Staying awake in Entry // Exodus?

[McStrangle]

Just wondering how people handle staying awake during the long-ass wait times for Entry // Exodus?

Last year, what with the traffic stopped from outside Empire, It took us upwards of 11 or so hours to get in, Then 13 or 14 on Exodus. I don't REALLY remember the exact times but they were somewhere in that ballpark. Maybe more, maybe less.

This will be there first year where I will actually be driving myself in, and the only person traveling with me doesn't drive. Not going to Lie, getting sliiiiiiightly worried I'll end up being one of those people asleep in the drivers seat with the engine off.

It's pretty much a damned if you do // damned if you don't situation, There's going to be a line regardless. I was even thinking of the possibility of leaving Reno on the Tuesday as we did 2 years ago, but then that's potentially cutting 2 days out of the Burn.

If we weren't flying in from O/Seas I'd just get the Burner Express and be done with it, but it seems a little silly to buy so much equipment (Tent, Coolers, etc.) that we won't be able to take home with us.

So Any advice?

[McStrangle]

....also I don't recall this question ever being asked since I've been lurking around these boards, so if there's a relevant thread somewhere else feel free to delete :p

[theCryptofishist]

Check in with your passenger about poking you in the ribs when necessary. It's not driving, but if you can get on different sleep cycles, at least for that part...

It may not make any sense, I don't know.

[trilobyte]

Just plan on being in line for 8 or more hours. If you're feeling fatigued and not sure you'll be able to stay awake that long on the way in, stop in Reno (there are usually a few different casinos with inexpensive room rentals). If you're not sure you'll be able to stay awake for the 8-12 hours it may take you to leave and get to Reno, then get some sleep first.

Sure, if you're that guy who passes the fuck out in parked/stopped traffic people will honk and maybe bang on your window to wake your ass up and get the line moving... but if you're that tired, you're not driving safely. The gate/exodus line is usually a pretty smooth experience, but things do get stop and go, and people do get out of their cars or walk between vehicles.

[FIGJAM]

Always get 3 or 4 hours sleep before the last push to the playa cause you never know how long it will take to get to camp.

Once you have that nap your adrenaline will keep you going through greeters.

[Captain Goddammit]

I think the newest Mercedes will advance you in line automatically while you sleep.

[TT120]

I used Monster energy drinks. I was so wired by the time I got to camp, I couldn't even take a little nap even though I had been up 24 hours or so.

Rockstars work too.

[VultureChow]

The person with you is the "navigator" in road trip parlance. Their job is to keep you awake. If you want to doze while they're pulsing in Exodus, then your navigator must stay awake.

If you're tired while driving they should talk to you. Constantly. You need to have a conversation. Better than anything else for staying awake.

But for god's sake if you are drifting off in line for exodus, then when you can find a safe place to pull over on 447, do so and get a few hours of sleep. Nothing is worth endangering yourself or others on the road.

[McStrangle]

Just plan on being in line for 8 or more hours. If you're feeling fatigued and not sure you'll be able to stay awake that long on the way in, stop in Reno (there are usually a few different casinos with inexpensive room rentals). If you're not sure you'll be able to stay awake for the 8-12 hours it may take you to leave and get to Reno, then get some sleep first.

Sure, if you're that guy who passes the fuck out in parked/stopped traffic people will honk and maybe bang on your window to wake your ass up and get the line moving... but if you're that tired, you're not driving safely. The gate/exodus line is usually a pretty smooth experience, but things do get stop and go, and people do get out of their cars or walk between vehicles.

Oh defintely....We'll be in Reno from the 21st or the 22nd or something like that (allowing for time to bugger around on the way there). Friends to catch up with and all that. I wouldn't even entertain the thought of doing a straight shot from Seattle (where we're picking up the van) to BRC. Would people do that? People are weird :S

I guess I'm just worrying for the sake of it, because I'm already stressed about driving on the wrong side of the road and will be driving something twice the size of the little honda I get around in. That and all the horror stories of American police and their apparent love of tasers, tasering, and taser related activities. Watch me get pulled over and subsequently shot by an overzealous cop for dropping the C Bomb - It's like saying hello over here. Hard habit to break in polite company.

Maybe I'll just settle in for the longhaul with a nice cuppatea and a book.

As for my Partner, Odds are We'll get to the start of the line and he'll decide a 10 hour nap is in order. Not going to much help there I'm afraid.

[McStrangle]

Always get 3 or 4 hours sleep before the last push to the playa cause you never know how long it will take to get to camp.

Once you have that nap your adrenaline will keep you going through greeters.

Actually assuming I can force a nap in before we're leaving that seems pretty sensible.

[pizzamancer]

When I heard 8 hour waits at the gate, it just reinforced my decision to stay another day. I wanted nothing to do with the gullible slugs who believed that BMIR rain storm crap.

