What did you forget last year?

[TT120]

I forgot to bring the little adaptor for the air compressor so I could pump up my bike tires. DOH!

It was sitting on the kitchen table when I got home.

[Patsh]

Got in my car, fully packed, (wearing sandals), and drove away with boots and moccasins sitting on the garage floor...
my feet didn't appreciate that week very much. Fortunately, Elliot shared some Heel Balm and saved the day!!

[Savannah]

Pajamas & corsetry.

You know . . . must-haves.

[AntiM]

We forgot to leave half our crap at home.

[Sic Pup]

We forgot to leave half our crap at home.

Har!


I sat out last year, but in 2011 I forgot a pillow. I did remember in the 3 days it took me to get to SLC and picked one up there (of course, over those 3 days I mentally ran through my inventory countless times stopping on occasion to double check that I actually packed what I thought I packed).

This year I'm DEFINITELY including a packing list on each container and keeping copies by the drivers seat.

[AntiM]

Actually, last year I didn't feel well and didn't supervise the packing with my little list. But at this point, I've forgotten what we forget. Hmmm.. oh yeah, our playa trash can with the snap down lid for the kitchen.

We forgot our pillows one year. Larry can sleep without one, but I can't. I did have a pillowcase in the bedding duffle, so I stuffed all sorts of soft things into it, hoping to make do. Ugh.

And MyLarry got really buggy the year we forgot the broom.

[lucky420]

My ID! And I had will call tickets...aaaargh! Fortunately our caravan stopped for gas in Mustang and that's when I realized I didn't have it. Since I live in Reno and my son was still at my house he was able to run it out to Mustang for me. Whew!

[The Rod]

Not last year, so not sure if it counts but 2011. In what was possibly one of the biggest bonehead moves ever, we forgot our tickets. Its such a ridiculous story I'm gonna share it anyways. It is kind of long though...

Were an hour away from Gerlach about 10:30 pm on Sunday night when it hit us.

Half a hour on the side of the road and 30 cigarettes later we had the plan: I had called everyone I knew back home (home was about 7 hours away) who might know any Burners who hadn't left yet, and there was a hit. Josh knew a dude who was leaving in 30 minutes. Call Charlie the house sitter, instruct him to grab tickets from bedside table and meet Josh outside local pub to get tickets. Josh arrives at local pub, sees some guy milling about outside and says "hey, you the guy with the tickets?", Guy says "yeah", so apparently they shoot the shit for a couple minutes when Charlie then shows up with the tickets.. things get awkward and quickly it becomes apparent that on this particular night, in front of this particular small town pub there were in fact two ticket exchanges happening simultaneously.

Josh then takes tickets, hands them over to dudes just in time as they blow out of town heading east on the 299 towards Redding. Sweet salvation! Our tickets are on the way! However dudes are planning on sleeping once they get to Redding, so the decision is made to turn around, meet dudes in Redding, grab tickets and drive through the night to arrive at the gates shortly after dawn. If in fact these dudes are for real actually gonna hand them over to us. This was 2011 when tickets were supposedly a very hot commodity, the year of uncertainty, when it seemed certain the moral fabric of Burning Man was collapsing. All we had was the trust. We went with it.

3:00 am in Redding. We've arrived at the "meeting spot" about half hour before the dudes. Apprehensive as all hell, totally unsure what the hell we were doing with our lives, if these guys would even show and what the hell we would do if they didn't... Oh yeah, we also had all the food for like a dozen people in the back of the truck...

Just when we were about to lose all faith in ourselves and our fellow man, the overloaded 35 foot Winnebago bounces into the parking lot, doors swing open and the sound of a strangers voice yelling "guess who's going to Burning Man!!" Hoorah! Tickets are handed over, hugs and laughter are exchanged, broken promises to meet on playa are forged and we're on our way!

Our spirits bolstered by the feeling of tickets to the burn in our possession, our faith in humanity restored we start heading down the hill from Redding into the valley. It's just after 4 am at this point, and the fuel gauge is getting low. "We'll just stop for gas at the next gas station", it's closed. "Thats ok, we'll use our debit card, surely they have 24 hour pumps."

Surely. Or not.

The good spirits from earlier give way to the fear and doubt, "will we make it?". Tensions are high and the conversation in the truck takes a bitter turn..

Now it's certain we wont make it another 20 miles. Things get downright nasty, the things that were said that early morning in that truck wont ever be repeated. We barely limp in to a rest area parking lot in the middle of one of the ugliest spats in our 12 year history. Once parked I jump from the truck, storm off into the restroom and spend five minutes convincing the stall door that I am extremely, excruciatingly pissed off. One of the maybe 4 times in my adult life I've resorted to punching inanimate objects to express an emotion.

Unable to face the situation, or my dearest, I lay down for some much needed rest on top of a picnic table.

