Meeting up with a friend?

[claybcook]

What's the easiest way to arrange a meet up between someone who gets there early and another who arrives a day or two later? How good is cell service? If I'm all established and my friend takes the burner bus from Reno, how on earth do they get from the gate to the village with all their stuff? Tent and food and water, etc? Even if we can coordinate their arrival time and I can meet them at the gate, would I need to drive my car there (generating lots of dust) to pick them and their stuff up, or is there another way?

[Chowski]

Cell service is pretty good. Don't worry about that. And on the off chance your call gets dropped, there is a camp in each plaza which offers phone charging and sterling wifi. The playa will provide! The bus is a little more complex. The bus only drives up to the gates, and then they are on their own. You aren't allowed to drive your car back out to gate once you're in, so they will have to pre-arrange concierge busboy service with the gate staff. It's expensive, but so much easier than carrying your stuff all the way from gate to the village.

[Ratty]

The burner express bus comes into the city. It bypasses gate altogether. There is a be buss stop around 7 and j. Look it up. They do not arrive on schedule. A shuttle takes them from the bus stop down g street.

[Ratty]

In 2015 i was a greeter at the bus stop which is also a camp for those arriving by bus. There is a bell for virgins to ring and a big covered area to lounge around. But not to camp under.

[Savannah]

What's the easiest way to arrange a meet up between someone who gets there early and another who arrives a day or two later? How good is cell service? If I'm all established and my friend takes the burner bus from Reno, how on earth do they get from the gate to the village with all their stuff? Tent and food and water, etc? Even if we can coordinate their arrival time and I can meet them at the gate, would I need to drive my car there (generating lots of dust) to pick them and their stuff up, or is there another way?

Hi Clay!

Cell service is iffy . . . you can try it, but never count on it.

You can't really drive out to Gate and meet your friend; Gate won't allow you to wait there and the bus doesn't stop there, from the looks of it.

The Burner Express FAQ is here, including the bus stops inside the event and the camp called Hoverlandia where some of their riders stay:

https://burnerexpress.burningman.org/bu ... s-bus-faq/

Whichever one of you arrives by bus (your friend?) will need to network with you/people in his village . . . perhaps he can prevail upon a friend or acquaintance to check Hoverlandia on a certain date and time. Since the bus is unlikely to arrive on time you won't want someone to wait early, or be there exactly at the time listed.

Or, if any of the bus stops beyond Hoverlandia are very near your camp or village, have him get off at one of those stops instead, and check at the bus stop for him at the (semi) scheduled time and then every 1-2 hours or so at the top of the hour.

If it were me I'd arrange to have signage, or matching Italian flags (or something) on each party, so as to be recognizable. Sunglasses, dust and similarities between camping gear can make people kind of hard to distinguish in a crowd.

Also, see this info about other ways to communicate, although they may not be relevant to you and may require so much foot travel that it would be impractical.

FAQ: http://burningman.org/event/preparation/faq/

Ideally, pick a meeting point and time in advance.

•If your friends are in a registered theme camp, its location should be indicated on the city map you will be given at the Greeters Station.

•The Playa Directory is a computerized directory of BRC camps and addresses. It is located at Playa Info in Center Camp, and also can be accessed through PlayaNet terminals located throughout the city.

•Playa Info (our information booth) is located in Center Camp. The Playa Directory is located there. It is a sort of phone book of ALL participants who want to use the service. Feel free to drop by Playa Info and register with them.

•Burning Bell Message Center, also located in Center Camp (next to Playa Info), will have a large Find-A-Camp board for flyers and offers a paper-based messaging service. You can leave and receive messages with Burning Bell from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

[maladroit]

The downside of the bus is that you might have to lug all of your gear 1-2 miles in order to reach your camp. The upside is that you can't really bring much gear. From what I've seen, those bus riders with the foresight to bring a folding luggage cart or roll-up plastic sled are viewed as gods by the mere mortals who neglected to plan ahead.

Whoever's on the playa first should try to send a message out to any stragglers as to the location of the camp. Then it is up to everyone else to get there. There is no easy way to predict when someone will arrive, therefore there is no easy way "go down to Burner Express to pick up my friend" unless you're prepared to waste the entire day loitering there.

You also do not drive your car anywhere. You drive it to your campsite, park it, and there it stays for the duration of the event. Doesn't matter that your friend's camp is 3 miles away.

[BBadger]

Last year I was on Esplanade riding around during the day when I saw a pair of people get dropped off, each with multiple suitcases of wheeled luggage, on the man-side of that part of Esplanade. It looked like they weren't even dropped off that close to whatever their camp was because they proceeded to walk in a diagonal towards some other point across the playa. It was a pretty odd sight, like they had departed an airplane, only to be dropped off in the middle of a runway.

So remember to vocally inform the gate concierge staff that you tip well for their services, or you might get dumped off in the middle of nowhere and have to haul your luggage to camp yourself!

[AntiM]

Chow, it is standard eplaya practice to hold the snark until a few good replies are made. That's how Page Two evolved. We don't want to be complete assholes and drive folks away from an unhelpful board. Thanks.

Cell service is pretty good. Don't worry about that. And on the off chance your call gets dropped, there is a camp in each plaza which offers phone charging and sterling wifi. The playa will provide! The bus is a little more complex. The bus only drives up to the gates, and then they are on their own. You aren't allowed to drive your car back out to gate once you're in, so they will have to pre-arrange concierge busboy service with the gate staff. It's expensive, but so much easier than carrying your stuff all the way from gate to the village.

[Chowski]

You're not my real mom!

[AntiM]

You're not my real mom!

How fortunate for us both, neh?

[Kelsier]

Chow, it is standard eplaya practice to hold the snark until a few good replies are made. That's how Page Two evolved. We don't want to be complete assholes and drive folks away from an unhelpful board. Thanks.

Cell service is pretty good. Don't worry about that. And on the off chance your call gets dropped, there is a camp in each plaza which offers phone charging and sterling wifi. The playa will provide! The bus is a little more complex. The bus only drives up to the gates, and then they are on their own. You aren't allowed to drive your car back out to gate once you're in, so they will have to pre-arrange concierge busboy service with the gate staff. It's expensive, but so much easier than carrying your stuff all the way from gate to the village.

Wait, are you saying there ISN'T Gate Concierge Service? Then why did I give my bags to that dusty guy to carry? Guess it explains why he insisted on unpacking and wearing every last pair of my socks...