Some of the best camps are groups of first timers who just band together for support and end up camping together year after year. There have been a couple-three "Orphans" camps that start up on eplaya, people say, "Hey, you're solo? Let's camp together". Some of the orphan camps ...

These: (NOTE - brand and website not endorsed or commented on, Concept is awesome.) http://www.mycoolingstore.com/chill-its-cooling-towel.html It's a microfiber absorbent "cloth" that you soak in water and drape around your neck to keep cool. Every 15 minutes or so, take it off and wave it...

Hey kids! Happy Sunday! Looks like ol' doc Swampdog is coming back! I got my ticket, got my plans, it's gonna happen. See y'all at the M&G!

Gotta get going, I got some WORK to do.

Huge burner community in Portland. Look at http://regionals.burningman.org/ for possible contacts. You could probably stand by Voodoo Donuts at 2 AM on a Sunday and shout "Hey, any burners here?" until you find somebody. You don't have to join a camp. You don't have to join a camp. You don...

We're everywhere.

Seriously, I bet there are 200 burners in KC. Just a guess off the top of my head. Go here http://regionals.burningman.org/ and find the nearest group to you.

You might find rideshare partners, camp partners, hell you might even find life partners.

Yeah, what Ratty said. Don't DO NOT DO FUCKING NOT hit the road without a ticket. That is extremely likely to end well. That said, I hope you can make it. Camping solo ain't no thang, it's a fine way to go. You sound (uh, besides the ticket thing) to pretty much know where your towel is at - so WELC...

Glad to hear that you're nervous! It shows that you're taking shit seriously! Burners are very intolerant of sparkle ponies - people who expect the world to just take care of them because they're THAT special! But if you show the spark of radical self-reliance, you'll get respect. Help people and th...

Burning Man demographics are interesting. There's a huge dip during the "got a kid" ages, but then the 50 plus crowd pick up the pace a bit. 20-early 30s are still in the majority, mid 30s-40s you see a sag, then 50s-++ have another smallish peak.

Why in gods' name would you move from England to West LA.? As far as I'm concerned, the American southwest is rapidly becoming an uninhabitable hellhole. The Pacific North West is cool, green, lovely. Not everyone has a tan! You'd like it, I'm sure. Sorry, a bit distracted. Where was I? Welcome! A b...

2004 was my first year. 2012 was my most recent (not counting this year). It seems very different from 04 to 12 IMHO. It's just - big. To me, in 2004 everything seemed in flux, it was a thing being created. Now it is a Known Thing and it's easier and perhaps a bit - calcified? Remember chasing the w...

Big burner community in Van. Go meet some folks. There are FB groups like (I think) Van Burners. Big confusion amongst newbies about "What is a camp". You coordinate in advance with a group of like minded (in some way) other people and then camp together. That can be a fabulous 20 burn gro...

Thanks. Blushing a bit.

Burning Man is part of the reason I no longer consider myself shy. It's an amazing laboratory of possibility. You can stay in your comfort zone, you can try on whole new personas, or anything in between. One of my earliest BMan lessons was when a friend said "Burning Man is a place where you ca...

Huh. Hi there. Remember me, Swampdog? Haven't been out the TTITD for a coupla years now. Looks like some of the same faces in this joint. Hi Yggy, Elorrum, FIGJAM, Elliot, Anti-M, Lucky420, alla youse mugs. I haven't back-threaded much so I don't know who-all hangs out here these days. To my surpris...

Hi folks. Just sticking my (oversized funny shaped) nose in. I see it looks like mostly the same ol' bunch of cantankerous coots in this joint. No offense, I use the term "coots" with brotherly affection. Us coots gotta stick together. I'm in the process of opening a bar up here in the far...

ok, the canonical simple monkey hut. I've been building this pretty much since 2004. Dead easy and it rocks. You need: 7 10 ft 1 inch sch 40 pvc per 10 ft length, 5 for each additional 10 ft. I make mine 10x30 (17 PVC). 1 1/4 inch dia pvc cut into lengths about 1 to 1.5 ft. You need 3 segments for f...

What Eric said. I believe that you will be refused entry if you arrive with an animal.

I use 2.5 gal water bottles from the store. THere's enough air space and flexibility in the bottle that I've never lost one.

I was in a camp a few years back that did a lot of cooking for a lot of people. We had nasty pots & pans. This goody looks like it might be very helpful for such a situation. It's a bamboo wok scrubber, http://www.amazon.com/Paderno-World-Cuisine-Traditional-10-Inch/dp/B007MXRAII/ref=sr_1_5?ie=U...

Savannah, yes the driver straddles the pig. Might be able to seat 2, but I'm not counting on it. I still haven't figured how to do wings.

I got conditional approval to bring Pigarus to the playa! Here it is at the moment Here's the base. It's a Jazzy motorized chair with the chair removed and a cradle to support the pig http://home.comcast.net/~brockandsal/Pigarus/Pigarus-base.jpg Here's an overall view. Main body is a 55 gal food bar...

Happy Birthday Lucky and Adam!

DO be prepared for dust storms. If you don't have AC it can get a bit unpleasant having to choose between open windows & dust or closed windows & excess heat. (personal experience)

Timing is impossible to guess. Don't plan your entry around it. Peak time is probably around midnight Monday morning, you'd probably have a shorter wait by like 2 AM Tuesday morning but then you'd be exchanging playa time for the reduced wait time. And, you could end up with 6 hr wait Tuesday AM too...

Brilliant! Use the flashlight to see well enough to pee into the boots, while thinking about Dr. Who. THE TARDIS! THAT'S WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE! ok. Who's ready to work out a JOTS-to-Tardis decoration package to deploy on playa? While the JOTS are unfortunately not bigger on the inside, they can trans...

I often collect the plastic jars that they use to sell things like nuts or trail mix at Costco and give them out to my vagina-enabled friends on playa. Ladies seem to appreciate them. Wide mouth, stable, sealable.

betabox - most of your problems with a monkey hut can be resolved by using shade cloth instead of tarps. You get the advantage of breeze & shade both. It's also sturdier that way, it doesn't have to take the full force of the wind. As far as burning the pvc - take it home and use it again, I've ...

BetaBox wrote:don't make a monkey hut.

Make a monkey hut. Monkey huts rock

big fan of the monkey hut. Cheap, easy to store/carry, easy to set up. I can set my 30' up myself in an hour or two with very little trouble. Very stable, altho sometimes the windward side bows in a bit. I use shade cloth, which is light, shady, wind porous, and easy to attach. I just zip tie it dir...

I'm really disappointed here. Amie-mole sounded like such a sparkle pony in her first post and then she turned out to be cool and self reliant. It sounds like everyone's got snark blue balls. The real fun with a sparkle pony thread is when someone tries to clue them in and they get all indignant and...