9:30 am, I am awoken by my darling and in her lovely hands in a full 5 gallon jerry can of liquid salvation. Gasoline! And this is the reason (among many others) I'm going to marry this woman. She will fix things. Even if that means hitchhiking to the nearest gas station and hitchhiking back while her useless lover snores on a picnic table.

Truck is gassed and we depart the rest area. Its a new day, the sun is shining and all we can do is smile at this point. Coffee drinks are soon acquired and we're on our way to Burning Man! Again!

About 4 pm we cross through the final gates and into the City of Black Rock, only 16 hours later than planned and after only 45 minutes in line on Monday afternoon and much to the delight of our famished camp mates there were many sandwiches to be distributed.

A good time was had by all in the end, and what seemed like an unnecessarily long and trying journey to Black Rock served as a perfect and humbling Rite of Passage for my future wife and I. If we could make it through that hell of a ride we could do anything.... although it would take four times as long and we'd have explosive quarrels the whole way.

Anyways, that's my story.

[AntiM]

I teared up a little over the jerry can of gas.

[ygmir]

I teared up a little over the jerry can of gas.

*holds AntM close, feeling the same*

[Conduit]

I forgot my dignity...

[Sic Pup]

Dashing to vehicle to hide tickets within............


Hoping no one has an unfulfilled wish to steal a Jetta (black, of course) between now and late August.

[Eric]

Thanks Rocket - that is a great tale. And what an amazing wife-to-be you have!

[JayBobBoy]

That was a fun story! I sure love a happy ending. (Insert massage parlor joke here)

Thanks for sharing!

[AntiM]

Dashing to vehicle to hide tickets within............


Hoping no one has an unfulfilled wish to steal a Jetta (black, of course) between now and late August.

There's a least one ancient post buried on here about tickets stored in the glovebox, car broken into, and someone crying. Don't do it. Likewise, the front of the fridge is not so good if you have visitors, there's tales about that on eplaya too. Party, guests, tickets vanish. Friends of friends thing.

Nope, first item on the list is TICKETS. When we get in the car, we yell TICKET CHECK! Even if we're doing will call, we check for ID and papers. Indeed, one year we were giving a ride to someone who had forgotten their ticket. They'd have been SOL if I hadn't done the ticket check. Took us an hour out of our way as it was.

I have a specific spot for all tickets of all kinds. Airline, reservations, E-11, B-man, all in the same innocuous place.

[Sham]

Got in my car, fully packed, (wearing sandals), and drove away with boots and moccasins sitting on the garage floor...
my feet didn't appreciate that week very much. Fortunately, Elliot shared some Heel Balm and saved the day!!

Yup, me too. I left all my shoes and even boots at home. While packing I thought they were in "other" boxes. I only had the sneakers I wore on the plane. The entire week on the playa with the same sneakers. The only good thing is I REALLY enjoyed taking them off for the TSA at the airport.

The year before, I forgot all my short pants. I had one pair of zip-off pants that I wore the entire week.

Not sure what I'll forget this year---but stay tuned!

[Savannah]

Dashing to vehicle to hide tickets within............


Hoping no one has an unfulfilled wish to steal a Jetta (black, of course) between now and late August.

There's a least one ancient post buried on here about tickets stored in the glovebox, car broken into, and someone crying. Don't do it. Likewise, the front of the fridge is not so good if you have visitors, there's tales about that on eplaya too. Party, guests, tickets vanish. Friends of friends thing.

Aye. Better to put the tickets out of sight but in the house, and have a system to remind you where they are, even if it seems like an obvious place. Set iCalendar to remind you at regular intervals, post a not too cryptic reminder note in the place where you store your keys daily, or whatever.

I put ticket . . . ticket . . . ticket across the top and bottom of my packing list and always bring the packing list with me. The added bonus of this is that I check small things off (I use tables in Word; I hate Excel) as I pack them in bins, and then check off the bins and large components themselves after they are loaded into the vehicle. So, 100 miles away, I can refer to the list and see the reassuring check-mark, or the tell-tale circled item that I couldn't find at the last second and will need to buy on the way.

. . . I'm less strict about this when it comes to clothes, which is why I forgot my pajamas last year.

Nope, first item on the list is TICKETS. When we get in the car, we yell TICKET CHECK! Even if we're doing will call, we check for ID and papers. Indeed, one year we were giving a ride to someone who had forgotten their ticket. They'd have been SOL if I hadn't done the ticket check. Took us an hour out of our way as it was.

My rideshare buddies and I have always done this before leaving the driveway, too--show each other the physical tickets (and where stored, in case one of us forgets) or see each other's IDs and confirmation numbers. When we stop halfway to the Burn and sleep, the tickets never get left out in the car.

