Alright, let's hear the best and worst from 2012

[piehole]

Best:

Feeding people smoked, 3 day marinated BBQ Chicken as they walked/rode by our neighbor's camp one morning after catching the sunrise at Robot Heart. The sheer look of happiness on those peoples faces as they tasted the flavors was enough to keep me going into a deeper, more euphoric state of sleep deprivation.

Greeting new neighbors with freshly cooked bacon.

Volunteering at Ice-Cubed (Ice 3) with the ePlaya crew. Truly a rewarding experience, if you're looking for a place to volunteer next year, I recommend Arctica Camp. Very amazing people. I barked the line with Tamarakay and her daughter Sarah. SO MUCH FUN! Yelling at people, cracking jokes, calling people out. Definitely doing it again.

Tending bar at the Jungle bar for the lovely people at Sacred Spaces Village. Created a couple of drinks there as well.

Waiting to get served at DISTRIKT, when the 4 beautiful women standing behind the bar with a megaphone spotted me and got the section of bar I was standing in to sing Happy Birthday to me. I think it was because the hat I was wearing said "Big 50" on it and it sort of resembled a birthday cake. It sure felt like my birthday though!

Getting on a random art car to take it where it took me and then getting on another one to take me home.

The morning I spent at the The Temple, drinking tea and conversing about life. A gentleman from Boulder, CO supplied the tea while a woman whose name was Becca spoke with me and listened to me pour my heart out, I thank them both for putting up with me while I was a blubbering mess.

Burn Night. We were on foot, approaching the Man when we stumbled about Candy Mountain, which I believe is Charlie the Unicorn camp's art car. Just so happened that Christian Martin was DJing, so as the man burned we enjoyed some of the finest music. Truly magical.


Worst:

Being the camp mom. I somehow became the guy who handled everything and kept everybody in check. I am okay with this role because that is essentially the role I play in the default world but holy shit, the one person who I thought had their shit together the most ended up being the worst person to camp with. I had to do everything from getting his bike fixed, to cooking, cleaning up moop, getting ice (multiple times), and then taking care of the bastard when he did too much stupid shit and got sick. I know who I'm not camping with next time.

That fucking dust storm on Friday night paired with the indigestion I was suffering from god knows what.

Unorganized last minute bullshit and expenses. I think theme camp might be the way to go for me next time. Too many people bailed out on me the last second and I ended up spending waaaaaaay more money than had originally intended.



However, the pluses were plentiful and the negatives were minuscule. I didn't love every second of it, but wow, Burning Man is a fantastic breeding ground for creativity and excellence. You can't throw a stick 5 feet without hitting something/someone mind blowing. The words "Welcome Home" will never mean the same to me.

[queen_o_sheba]

WORST: potentially getting fired from job

I have a chronic medical condition and had a flare up on playa making me unable to travel home on Thursday. I am out on legal disability and have MUCH medical documentaion on file. My spouse, also on playa, needed to be back at work on Friday. Since we didn't have cell phone service, we sent a message with a friend who was going off-playa to our housesitter asking her to email his boss explaining. As it happened this was on Thursday morning before the gates closed. Even if I had been able to travel we wouldn't have left until after the Pershing County gate closure and so would not have been able to exit. I didn't seek medical attention on playa as it IS a chronic condition, and I know what needs to be done.

My husband's HR department is saying that the email from the housesitter was insufficient, it is being considered a "no show" day. They say they will NOT accept a medical note from my primary doctor, only a doctor from BM on THAT day. They have sent him home today while they discuss "what to do". This is in California.

It seems to me he is protected by FMLA since he HAS discussed my medical condition with HR in the past. It also seems to me that this HR director is way out of line and taking it personally. We need to know what legal recourse we have in this matter, especially if they decide to fire him.

We would like to find a burner-friendly lawyer in So Cal (San Diego would be awesome) to help us with this.

HELP! (and much dusty thanks)

Sheba

[geospyder]

The good - slow dancing to the Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones with strangers on the 4:30 plaza.

