same bike for 5 years in a row, washed it every year within a few weeks post playa (after I got back to Michigan), lubed the chain before the next burn and that was about it. That bike worked fine until it was damaged on a truck on the way back to ...

Welcome Prospero's Ghost, I'm betting you're going to have a terrific first trip to Burning Man I can hear the excitement in your voice. I'm a 12 year Burner who travels from Michigan and chooses to fly over driving most years for the time it saves me. Some hints to go along with the good ones you'v...

Sorry I didn't see this pre-Burn, but I do hope you found the Michigan Burner groups. There are about 350 folks signed up on the Michigan Burners yahoo group, a number of active theme camps including Quixotic, Videogasm, Ubercarney, Burning Baby Jesus and quite a few others that are either Michigan ...

There are lots of Chicago Burners. I'd encourage you to meet the local community and see who you click with as you start prepping for '08 Burn. The Chicago Decompression is Sept 29. More info about that and the community can be found here:

http://www.burningmanchicago.org/

Enjoy!

The Playa Q, home of the best damn pulled pork on the playa, has openings for a few more campers. We make no bones about it, Q campers work hard. We also play hard. We take our meat seriously. And, we take gifting it on playa even more seriously. We run a State of Nevada health dept certified kitche...

PlayaQ Iron Chef Competition The Q camp, home of PlayaQ multi-sensory performance art, is hosting a creative deviation of the now famous Iron Chef series. Each day, at 2pm, the PlayaQ Culinary Laboratory and Dining Room located at 4:30 & Brave will host a competition that focuses on a single culinar...

All Michigan burners past, present and future are invited to the regional decomp Saturday October 1st. LOCATION: TimTV's dojo (Warren Main Ukiyo Dojo) 11380 Kaltz Warren, Mi 48089 The building is about 3 blocks south of 10 Mile about 2 blocks west of Hoover. You'll be in a "light industrial" area. L...

All Michigan burners past, present and future are invited to the regional decomp Saturday October 1st. LOCATION: TimTV's dojo (Warren Main Ukiyo Dojo) 11380 Kaltz Warren, Mi 48089 The building is about 3 blocks south of 10 Mile about 2 blocks west of Hoover. You'll be in a "light industrial" area. L...