Sunday found us hunting and gathering food, alcohol, and the rest of the necessities. Our plan
was to leave at 6am Monday. We had to do the final dump and fill of the trailer
on the way out of town but were hoping to miss most of the initial traffic of
opening and it was only 110 miles from Reno.
They opened the gates Sunday at 10
am but getting 66,000 people into the playa with only one road takes some time.
We experienced minor traffic and got into the last town closest to the playa
around noon. Burners and those catering to Burners was all you saw the last 40
miles. I opened my window as we drove
through town and overheard a guy telling his buddy that the playa was closed
until noon Tuesday. I figured that he was just trying to scare his buddy but it
did put the seed that something might not be right.
But since
Kelly and Gianni were in another car we just stayed in the line of
traffic—after all we were less than 15 miles from our destination. But we got a
bit more concerned when our line stopped about 9 miles from the gate and we
were seeing people coming back. It made no sense. Eventually the word came down
via the ever present law enforcement that we had to turn around. Black Rock
City (BM) had a historic rain and hailstorm and it was a sea of mud. They had
to let it dry out before they let anyone else in so they had closed entering BM
until noon on Tuesday—it was now just early afternoon on Monday. They wanted us
to turn around. No one had any idea how we should turn around big RV’s and
trailers on a narrow 2 lane road but that is what they were barking out the
loud speakers. After about another hour of that, and some turnaroundable cars
had left, no one else had moved. So they then told us to pull off to the side
of the road to camp and we could all party hearty. No one was getting into the
gates until noon the next day. Law enforcement ok’d drinking and grilling. So
we did. Speakers were pulled out of RV’s, grills were fired up and the view was
great. We were content and figured luck was actually with us since we were
missing out on the alkaline mud and muck and it was all part of the story. Meanwhile
on a side note we noticed that we had yet another tire going bad but figured it
could be changed at the campsite.
Law
enforcement was everywhere and we witnessed a bust down the road. It was kind
of like shooting ducks in a barrel. But then they played their hand. The word
came about 7pm that they were opening back up—everyone leave. By then we had all
had a few cocktails and my immediate thought was this was a perfect setup to
get in trouble. Of course Stacy and I wanted to wait until morning but the kids
wanted to go in. I had pretty much put my foot down but then EVERYONE was
leaving. Kelly ASSURED me it would all be alright so we loaded up and got in
the 9 mile long line, and waited. By now everyone in our group was sober and
traffic was a slow crawl of snake lights.
I was sure they would have DUI check points but we got to the gates
without seeing any incidents.
We finally
hit the gates at about 1 am. And just inside of the gates was a gauntlet of 30+
law enforcement vehicles pulling people over. The speed limit was 5 mph and
they were stopping people who were going 6. And once they had probable cause
they had dogs and were searching everyone. Needless to say we went only 4. It
was amazing to watch. Of course we were following Kelly since we had noticed
she had a tail light out that morning—one of the reasons were glad were thought
we would arrive in daylight. And of course ahead of us we saw the flashing
lights pull in behind her. Guess staying by the side of the road was looking
pretty good to those kids right now! Of course they were searched and in spite
of not finding anything they were sweating bullets. They got REALLY, REALLY
LUCKY! The cops had them roll in playa
and a told them they found pound of ecstacy in their car. Obviously not but
cops knew deer in the headlights when they saw them. J We just sat about 200 yards off to
the side and watched. But lesson
learned…sometimes her old aunts know what they are talking about. We learn from
our mistakes and I think the whole thing made a huge impression on them. She
got off with only a warning and we parked the trailer in the area they wanted
to camp and all four of us slept in the trailer that night. It had been an
exhausting 17 hours of entrance…
As we went
to bed we starting to see what was in store for us. Huge art cars with neon
lights, loud music, laser lights and lighted bikes…amazing. We could also see
some of the main lighted sculptures—the Man, Embrace, and the temple among
others. It was like nothing we had ever seen…
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