The bad - bad Playa cough - should have worn my mask more often.

The ugly - there are definitely some people that should NOT go naked.

[devilgrrl]

Best

My camp mates. Kiting on the playa. Running into a classmate I haven't seen in over 35 years. All the positive vibrations from other burners. No yahoo encounters. The Greeters who cheered me up. The art. Wall Street. The Temple. The Man. YOU!!!!

Worst

Being stopped at the gate for the sole purpose of asking me if I had a ticket. You've got to be shitting me!

[skippy3k]

Best

1. We were 40, the "kids" next to us were in their early 20's. We couldn't make it past 3am. They consistently saw the sunrise. We were in an trailer. They had tents and cooked food in the dirt. We were relatively sober. Many of them weren't. But they were the best bunch of "kids" we met and thoroughly enjoyed their company and living next to them. In many ways, I hope my real kids grow up to posses many of their qualities. A perfect example of two cultures coming together. We really enjoyed taking care of them throughout the week...it helped ease the separation anxiety of being away from our own kids.

2. The amazing rehydration mocktails my wife was making. I hope she remembers how she made them, 'cause I'm addicted.

3. The weather. A little hot, a little dusty, a little rain, a little wind. A little of everything. It was a nice sampler.

I wouldn't say this is the "worst", but;

1. To the dude on 8:15 and Iris...just because you have a megaphone doesn't mean everything you say is witty. So when people didn't respond to your "wit", you don't need to sound like a petulant child each time. That is just admitting defeat. Oh, and burping into the megaphone gets old after 7 days.

2. Those fucking gas powered scooters. Fuck. I would hear them coming and expect to see a cool art car, only to see some yahoo barreling down the street. Too lazy to ride a bike? Then walk. Too lazy to walk? Then don't come.

3. Darkwads. Yes, I read the Darkwad thread. Great, you guys have better "night-vision" than most. Good for you. But are you able to see behind you? Because I can't count how many times I almost wiped you out as you sauntered leisurely down the middle of the street at night.

[ZaphodBurner]

WORST: potentially getting fired from job

We would like to find a burner-friendly lawyer in So Cal (San Diego would be awesome) to help us with this.

Sheba

You already posted this elsewhere, and didn't post anything "best." Your husband's job has nothing to do with BRC, it has to do with your employer. Let's focus.

BEST: Serving absinthe and root beer and sharing the Red Baron with so many new friends and lovely souls...Americans, Brazilian, Swiss, Canadian, Aussie, Kiwi, Japanese, Mexican, English, Russian, Hungarian, German, Israeli, African, Belgian...ICELAND... All sharing our shade, chairs and drinks with happiness and harmony.

BEST: the veteran burners for keeping the home fires burning, and x-thousand virgin insta-burners who showed up prepared and eager to get it. I hugged and thanked too many first-timers to keep count. Thank you all so much.

BEST: Pier 2, the galleon, the Man base, the Temple. THANK YOU TO MR BEST AND THE TEMPLE CREW.

WORST: The stupid bitch at Gate who refered to early Burners as "her dummies" because they arrived a couple of hours early thinking that there would a much, much longer line to the gate. You must think you're pretty fucking awesome to greet people to BRC by insulting them, there, Precious, but you should probably put your Snow White costume back on and go find a job at Disneyland because you're the shittiest excuse for a BRC volunteer we've EVER encountered one playa. In contrast, our DMV experience was great!

WORST: the camp near us running a 5000-watt generator, unmuffled, next to their neighbors' tents just to power a couple of strings of Christmas lights when nobody was even visiting their camp. When your neighbors can't greet people across their bar because YOUR music is too loud for anybody to hear, and you have no visitors, it doesn't even MATTER that every other verse included the word "nigger"; you need a DJ with a clue. BEST catch of a clue: by Friday, they corrected it and turned out to be awesome new friends and neighbors with great music and a lovely camp.

