Getting to BM with supplies from the Midwest.

Energy185 · Post by **Energy185** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:32 pm

I was hoping a seasoned Burner could give me advice on how to be best prepared for Burning Man considering I will be flying in. Surely this is too much stuff for Carry on Luggage. Any hints? Thanks all.

jenny · Post by **jenny** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:53 pm

I was looking into this issue a lot last year, but I ended up renting an SUV and driving there. It was a fantastic drive (30hrs) and I recommend it if you have the time.

There are a number of midwestern groups that are big enough to rent semi-trucks and take all their stuff to Burning Man, and they sell the extra space off to others to help pay for the truck. Where are you in the midwest?

Snowflake Village is in Michigan, here's their site: http://www.videogasm.com/burningman/bigoletruck/

And Bop Camp is in Chicago: http://bopcamp.tribe.net/

Another option is to join a camp, like the two above or another one in your area. You might be able to hook up with a camp and all you would bring would be your tent and other personal items. Check the regionals section on this site to see what's going on around you.

Good luck and see you next year!

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:18 pm

This comes up enough where I am tempted to offer a service some day. The "PlayaPack". I would provide you with a package of all the food and water you need for a week on the playa ... probably offer 3 different combinations ... for some price, delivered to you on the playa. I understand that people flying in or traveling from abroad can't carry a ton-o-crap with them.

Probably wouldn't be cheap though. But it would be good, and convenient.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:52 am

I like the Playapack idea....It'd be a fun project to make a Burner-style survival kit.
I've got about the same drive as Jenny, coming from Southwestern Michigan- I jam on it getting out there every year, and take longer to get home- If you go alone, some parts of I-80 can be mighty awake-challenging and you might consider (if you can) allowing at least two FULL days to get there with at least ONE good night's rest...Cheyenne's the halfway point, technically, although navigating the mountains in the last third of the trip eats up more time than you'd think...The Days Inn in West Wendover's nice, especially on the way home, and I make that my traditional dustoff overnighter on the way home.
Part of me would LOVE to pare down my cargo and fly out....But I HATE renting cars, which you'd have to do or catch a ride from Reno, (which is certainly do-able) and I need lots of junk and my anvil close by to be truly happy.....

Martiansky · Post by **Martiansky** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:51 am

I'd like to know how people fair with renting storage units near Reno, how much they run and if they are secure? Maybe a few peeps can get together and rent one to save $. Then flying out and renting a car might be an option or even just not having to tote everything back and forth.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:07 am

Our camp rented a storage unit in Empire there next to the Gypsum plant. I don't remember how much it cost, but I remember it seemed reasonable when I was told how much it was. You could call and ask.

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:17 am

My only question on this idea - and it's a good idea otherwise - is how are you gonna lug alla that stuff out if you didn't have the space to lug it all in? Does the "Playa-pak"(™) service include removal of the stuff from the playa as well? This would be a logistical problem because, say, I spend money for your (essentially) purchasing and portage service. It's not my stuff, I didn't bring it out there, and as such I don't have to worry about cleaning up my mess - hell, that's what I paid for (whether that was the agreement or not).

To me this would be the biggest problem with doing something like this - but then again, I worry about the BLM requirements about leaving no trace.

bb

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:51 am

What I had in mind to do was to provide a drum, the kind with a removable lid, that had in it enough water and food for one person for one week. At the end of the week, I would collect the drum. There would be a deposit on it so if someone for whatever reason wanted to keep it or sell it to a camp mate or whatever, they could, they would just forfeit the deposit. So yeah, I would collect the drum and I would expect the drum to be full of trash to some reasonable degree. I would, however, make sure the drum wasn't water tight to discourage people using it for their grey water.

But it would be fine for people to put the wrappers, empty containers, etc. back into the drum. Dumping them would be part of the service. I would expect to haul out at least what I hauled in.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:55 am

Allow me to contribute a name for your service- "A Different Drum".

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:14 am

I think I would be pretty particular about who I marketed them to. The aim would be to provide them only for people arriving from across the ocean or people flying in to the airport. I am not going to facillitate a "turn key" burning man experiance for people from SF that want to hop in their car and arrive at burning man finding everything they need there for them. My purpose would be mainly to facillitate participation by people that might not otherwise be able to go at all. If it increased the number of people from other continents that could come, great.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:53 am

I think I'll make myself a Burnal Equinox Kit- Phial of playadust, glowstick, some favorite blinkytoys and gifts- To be opened (and the dust applied) at the Burnal Equinox* in February. (*Longest amount of time between burns.)

Niacin · Post by **Niacin** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:44 pm

Both of my years it's been possible to pack a tent, clothes, two bottle of liquor, a carton of smokes into a 12x12x24" box and a suitcase; so it is possible...albeit barebones. Plus, the TSA probably had a fun time. The trick is to get food/water as close to BM as possible, in Reno or Sparks.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 3:32 pm

Ship it. We shipped over 600 pounds of gear from Dallas to LA (where we picked-up our RV), flew to LA, picked-up our stuff, loaded it, went to Burning Man, came back, shipped it back and flew home. It's not cheap but it's convenient.

