Burning Man: Day 9

Where The Man once stood

Nothing keeps the dust out, even stuff issued by the military

In front of the ramp of death

Sadly you can see neither the flames on the ramp nor his crash landing

I call this piece "A Thin Man, With Dust"

Heading homeward

I was up at the crack of 7:45am, well before the others. I packed all my bags, ate my breakfast, went down to the bathroom and had my mind set on going out with a bang. Although the weather was pleasant at the camp site, out on the playa the dust was so thick you could barely see 5 feet in front of you. I wandered in the fog for a bit and slowly corrected myself enough to make it as far as the temple. I took a last look and wrote up a little note to the boys, my little shining stars. Tonight the temple is to be burned, but I won't be there for it -- Melissa would like to leave somewhere around 10am. I set off again into the wind and dust, this time my heart lead me to the site where The Man had burned last night. It was really magical -- the wind and dust died completely around the site where he used to be and about 30 people had gathered to mill about amongst the ashes and twisted metal. My stay there wasn't an extended one ... it was about time for the others to be getting up and preparing to head out. Before I reached camp though, I did witness "the ramp of death" which was constructed from a shipping palette and some boxes. The idea was to ride your bike off of it to receive a shot of Jack Daniels (aka "breakfast"). Many tried, few succeeded. It was horrible to watch, but I couldn't look away.

When I got back to camp everyone commented on my white hair and beard... the dust had returned with me (see pics)! The gang was ready to go about 30 minutes after my return and we set off in Melissa's giant beast of a car for SF. We sat and waited in line for about 2.5 hours to get out of there, but once we were rolling it was a straight shot all the way back to the bay area.

And that's that! I was on a plane and back in Oregon my about 1:00pm the next day and the rest, as they say, is history!