WORST: the shitstain frat boys who urinated on SlutGarden's cars just because nobody would give you a blowjob or whatever. That's what your drunk uncle is for. Also, the woman who asked a Slutgarden volunteer "are you serving drinks?" and then demanded a marguerita instead of what they were serving lines of people. None of you get it.

WORST playa conditions ever...on one side of the city.

WORST mutant vehicle/camp was the space ship on the scissor lift which had the man on it. You parked your piece of shit in the front ring of art vehicles and, with absolutely nothing blocking your view of the entire Man, you raised the lift another 12' ANYWAY to block the view of hundreds of people behind you. You suck. You're unredeemable. You fucked up people's burn night. Way to go, bitches. The couple of ships who repositioned to create the smaller obstruction to others deserve cheers but I don't know who they were.

WORST BRC WEEKLY I've ever read. Nobody give a single shit whether you' in a bar in Mexico after you've been to 20 burns and it's not as good anymore, or whether you think it's jumped the shark. You're not as good as you were 20 years ago either so swim up to your bar and feel old. The BEST place on earth for my wife and I is Black Rock City, again, and although we noted your cynicism we didn't notice your absence. The most pedestrian, amateurish form of journalism is when a writer writes all about himself and then admits he's not even actually AT the event.

BEST Entry and Exodus I've ever experienced. No line in, 2 hours out... I'm still confused.

WORST: my expectations for BRC based on all the cynical doom and gloom. BRC 2012 was fucking awesome. It seems like there were as many douchebags in 2004 per 30,000 as there were in 2012 with almost twice the population. My fifth burn was as awesome, wild, spiritual and fulfilling as any. We left the playa with smiles on our faces and tears in our eyes. Thank you so much, everybody!

[MoBo]

BEST:
Entry and Exodus times (Inexplicably short)
Perimeter Shifts (Wasn't bored for a minute)
The Pier II
Coming in with lowered expectations (Too much dust, too many virgins etc.) and finding out none of that mattered
Flood of tickets making it possible for anyone to go (as long as you were able to wait til a week before the burn to make plans - a long shot I concede)
Free "samples" of ice in Arctica line
Man Burn (fast)

WORST:
I have to wait 12 months to do it again.

[Elorrum]

Good: blue lights on portapotty banks. Genius.
Bad: candle powered paper flying lanterns

[TomServo]

Best:
Getting married in first camp.. working with DMV ... the massive amounts of dust....my East German gas mask..REVOFUCKINLUTION ... Duck Pond..meeting Soo many eplayans, finally...


Worst:
The fucking drama...folks who brought eplaya to the Playa....the fucking sore on my lip.

[tattoogoddess]

Best-
Getting married at first camp, meeting all the wonderful people from eplaya, having 3 great camp mates, the pier 2, meeting the cthulhu of my dreams.

Bad-
Heat, foot blister and not enough time there .

[delle]

Best:
Getting married in first camp..

Best:
Getting married at first camp

What?

[Dr. Pyro]

Mazal tov!

[yurtgirl]

best:
the pier II, the lizard art car was fanfuckingtabulous, the dusty tornadoes that shot out from the the man during the burn, the afterburn fire dancers and drummers scattered about (some gal in red flame leotards was the hottest thing with 2 hoops!), the temple double wedding we chanced upon with Reverend Billy, the unexpected grilled tuna at 11pm from a camp along 3 and i-ish, the snowcones! OMG I love snow cones. the new friends I met in our camp and the wonderful fruits/veggies we could share...

worst;
the smeared shit that i somehow overlooked and rubbed into in the portajohn that required a bath in cold water, saniwipes and an immediate change of clothes, the friday night dust storm that made me lose my sense of direction and actually made me feel a bit uneasy, the hangover from the chainsaw margarita bar (damn, those drinks were good).

[shroom]

as someone who stayed home......best was the ustream cam! It was amazing and people could move it around and see most of the playa, simply amazing!

worst was the spam on this board and of course not being home!!

So happy everyone is finding their way back, missed you guys!

[MrMullen]

Best:
Not packing for Burning Man because I was not going.
Watching uStream of Burning a bunch of times this week.
Realizing that no matter what happens, I am going to Burning Man next year.

