2008, Aug 28-31: Burning Man Festival - Black Rock City, NV

Wow is all I can say about Burning Man (BM)! How should I describe the venue to you? mmm, a combination of Mardi Gras, woodstock, and a carnival scene all into one?!? Self-expression in art, life, freedom, celebration of man?!? My description does not give the venue justice, view the official website for more information http://www.burningman.com/

I've been living in Reno for the past 14 years and would always see everyone either going to BM or coming back from BM. Coming back from BM, all the cars were covered in playa dust. I never understood what BM was about and all my comments consisted of, "who the heck wants to camp out in the hot desert for 1 week?" But for some reason, this year, I decided that I should put my opinion to rest and actually go for the very 1st time. D & I bought our tickets early in the year and paid $300 per person. Yes, a pricey ticket; however, this ticket allows you to get in for 7 days. While we didn't have 7 days to spend at the Black Rock Desert, we were there for 4 days.
We prepared ourselves: we brought our decorated bikes, costumes, goggles, face masks, glow sticks. WOW is all i can say! We had some friends who've been going for the past 3 years, we were able to hang out with them the 1st night. We had a blast!! So you pay $300, bring your own tent, trailer, food for the day. Thereafter, everything is free. No vendors are allowed, there's NO selling or buying items (other than coffee an ice).You can stop by each theme camp and everyone is offering FREE cocktails, food, gifts.

We came back from BM and we were soo excited to tell all our friends. All of our friends were excited to hear our stories and are very interested in going next year. The very important question that everyone wants to know is, "Would you go next year?" We are still unsure but we have until next year to decide. If you haven't gone, I would vouch that you go once before you decide to form an opinion. It changes your view about Burning Man and life in general.

2008, Jul 25-27: Buckeye Creek, CA

Here's our 2nd annual camping excursion to Buckeye Creek (read our June 2007's story). I would call this trip a partying trip instead of a camping trip. We didn't hike, we didn't bike, but we tried fishing. We were in the woods but we really just partied all weekend. This year, Doug, Zach, Charlie, Josh, Mark, Kahlilah and I (dogs: Tomas & Jack) were excited to be a part of this fun-filled weekend. We caravaned for 2.5 hrs down to the campgrounds, we found a great open camping spot, we unloaded our camp gear, started the music, played bags and popped open the brewskies. That night we all headed down to the natural hot springs. Poor Charlie hiked down barefooted and fell on his back. Next day, we rented a pontoon and trolled Twin Lakes hoping to catch fish but i think we did more drinking than fishing. We trolled the waters.....oh I'd say about 5 hours and the only person who caught a fish was K.

On Sunday, after everyone packed up and left, D, Z, K & I drove to another natural hot springs called Travetine Hot Springs. We found a great little spot for us to dip our feet. Well as I usually say... stay tuned for next year's Buckeye Creek story :)