Yet another anxious first-timer!

[AndyW716]

Hello new/future family!

My name is Andy, i'm from Buffalo, NY.

I have wanted to attend burning man for years...and this year, myself, my girlfriend, and two other friends decided we were going to force ourselves to commit by just closing our eyes, and buying tickets...and we all got them!

Very excited, very overwhelmed, very anxious (in good and bad ways)...just so many emotions surrounding my journey to the playa!


We are doing our best to plan, i've read so much information on so many links from these sites, and you've all been wonderfully helpful with the wealth of information i've found.

To give you an idea of what we've accomplished thus far: we have a friend in San Diego that has bicycles for us (i know they are a must!), so we will be flying there, picking them up, and then making the beautiful road trip, likely arriving by Tuesday at the event.

We wanted to do an RV since, to be honest, the idea of "roughing it" in the desert in summer somewhat scares me. I know this is not an event for the weak or faint of heart. But, i also want to be SOMEWHAT comfortable...especially regarding bathrooms/showers, air conditioning/shelter, a place to store and cook food, etc. We're currently in the process of trying to recruit 2 more people to join us, to split the RV cost a few more ways, as they charge outrageous fees for anybody that attends Burning Man (the sand causes quite extensive damage, i'm sure you all know).


If we can not find 2 more, we'll likely resort to renting some form of van, and just buying a large tent...but, i dont know if i'll be able to convince the girlfriend of this! Fingers crossed we can find a few more burners looking to make friends with my group.

Anyway, i've rambled on enough...hello again everybody!

I'm excited to (hopefully) meet you all in the near future!


Any advice anybody can offer is, as always, greatly appreciated!

[Drawingablank]

Welcome to Eplaya.

Six people to an RV sounds tight, and would rapidly overwhelm the amenities you want the RV for (shower, toilet). You may want to rethink that, but that has been addressed in detail elsewhere on Eplaya.

[Savannah]

Welcome, Andy!

Here are two cool threads to get you started.

House Rules for RVs
https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=34551

Keeping the RV dust-free (well, as dust-free as possible)
https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46062

I found those by googling keywords + the word eplaya. (My favorite trick).

Like DrawingaBlank says, 4 people to an RV is usually plenty, no matter how many people are supposed to be able to sleep it. (Two of those people will probably be sleeping in the pullout dining area, after all, and you're not always going to want to leave it pulled out.)

There is nothing wrong with the cargo van/shade/tent route (I've done a version of that every single time). No one at the event cares what you're sleeping in, as long as you pick up after yourself!

[trilobyte]

Welcome to the site, and trust me with that many people in an RV you will not be very comfortable Savannah's pointed you in the right direction on a couple threads to check out, and hopefully you'll find answers to most of your other questions in the various categories of ePlaya. Cheers!

[LowePro]

Best luck,
your ideas for Bathrooms, Showers, and Air conditioning are ambitious--the shower water gets used up quickly, bathroom also gets full and stinky, and for air conditioning you need an RV with a generator (and/or extra fuel cans to run it). So you guys might need to adjust your expectations a bit--only shower every other day or less, don't use the RV toilet unless emergency (or not at all), and skip the AC or only run it sparingly. There are no water or electrical hookups out there and waiting for a service truck can take your entire day of waiting around, if they even come through your neighborhood. 6 people is a crowded house. I would trade less people for less creature comforts any day. People tend to explode at burning man--luggage all over the place, clothes everywhere, food everywhere, beer cans, stuff everywhere, everywhere all over!!! Not to mention different wake up/go out schedules. 6 people sounds like a nightmare to me. The RV is great, but plenty of people do it in a tent or cargo van or some other shelter. So even if you don't use the shower/bath/AC very much, you still have a somewhat posh setup, don't take it for granted. After a day or 2 you won't mind the portas or skipping a few showers.

[Eric]

I've camped with 6 people in a "7 person" RV before. You could offer to buy tickets for me & my entire camp for the week and it still wouldn't be enough to convince me to do it again. We now camp 3 people in a "5 person" RV and have been much more successful. Just remember, when RV companies come up with those numbers they're adding children to the mix of "people", some of the beds won't fit adults comfortably, if at all.

[mooserider]

I've camped with 6 people in a "7 person" RV before. You could offer to buy tickets for me & my entire camp for the week and it still wouldn't be enough to convince me to do it again. We now camp 3 people in a "5 person" RV and have been much more successful. Just remember, when RV companies come up with those numbers they're adding children to the mix of "people", some of the beds won't fit adults comfortably, if at all.

That's for sure! I rented an RV once, and the dinette, which could lower the table into a bed, had a table so narrow that you could barely put two dinner plates on opposite sides without them colliding in the center (forget about putting salt and pepper shakers in the middle). The bench seats were similarly shallow, such that, in bed mode, the length of this bed was about the width of a full-size house bed (i.e., significantly shorter than an average adult). Quite shocked at this, as all the older RV's my father had owned had dinettes wide enough for an adult to sleep longwise on, and also had room to put serving dishes in the middle of the table between the plates. Conversely, the overhead bunks in one of his trailers were theoretically wide enough to hold an adult, but the distance between the mattress top and the ceiling was too narrow for me to be able to roll over in bed.

At least the RV I'm bringing this year has reasonable capacity advertising of sleeping 4 (2 in the queen-sized bed in the bedroom, 1 on the dinette, and 1 on the sofa). Astoundingly enough, we manage to jam 10 people in there at dinner time, but that's with the slides out, and three people sitting on the sofa holding their plates on their laps, and three more in the bucket seats (including the driver's seat) doing the same. But it's amazing how fast most of them disappear when it's time to wash the dishes.

[some seeing eye]

There are burners in Buffalo, Rochester, Ontario-Toronto who you can meet by social networking and regional meetups - search burningman.org for regionals, like now, and join their events and house parties.

Look up packing lists for burning man. Costumes - for the costume-impaired, like me, it is never too early to start on that.

As others have mentioned, BM is not a campground with RV hookups. Bringing a generator and fuel for AC is an endeavour, and RV tank pumping is extremely expensive and undependable to arrange.

Ask specific questions on ePlaya.