Worst:
Not going to Burning Man!
Realizing the idiots that run the Burning Man uStream feed have MAJOR cases of attention deficit disorder! If the camera was not spinning around every 3 seconds it was out of focus on the blue sky!

[RedHeaven]

Love these threads.

BEST:
Friday night Cirque Du Cliche` party. One of my top nights on the playa in 7 years. We had a house party, our female punk band Snail Trail played in our dome. The dust storm blew on through the night, but it was OK because it helped the Fear of Missing Out and kept the camp mates at camp to vibe up our house party. We called it a "sold out" show, the neighborhood showed up in droves because it was hard to go anywhere. So epic. After that, our resident DJ Airsun did her thing, from the Grateful Dead to the GoGos. The vibe was wonderful. I had a hot couple, a chick in denim (rare!) and a dude in a kilt attacked me by our burn barrel. It was quite perfect. I loved the storm and how it stoked the party up.
4:30 was great. Loved Mystical Misfits purple blue 4 beacons and the blue blinky tower, you could see them everywhere and it was always easy to get home. Thanks you Mystical Misfits for playing old school Sound Tribe Sector 9!

The Pier 2. Lucky to have that the first thing we would see out there. it was just awesome, you all know!!!

Hair of the Dog ~ We supply the music and the booze, you supply the booze and the music! Best Bar Ever. Thanks for all the 80s new wave hits!!

BEEcharge Honey Mojitos Bee Party! AMazing shwag. Party Better! Lovely buzzzzzzz

Making up words with my newbee buddy Ben, and saying Janky as much as possible. Casual propane!

The Sparkle Pony who came up to me at HOTD out of nowhere and, with undialated real eyes, told me how beautiful I was and how I should never think otherwise. How girls like her are truly inspired by women like me. She begged for me to understand. It was so real. I cried on her shoulder for a half hour. Not even my husband has said the words she spoke to me. It was incredibly powerful. I will never forget her.

The man burn, the wedding cake was easily the Kewelest burn I have seen.

The live chorus and piano player on the art car before the temple burn singing Ava Maria. It was so beautiful it made me forget/ignore any hecklers. Focus on the good stuff. Let the Good WIN. THANK YOU for that whoever orchestrated that amazing performance gift. I was moved more than ever in BRC.

THE WORST:
Our cross the street neighbors who were purposely rude to people. They put out fishing wire and cans and would trip bikes. They tripped an older lady off her bike, she fell and scraped herself. They laughed at her meanly. They threw glowsticks at our dome during our party because we were singing Hey Jude. They told us we sucked. They provided nothing positive for the city. Why do assholes like that get placement?

The art car on Sunday night at midnight by 5:00 and D that drove around in circles thru the neighborhood blasting the loudest shittiest worst gangsta rap I have ever heard. It was extremely disturbing. It was as loud as the loudest sound camp. Grodie to the max

The spunion kid at Root Society during Bootie Mashup who had a gigantic industrial propane torch and was just waving it around in the crowd with a huge etarded smile on his face. It almost burnt my glowie lotus staff. could of burnt the shit outta anybody instantly. Casual propane! But it was hilarious at the same time.

Having extreme Attention Deficit Distorder after the man burn in the middle of the night....My girlfriend and I just walked around aimlessly on the playa, wrecked and tired and trying to figure things out. We had a major case of the playa brain farts. Knowing I wasnt going next year made it worse. Why does that happen?

The playa surface around 2 and 3:00. I felt so bad for that area! I wanted to go up there so many times but was reluctant because of the sand dunes.
Also, the MOOP this year was terrible. At times it was too much to pick up. If you picked up all the moop you saw on any journey cross playa, it would take twice as long. I did, however, score an Ethical Slut button. Wore it all week.

[Bounce530]

RH- Your "cross the street" assholes, must have been across the 4:30 side, right? cause we were your across D neighbors, and I know nothing if the asshatery that you're talking about with the cans and glow sticks.