[pizzamancer]

Also, I saw that video and tried to open a wine bottle with my shoe. It doesn't work.

[ygmir]

When I heard 8 hour waits at the gate, it just reinforced my decision to stay another day. I wanted nothing to do with the gullible slugs who believed that BMIR rain storm crap.

Thing about that rainstorm broadcast, is, it was coming directly from warnings from the NWS, and super downpours all over the area. Some missed us by less than a mile. We could see the fronts on radar hit Gerlach, and split,or go around the playa. Had one come directly up the playa, as predicted, it would have been over an inch of rain in minutes, and probably several inches. At that, all movement stops, as we well know.
The emergency response dept. had to make a call, to warn and maybe it misses, or, say nothing, and people get totally stuck.
Tough call.

[Roundabout]

I was in the exodus last year trying to avoid the predicted rain. I got in line early afternoon and was driving by myself. Later in the afternoon, having been in line for hours, while waiting on the next pulse, I fell asleep. When the line pulsed, all the other drivers simply pulled around and past me. I was woken up a couple of hours later by a ranger (or some such), knocking on my window. I looked up, it was dark and there were no cars around me. The end of the line was about 1/2 mile in front of me. It was about 1am when I finally got off the playa and onto the highway. Argh.

[danibel]

Get good sleep in Reno before you go. Maybe buy some of those Starbucks cold lattes and keep them in a cooler. Or Monsters or whatever energy drink you like. I personally would stick to regular coffee caffeine, but some people like those fruity things.

I am usually so excited to be arriving, falling asleep on the way in hasn't been an issue. We leave on Tuesday morning after the burn and drive straight out, so that hasn't been a concern the past few years. One year we left in the evening on Monday and took naps in the pulse with an alarm set on my phone for every 45 minutes. It worked out well.

[Elorrum]

I've usually arrived at night, sometimes very late. Coming to the event the situation usually is a pile up of stresses, little sleep, a long day of packing and last minute shopping, and then the drive, and then the wait. Driving alone. Breaking the major chunks with rest between has never happened no matter how I swear next year will be different. One year, I was falling asleep driving in, and pulled over near some portos near Gerlach, or Empire, and napped sitting upright in my loaded car. I had promised to meet a friend to hand off lended camping gear around midnight, but the nap put the appointment off. I think I made the safest decision.

Best case scenario: pack the car, get a good nights sleep, then start the drive. For me it is about 6 hrs, then the gate wait, which has varied but I don't think it has taken longer than 6 hours. Packing has never been just packing, but finding things, and organizing at the same time, and this adds up to a lot more time. This year, I want a complete list, and staging of items starting weeks out. The volume of extra maybe stuff, or double stuff has made my packing and re-packing a misery. Knowing something is in the garage, or in the closet, is not the same as having it ready to put it in the car. The point is that the drive can be a lot safer and less tiring if I don't also have to organize, sort, shop, pack, before I drive that same day. The best way to stay awake at gate is to have had the rest you need before hand. I can pull an over nighter IF I have the rest I need the day before.

I like caffeine of any kind, rockstar, coffee, and audio books as a way to stay awake, but if I'm really getting sleepy, I pull over and give in to that.

[theCryptofishist]

I think it was '11 when I pulled off 447 heading to 80 at that huge gravel space before that hill with the turn into Nixon. Took a nap--in the shade of a truck. It helped a lot. I've basically had space in Reno in and out ever since.

[Canoe]

... I wanted nothing to do with the gullible slugs who believed that BMIR rain storm crap.

... super downpours all over the area. Some missed us by less than a mile. We could see the fronts on radar hit Gerlach, and split,or go around the playa. Had one come directly up the playa, as predicted, it would have been over an inch of rain in minutes, and probably several inches...

There was a huge line just to the West, with downpours & lightning, running NNNE, and was drifting East towards BRC.
More than one patch of rain did come right up in line to go through BRC. The air mass stopped dropping rain, then started again on the far side. wtf?
Someone reported that some that went through Gerlach also dropped some rain on the West edge of the playa, including where we get out onto the highway, resulting in an inch or so of runoff gathering on the parched edge. The temporary halt of Exodus was attributed to letting that wet patch dry.

For some radar screen shots, grabbed live as it happened.
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=66754&hilit=radar&start=30#p973123

More on it.
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=67573

[theCryptofishist]

That day has a sort of epic disaster tinge to the my memory. I had forgotten to charge my chair the night before, so after Tamara and Ken and Tink and Jonsi and everyone had left, I ended up at BMIR, sucking the LLC's juice, all day to get a full charge. And when it's plugged in, you can't move. So it was like an awkward party where you don't know anyone and (if you're me) you can't get a conversation started, but you can't leave. Then I slept on my cot without the foam that night and--never again.

Perhaps that's the best way to spend your last day on the playa...