My first year on the playa, my rideshare didn't bring his Will Call confirmation and they couldn't find his order. (I strongly suspect his order was never complete, because it is already absent-minded not to bring your confirmation number as backup). He grumpily bought a new ticket. But the days of being able to do that are long over . . .

[robbidobbs]

I forgot girl stuff one year. Gonzo forgot his socks. We had to sack the DPW donations we were going to gift to get thru the week.

And he moral of that story is: bring a LOT of stuff for DPW Cleanup, you never know if you'll need it yourself.

[GreyCoyote]

A lighter. Not kidding. I WENT TO BURNING MAN WITHOUT A LIGHTER. How dumb is that?!?

When I went next door to borrow one, the howls of laughter were contagious. i tried to explain that I dont smoke, etc, but the cat was out of the bag.

I spent the rest of the burn answering to "Sparky".

[pink]

I've forgotten pillows several times, for both the burn and a music festival I go to. I now make a list and check things off as they are loaded into the van.

Also, washcloth for my face, lip balm both my first burn and in 2010. In 2010 I assumed I had one in my purse and one in the duffle type suitcase because i ALWAYS have one in my purse and the duffle stays packed with items I use camping. I was oh so wrong! And it took days of borrowing before a kind person gifted me with one. And I can't keep lip balm as one of the things that stays packed in the camper since it'll melt. In fact, I think I'll put a couple tubes in that duffle right now

[pink]

I must have learned; had one in there already! So I packed a second one.

Ok, and it's so damned hot here, the lip balm was melting in the house.

[graidawg]

my hat! i was halfway to the airport when i realised it was still on the hook at home. fortunately i usually plan to get pretty much everything over there. so i could pretty much forget my suitcase.

[Elorrum]

I just had a preview of how I can lapse on packing, so it was a bit of a wake up. Packed with no list, and visualized items I had prepped, but did not put in the car. Toothbrush. Mug/cup, after making a mental note of needing to get rid of the excess. The little cup on the thermos, and water bottle substituted. pot gripper.
I will have a list for Burning Man. There will also be a note taped to the back of my door that reads: Wallet, Keys, Ticket.

[BBadger]

I forgot girl stuff one year. Gonzo forgot his socks.

Sucks when your backup plan for the first forgotten item is gone too.

[Savannah]

I forgot about Dre.

[MacGlenver]

Our solar lights... Except it turns out I didnt forget them. They were on the backseat of the truck... and yet I didnt find them until we unloaded the truck at home after the burn. Its ok -- turns out they kinda sucked anyway.

[Sail Man]

To go.

I work up Sunday morning after the Man burn thinking I was supposed to be somewhere the night before but couldn't place it. Then with utter horror, I realized I had forgotten to drive out west and attend the burn.






Course, not buying tickets didn't help to remind me I had to be somewhere special.

[trilobyte]

I'm nudging this over to the Experiences At Burning Man board because I think that's a better fit.

Last year, we forgot a bunch of EMT conduit, and a bin of tarps. Loading the truck had been a bit of a clusterfuck. My campmate who was picking up and driving the vehicle was several hours late, which meant when the vehicle finally arrived it was a mad scramble to get things out of storage before that closed up for the night.. and then when we got over to our place we had a dozen excited and eager campmates wanting to help get everything done asap (which is a good thing normally, but is maddening when you're trying to juggle things around). In the shuffle I wound up spending most of my time dealing with stuff on the truck, and my darling girlfriend was inside, directing our campmates to take this or leave that.

I had even gone so far as to put masking tape labels that read "NOT GOING" on the stuff that I didn't want to take. In my mind, everything else was supposed to come with us. Most of the EMT conduit we needed was in storage, but there were a dozen or so pipes, cut to length and labeled for which structures they went to, situated in a spot that (to me) screamed that they were obviously coming with us. I'll add that we don't normally keep chunks of conduit in our place of residence...to me there was no doubt.

Yeah, so naturally, the conduit was left behind, as were a couple other bins of gear (most importantly the additional tarps). She and another campmate had each done a walk-through, but it escaped both their gazes. We found out only after we'd arrived playa-side.

Fortunately, all ended quite well. We had plenty of supplies on hand and I was able to get the first few structures built. Then one of our campmates was willing and able to leave the playa for us and make a trek back to Defaultia to go find a hardware store that could get us the conduit and tarps we needed. And then, about half an hour before he returned with his bounty, Tisha2 and her cohorts were able to scare up a camp that had a few extra poles they could give us. We got started cutting them to size, and once the campmate returned from his adventures we wound up gifting the extra poles on to neighbors who had need. Even with the setbacks, we managed to get everything together and finished by the time the sun went down on Sunday.

[geospyder]

Forgot to wear my dust mask last year as much as I should have. Came down with a very nasty case of Playa Lung

[ranger magnum]

Reading all this made me go out and inventory my shit in the rv....