[gyre]

The art car on Sunday night at midnight by 5:00 and D that drove around in circles thru the neighborhood blasting the loudest shittiest worst gangsta rap I have ever heard.
It was extremely disturbing.
It was as loud as the loudest sound camp. Grodie to the max

You can report misbehavior by art cars to the dmv or rangers, but be sure the info gets to the dmv.

If you can't get the permit number, get as much information as possible, descriptions, times, location, etc.

dmv@burningman.com

I think this is the correct address.

[Eric]

The Best:
The sunset to sunrise+ date with a wonderful friend who is becoming closer every time we hang out. Ending it with the perfect snuggle as we fell asleep didn't hurt...

All of Friday night: biking from Center Camp to 2:30 through the epic white-out with a gaggle of friends following my lead (apparently the Admiral's hat I was gifted this year put me in charge) while discovering the whole city was invisible from the open playa - and then stumbling upon an art-car playing some great EDM in the middle of it; deciding Bootie BRC was a bit too packed for them to dance & the wind too much to bike through we headed back to my camp to go bar-hopping around the Center Camp area- we didn't make it out of the RV for about 5 or 6 hours with random neighbors joining us & it turned out to be one of the best times I've ever had in BRC. I don't think I've laughed that hard & that long in ages.

The Meet 'n Greet, always a good time, though I always feel like Norm from Cheers when I walk in. I think I need to change my avatar so I'm anonymous... Also, it seems I slept for over an hour when I got back before I was able to continue my evening. Oops.

BRC Weekly stuff: My fundraising article either pissing people off (all of whom seemed to belong to the camps implied) or having people love it, and the Malderor article about the swim-up bar provoking fantastic mocking: Fandango painted "swim-up bar" on the front of their bar & had a "Malderor Look-Alike Contest" on Sunday.

Fandango: even with the camp mayor of the last 20 years at a swim-up bar in Mexico, the new kids made that camp rock. I had a blast there.

Pier 2: damn damn damn. Damn. Seriously one of the best things I have ever seen out there. Damn.

Rootie Bootie: Bootie kicking ass at Root Society while I got to hang out with Simon & Danielle talking. What an epic night!

The ginger twink who kept telling me he'd been warned about me while continuing to make out with me. I would like to thank my friends who warned him, and ask that they warn everyone in the same way. It worked out really well for me.

The back-street-bar-crawl on Thursday night. Discovering the Midnight Bacon Bar on (5:15? & G?) and hanging out there was fantastic. The drinks kept me from remembering where I was however...

Hanging out with Trilo at the raw-food bar eating kale-chips & talking for a long time. I do not get to see this man enough (or Panni)

The crew of the Airship Victoria - what a fucking blast. I love them!

And, lastly, my 99% completely public-drama-free camp. There was some individual drama's going on, they all kept it mostly to themselves, which is unheard of. I don't think I've ever been in a camp where everyone got along so well and everything went so smoothly. Yea us!



The Bad:
Nothing really. The endless Gate Road was kind of annoying, and the dunes pretending to be streets on the 2:00 side were as well, but they were "meh" irritants. I don't remember having anything that really set me off this year.

[BBadger]

BEST Entry and Exodus I've ever experienced. No line in, 2 hours out... I'm still confused.

WORST: my expectations for BRC based on all the cynical doom and gloom. BRC 2012 was fucking awesome. It seems like there were as many douchebags in 2004 per 30,000 as there were in 2012 with almost twice the population. My fifth burn was as awesome, wild, spiritual and fulfilling as any. We left the playa with smiles on our faces and tears in our eyes. Thank you so much, everybody!

^-- This. There was nothing worth recording for a parody of the "Oh the places you will go" because the conditions were just great. We barely had to stop the car early Monday afternoon to enter the gate, and checking the vehicles was so damn quick. Exiting was 3hrs on Sunday at 2AM--still quite good.

