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Getting There |
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Burning Man 1996: Road Trip It's the better part of a day's drive from San Francisco to the Black Rock desert. We head up the well-worn trail to Lake Tahoe, California (a summer and winter wonderland of hiking and skiing), on to the gambling city of Reno, Nevada, and then into the wilderness, towards the towns of Empire and Gerlach, Nevada. Our team consists of a small crew of technomads, cypherpunks, and radio hams. We've all known each other through postings on various USENET newsgroups and mailing lists, but I'd only met one of them in the flesh, and that was two years earlier. This somehow feels right. Burning Man is that sort of gathering. Armed with several vehicles, packing more food than we have any chance of eating, carrying about four gallons of water per person per day for drinking and cooking (too much water), we make a virtual convoy. Seth is the only one to join the convoy, meeting us in San Francisco and accompanying us to REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) in Berkeley before heading out. (Seth's van - leading the way - appears at right.) The others aren't able to coordinate finishing testing the shelter and driving, so we're staying in touch with them via ham radio, cellular telephone, and alphanumeric pagers. Our caravans converge on Black Rock Playa, about three hours north of Reno, Nevada. About an hour out of Gerlach, Seth's van lurches to a halt. I hastily pull off to the road. The view and silence are impressive. Mostly dead alternator. I jump-start Seth's van; it runs but has no lights. So I lead the way; Seth tailgates. We drive into the hamlet of Empire, Nevada, and spy the Empire Store; all the shopping there is.
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