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:52 pm

geekster wrote: >SNIP<
But it would be fine for people to put the wrappers, empty containers, etc. back into the drum. Dumping them would be part of the service. I would expect to haul out at least what I hauled in.

I shudder to contemplate what you'd find in there. I'm sure I'm just too cynical, but I have visions of hundreds of pounds of stuff stuffed into the drum and laying in piles around it, as the purchaser has no responsibility for what goes back to the Reno Transfer Station.

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:53 pm

DallasPlaya wrote:It's not cheap but it's convenient.

Any recollection of the cost?

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:32 pm

phil wrote:
geekster wrote: >SNIP<
But it would be fine for people to put the wrappers, empty containers, etc. back into the drum. Dumping them would be part of the service. I would expect to haul out at least what I hauled in.
I shudder to contemplate what you'd find in there. I'm sure I'm just too cynical, but I have visions of hundreds of pounds of stuff stuffed into the drum and laying in piles around it, as the purchaser has no responsibility for what goes back to the Reno Transfer Station.

Yeah, and there are a bazillion other reasons I probably won't really do it. It is just an idea that floats through my mind every once in a while. It would probably be something I might do for someone I already know and trust or someone I trust has introduced me to.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:21 pm

geekster wrote:
phil wrote:
geekster wrote: >SNIP<
But it would be fine for people to put the wrappers, empty containers, etc. back into the drum. Dumping them would be part of the service. I would expect to haul out at least what I hauled in.
I shudder to contemplate what you'd find in there. I'm sure I'm just too cynical, but I have visions of hundreds of pounds of stuff stuffed into the drum and laying in piles around it, as the purchaser has no responsibility for what goes back to the Reno Transfer Station.
Yeah, and there are a bazillion other reasons I probably won't really do it. It is just an idea that floats through my mind every once in a while. It would probably be something I might do for someone I already know and trust or someone I trust has introduced me to.

Well, for one thing, due to the militant stance on commerce on this very board, it would be difficult to promote (though I wonder if you could promote it here if it was "at cost", thus, essentially, a gift of time). Perhaps you could promote it on the mailing lists. Seems to me the weight of the water, alone, would make it impossible on a large scale and not worth the time on a small scale.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:43 pm

I would figure 100lbs per barrel loaded, maybe 15 lbs empty. Commerce on the playa is prohibited, but commerce off the playa for services rendered on the playa is permitted. JOTS does it. You can rent a grey water container that they will pick up after the event. They just can't drive around during the event offering them. There are people that offer things for delivery on the playa. Everything from RV rental to glowsticks to black water pumping ( I saw someone offering an RV for rent during the event that lived in Washoe county who would deliver the RV to the playa and pick it up after).

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:20 pm

DallasPlaya wrote: Well, for one thing, due to the militant stance on commerce on this very board, it would be difficult to promote (though I wonder if you could promote it here if it was "at cost", thus, essentially, a gift of time). Perhaps you could promote it on the mailing lists. Seems to me the weight of the water, alone, would make it impossible on a large scale and not worth the time on a small scale.

Whether using this board to promote the idea is acceptable or not (I don't take a stance on that), I know of several people who take paid orders online for deliveries on the playa. I _think_ BMOrg has, if not accepted that, then ignored it. No money changes hands at the Burn, for what that's worth.

Water weighs just over 8 pounds a gallon, by the way. If you figure 2 gallons of water a day per person for 7 days, that's over 110 lbs per person.

I think it's a good idea; maybe some fine tuning on how to do it. It's very difficult to arrange meetings on the playa, and these materials, of course, are absolute essentials. I think it would seriously screw up my personal Burning Man experience trying to do this. :->

Phil

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:32 pm

Yeah, it could be done if I lived nearby. I am sure as hell not going to haul all that stuff over the sierras. If I lived in Gerlach or Empire or even Reno, I would think about it. Also, i figured 1.5 gal per person per day and even that is probably too much by 50% considering what I used this year.

jenny · Post by **jenny** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:23 pm

hey DallasPlaya,

How did you ship your stuff? UPS?

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:48 pm

geekster wrote:I would figure 100lbs per barrel loaded, maybe 15 lbs empty. Commerce on the playa is prohibited, but commerce off the playa for services rendered on the playa is permitted. JOTS does it. You can rent a grey water container that they will pick up after the event. They just can't drive around during the event offering them. There are people that offer things for delivery on the playa. Everything from RV rental to glowsticks to black water pumping ( I saw someone offering an RV for rent during the event that lived in Washoe county who would deliver the RV to the playa and pick it up after).

Hm. I posted a link to an art car for sale on ebay once (because I thought it was just a cool ebay thing) and it was removed. I guess it depends on the mod.