BESTS (not going to list art or camp mates):

- Meeting and greeting folks here on ePlaya--especially the reaction of wh..sh when she found out I wasn't (such) a crusty, bitter old man. It was also great putting faces to names of everyone else here. Many were surprising, many not. All were really friendly, great people and I feel more attached to you than ever. Next year I need to bring gifts. I was disappointed I didn't get to meet Lemur, Bob, Simon, and others.

- The couple of locksmiths who came out to our car after my friend accidentally locked our keys in the trunk. Subsequently, we discovered that we simply didn't correctly use the unlock button on the trunk body. Oh well. It was still an extremely happy moment, and I don't think we would've even figured it out without their presence. Hugs and cheers followed, and they departed with fruit and booze because they were just such awesome people.

- The awkward burgin on Monday who was near us dancing by the Heart Deco, but didn't have any lights. I gave him two finger lights and his face just lit up, and he started dancing with everyone else.

- The family of people who visited our camp for the 2:00AM grilled cheese event we had--but a full day later because you misread the event calendar. It was hilarious. I do wish some of you weren't so bitchy about your mistake though.

- The random string of events that made Wednesday night into a giant crazy party for me. That was a crazy night for me, but amazing.

- The bathrooms! I swear there were far more of them, they were far better cleaned, and they were definitely marked well with those nice blue lights and those cool art pieces. Even the busy bathrooms in the middle of the playa weren't filled with cones reaching out of the toilet hole.

- The moon! The moon creeping over the burning structures was just plain beautiful.

- Actually knowing the names of people in my camp! It took two years, but finally I could address people directly by name rather than the catch-all "hey you."

WORSTS:

- The "greeters" at the gate who decided it was a great time to just yak with friends rather than pay any attention to the car pulled up at the booth. After about 2 minutes of being ignored, we just drove past. If you're not going to actually man your damn greeter station, shut the lane down so we can at least get corralled into a lane that is manned by someone who is paying attention. It reminds me of the worthless cheerleaders I had at my high school. I'm happy at least our burgin friend was in a different car in a lane with competent greeters.

- The bony-assed douche sitting on the ladder in front of people at the Man burn, and the feather hatted bitch sitting in front of the ladder. Yeah, the pair of you were an awesome obstruction, and I'm sure it was great cleaning up those feathers flying everywhere. I wasn't that impressed with the fight that nearly broke out over some other standing idiot who had his damn bike up front too.

- The dumbasses firing up their weed pipes and offering us joints at the Wallstreet burn. Maybe you were undercover cops; maybe you were just dumbasses. Either way, don't bring that shit there because I don't want to have to witness people getting hauled off.

- People on noisy Vespas driving out to the temple burn. Yeah, they're not allowed, but unfortunately you weren't caught. Fucking lazy shits.

[Joell]

This was a copy paste from my other social networks, so for the burner it has a lot of un needed info. Enjoy

---------------------
Burning Man 2012
Awesome / Not So Great List
If you want to look at anything I talk about, just Google Image to find pictures of it on the internet.

Awesome
As far as big amazing art on the Playa it was very scarce. The Dock II Pirate Ship was awesome, The Large Spinning Rock Art at Center Camp was cool and a great photo area, The Temple was truly showing what pretty things a CNC wood milling machine can do, The Man was a great show of what you can create with wood grooving.

There was some great looking Art Cars on Playa this year.

I found an awesome camp called Retrofrolic that was a pretty awesome well stocked BDSM Camp with a great large play space.

Camped next to a group of really great on site Medical workers from around Nevada.

Had a really fun group of 15 people from Japan across the street. They were a blast to listen to when they got down to heavily drinking at night. Plus they had some amazing food.

The Bike Riding was pretty darn good compared to 08 - 10.

The back roads G+ had some really great welcoming camps.

The Weather was great! The nights were not that cold, only one blanket nights if that says much. The heat was not unbearable. There was only a small white out dust storm on Friday. There was high winds, but not that bad compared to other years. There was no "Burn Smoke" coming from California like others expected.

None of my camping equipment failed on me.
I did not forget anything that I needed for the trip.

My Little Mini Mini Van gets amazing MPG with it letting me drive 450+ miles per tank fill up. It handled the trip like a champ!

