start Preparations SF to Reno Camp Vermeer Weather Rangers Center Camp Around the Center Esplanade Lamplighters Nighttime Esplanade The Man Nudity & Drugs
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Burning Man 2000 San Francisco to Reno 2
We hit the open road, the rigors of the workplace fading behind us. We're both busy these days, and we shelve our worries by discussing the technology and the management strategies with which we've been embroiled over the past few months.
When we've done enough talking about geekdom we table it for the remainder of our trip. Then, and only then, can we move on to housing, relationships, family, and food. The clear open road is good for chat like that.
Ranger Lefty and I get hungry. (Heck, my last meal was at the break of dawn. I'm not sure if Ranger Lefty actually had breakfast.) After an hour or two on the road we begin to chatter about stopping at some local place to eat, someplace which neither of us has ever been. We turn down some places as being too touristy, others for being chain stores, and yet others for being unappetizing. Finally I spot a huge signpost which reads "Milk Farm Restaurant"; a cow is jumping over the words. "Oh," I exclaim, "this is too good to be true. Let's eat here."
Unfortunately the restaurant was razed years ago; only the three-story sign was left standing. So we get back on the highway (easier said than done) and continue our search for food. Shortly thereafter corn fields pop up, stretching from the road's edge to the horizon.
We wound up eating at a nondescript buffet steakhouse off the highway. Much ado about nothing. We filled up the gas tank and head on the way to Reno. We finally arrive in the early afternoon and turn off toward John Ascuaga's Nugget. Luck is with us, we find a good parking spot in the parking garage. We check in. Next is a quick trip up to our room to dig out our bathing suits for a dip in the pool. There's a small waterfall in the main pool, and a huge whirlpool with trees in its center. Ranger Lefty decides that room service is required; a few minutes later I'm sipping a piña colada while he's working on a daqueri.
We decide we're hungry and head off to the Orozko restaurant to enjoy Iberian cuisine. The paella is quite good. Afterwards, past sundown, we return to our room. Looking out of the window Ranger Lefty notices that Charo is appearing here and decides he wants to attend the show.
Then we take a moment to enjoy the view of Reno.
They call themselves the Biggest Little City in America, but to me it seems not much more than an excuse to indulge in a habit that doesn't seem to bring a lot of joy to the vast majority of the folks I see at the gambling tables. (What we does with our money is nobody's business but our own, other than perhaps going catastrophically into debt. But it should bring us happiness, I think.)
I switch my camera to infrared illumination mode and take a picture of myself in the dark. Enough toying with new hardware, time to shut off the video camera and the PowerBook. It's time to nap; tomorrow is going to be a long, long day. We have food shopping to do, a visit to Twin Cities Surplus for camp supplies, a long trip, camp set-up, and then Ranger duties. It's really time to nap. Zzzzzzz.
And that's what happened. Then we were on the way from Reno to Black Rock City
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