I think I got a nice little tan, and I did not really get burnt.

Helping Commissary was really fun this year and I feel truly appreciated there. I really like this new company compared to the previous company of 08+

Having Internet on the Playa is a really nice perk.

Not waiting in an 8 hour line to get out of Burning Man was great! It took less than 1/2 an hour to get out of the city, we did not really have to stop the car.

We hit Playa at 6PM on Tuesday, getting in took less than 1/2 an hour.
We left the city Saturday at 4PM.

I really enjoy the atmosphere Monday to Thursday. The mood of the city completely changes Friday, and mainly on Saturday. Many people left Friday night and on Saturday.

---------------
Not So Great

Will Call Tickets got fucked up... One set of the 4 tickets I had was screwed up. The Box office said that same problem was a very common problem this year. Luckily I can get my money back for the two tickets because of their screw up.

There were a lot of bum panhandlers miracle ticket bums.

Good/Bad Tickets driving in were going for $25 - $75.

Police Activity was really bad this year. Lots of horror stories of undercover activity.

There was not much big or overly amazing art on the playa this year.

There was a lot of sleep camp and barren open playa in the ABC streets of 2 - 4. I don't understand why Buring Man LLC
consistently throw sleep camps in those high traffic areas.

I got a flat in Nebraska, then the spare tire blew out in Illinois on Monday labor day. Wal-Mart would not install a new tire because of a ding in the rim. The junk yards and most tire places were closed because of the holiday. We found a shop open and rolled the van 1 hour to get 15 miles down the road. They did not have an extra rim for the van, but the guy was able to fix the rim's dent. Bought a used tire and hit the road for the end of the trip.

I want to travel with someone who can share in more of the driving, so we do not have to pull over for both of us to sleep.

It stinks that most of my friends are not financially well off enough to go out on a $500 2 week amazing vacation. I was offering to pay for everything and still no one wanted to go. I am wanting to take a week long cruise at some point soon. It would be cool if others could join in the fun.

I would really like to go next year with more than only Farrah... She can be very stressful and a downer at times, and I will leave it at that...

I got pulled over by a local cop in Illinois after I got the new tire. He was polite and got me back on the road in 3 minutes.
BTW... I try to never spend money in Illinois because they have horrible politicians with horrible police state mentality, gun laws, and what not.

It was a good time!
You should join me next year.
Have fun in life!
Joell

[mudpuppy000]

Best:
- Campmates and people that came by to hang out all day in our first public bar.
- Riding off into deep playa during the friday dust storm before sunset. Wind was at my back and pushing me into the void. Seeing people/art/art cars slowly emerge into view and then fading away into the dust. Searching for the temple in the whiteout and finally seeing it rise out of the nothingness in front of me.

Worst:
-Asshats camped next to us that were compelled to blast their sound system all night. I mean come on, frank sinatra is good, but nobody wants to hear 5 hours of him back to back. Add some variety... Or turn that shit down.

[TT120]

Best:

Finding a cool little camp out in the middle of the open Playa. It was called The Camp of Enlightenment or something like that. I was riding around and came upon this little oasis and stopped for a little while to get out of the mid day sun. The most beautiful people showed up all the time and just hung out for a while. We talked and laughed and had a great time. I went back after the temple burn and actually was able to find it again in the middle of the night and hung out for a bit. I got to meet Eric, the owner/creator and his girlfriend. They were awesome people! Thanks Eric!

Everyone was so friendly. I'm not used to that in the default world. It was kinda hard to adjust.

Playa fishing. 2 glo sticks and a cheap Walmart fishing pole kept me laughing for hours on the Esplanade and I got to meet a whole bunch of happy friendly people.

Our super friendly neighbors who we kinda camped a little too close to. They didn't seem to care and came over all the time to visit.

The trampoline in the camp next door. I didn't bounce on it myself but droves of beautiful people in various states of dress were on it all the time. What a great show that was!!!


Worst:

The 8 hour wait on I80 on the way home.

I forgot hand lotion so my hands were torn up a bit.

[skippy3k]

The Sparkle Pony who came up to me at HOTD out of nowhere and, with undialated real eyes, told me how beautiful I was and how I should never think otherwise. How girls like her are truly inspired by women like me. She begged for me to understand. It was so real. I cried on her shoulder for a half hour. Not even my husband has said the words she spoke to me. It was incredibly powerful. I will never forget her.

Exactly. This reminded me of an incident I had at an intersection. Someone was leading a huge art car down a street in a golf cart. She was about to motion me to stop on the bike to let them pass, but I had stopped already and was waving them on. She yelled out to me "Thank you. Your awareness is sexy!"

It may sound like a small thing, but it really struck a chord with me. I am shy, not outgoing at all, and therefore miss a lot of opportunities on the playa as well as life. It was such a huge compliment for me and something I felt really summed me up in a way I've never thought of before. I am not overtly sexy, but I am very in touch with other people's emotions and personalities. That is hard to spin into a "sexy" role...yet somehow she did in four simple words. It literally made my burn and is something I will never forget.

(Yeah, I don't care if she said it to everyone at every intersection...I'd like to believe she only said it to me.)

[wh..sh]

--especially the reaction of wh..sh when she found out I wasn't (such) a crusty, bitter old man.

That. 'cos. you. were are. AMAZING!!

I never really envisioned you to be a bitter, old man.

[tattoogoddess]

Oh yeah forgot the two other worsts-
The staff truck BLAIRING free bird at the temple burn. I was in the middle of a really good cry and then that. It totally fucked up my temple burn.

The art car with all the palm trees driving above 5 mph almost running Tom and I over then yelling some asshole remarks. Hope they do realize he is DMV this year and next lol. We were all lit up and not drinking or anything, so no reason for it.

[devilgrrl]

Oh yeah forgot the two other worsts-
The staff truck BLAIRING free bird at the temple burn.

I noticed a lot of crappy "classic rock" being played in BRC this year - it had me scratching my head.

[maryanimal]

The best part was ridding myself of a total loser who'll never amount to anthing more than they already are. The best part was surrounding myself with truly caring people, and meeting Terri! A wonderful woman who was with me the whole time when I was hurt during greeting (which was a total blast!) I have a great new friend! And WildMan who rubbed my back while I was on the ground! The temple burn was absolutley cathartic. There was a group of us who have had many losses in the pat 5+ years, and were there to support each other.

Another wonderful part was seeing all the people from last year that I love! AntiM, MyLarry, Shambala, junglesmacks and the girl, tamarakay and Ken, Oregon Red, fishyfriend, Felony, Doc, FIGJAM, Eric, Ninzy, and if I didn't mention you, you're still in my heart.

And all the new people! Way too many to mention! You're all so awesome! But two people really stood out, Triken and Elliot! You both are good people in every way!

[FIGJAM]

The most memorable moment was as I was packing up monday.

A woman came by to see the bucket cooler cause someone told her about it, and this is what she told me.

She and her husband were in reno on monday after gate opening and saw a school bus in the parking lot.

They had been thinking of getting a bus and aproached the owner to ask a few questions.

After talking about the bus, the owner mentioned he was on his way to Burning Man.

They had NEVER heard of it!!!

The bus owner proceeded to offer them his 2 extra tickets, but they needed to leave right away.

They took the leap off faith and had an incredible week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT A WAY TO DISCOVER BURNING MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ano]

The best part was everything, and the worst part was my experience at the Greeters station on Sunday night.

Seriously, fuck you if you decide to be a greeter and you act like a douchebag. It really sucked to have my girlfriends first "burn" experience be an overworked and unprepared old man shouting at us for asking about the missing bell and calling us fuckwits. No dust angel, no bell, no initiation for our virgin. Fuck that.

We're hoping to have a re-virgining for her out there next year, if we can find a greeter who isn't a dick. That's two years in a row that I've been stuck with a shitty greeter. My Gate experience was way more awesome.