So honored to have the Silver Vortex displayed in such a grand and fitting way!
Rochester International Airport and Bill Stewart sculpture fountain.
Inscription at base of Bill Stewart sculpture.
No one seems to notice the dozens of UFO's in the sky. Maybe they are only there to escort me to St. Louis.
Ben bouncing
mmmmm Home made wine
for as long as I can remember, my sister Sue has had these sea worm tubes in her bathroom.
The first big shopping tripe comes in around $300 and change...ugh. The list was long and this part was only a small portion of what we ended up taking as provisions for our journey.
Glad I had my camera for this shot. Who would have believed me?
Burning Man provisions...
one of seven boxes I mailed forward to Bens' house for the trip.
The list...one of several
The place Arvey had to go to get fixed to the tune of nearly $600 ! All in the name of the experience that would set new standards for unbelievable!
Yip eeeeeee! I get to drive a fancy car...thanks Ben! Awesome stereo and stylin' in my new wheels...even if only for a little while
We just GOTTA have atro turf in the desert!
"aww man...if I get ujst one more freakin' bill for this trip...."
Can you tell I'm diggin' this car?
One last look from Ben..."I I find another Ritz cracker in my Audi I'm gonna shoot him...Uncle or not!"
Essential Gear
Non essential gear that had to be ejected from Arvey so we could replace it with the essential stuff
You are here...
This was one long day of moving stuff out and then back in again while Ben finished with roof details. I mean a looooong day.
You bet...we were the Road Dogs!
The grass really is greener on the other side
Let no angle stand in the way of Ben fixing something!
Of course this reflection caught my eye
Ben, I forget...what were we doing here?
Funny place for a cat
so cute
I'm thinking this moth thinks if he holds on tight enough he can come to Burning Man with us.
Essential times 30
The morning of our adventure.
A properly and fully stocked refrigerator
Final inspection before lift off
Seconds Before hitting the road to Burning Man!
One last look
Two tickest to (at least a form of) Paradise and the simplified version of Black Rock City
Oh how I love reflections overlapping reflections in a refelction!
A VW Parade!
Herbie is in the lead!
Not usually the passenger...this is gonna take some getting used to.
uh...yeah, we forgot to put the cap back on and didn't realize it until the next fill up! So happy the cap was still hanging out on the license plate!
An iced tea break and some snacks
Now what do you suppose THIS was used for?
The remnants of the bottom of Arvys' door...which fell off after we opened the door one windy afternoon and the door slammed against Arvy so hard...this happened!
Yup, another day waking up on the road. Ben just seconds after opening his eyes and click...there I am recording it. Hi Ben!
spooky shadow
are you going to photograph everything Mark? Yup, I sure am!
Pretty RV...not ours...but pretty none the less.
Arvy antennae and moon.
Thoughtful.
This means that it's okay to turn on the AC now with the generator working properly.
I first thought that writing in my journal every day was a good way of keeping track of my ideas, thoughts and moods. I also hoped that my creative writing muse would rear up and I would spontaneously start writing amazing and wonderful insights. All the while I was thinking this, I was also thinking that I'd probably end up refering to the zillion photos I had taken and remembering more that way...as pictures conjure up more words than mere isolated memories alone. I was correct on both counts. Select pages from this written journal will appear on my newly renovated website soon. Stay tuned.
My milk and its' very own cozy.
Stylish...don't you think?
Breakfast. Yogurt, nuts and dried fruit. Mmmmmmm
This grate is known as the shredder. Any guesses why?
Arveys' window
Sa weeeet flat black car
My date for the day...her personality despite her smile...was a little flat.
Ben stuck on the wiper. Now he knows how the bugs felt!
Both Ben and I think these generators are so cool. No matter how many I see or where I see them...I still think so. I think they are the modern day functional sculptures. Now if only we could develop batteries sufficient enough to store the energy they generate from the wind!
Ben said all he did was touch this resevoir and the side of it disintegrated! We really should replace that before next year...
A cool mural that I wish was a bit clearer
Ben checking under Arveys' hood
Me checking out the rest of the town
Mmmmmmm...peanut butter!
See the leaning water tower? Now look closer and just to the right of the tower is a sign that has a leaning water tower on it...must be a local thing.
cattle farm and I mean a huge one!
Ben aka "Ben for now" aka "Jack Hammer" aka "The driving Machine!"
Time for a few shots of yours truly shooting yours truly...Driver? Don't worry, we were on auto pilot!
...and so he was for hours on end...driving, driving, driving.
There sure were a lot of pretty clouds as we went further West.
Once I realzed that I could stretch my legs out onto the dashboard...the rest of the trip was still really, really long...but not as cramped!
The all powerful iPod!
A really cool abandoned gas station/rest stop. Time to take a break, stretch our legs, have some lunch and snap a few pics
It's a good thing we had moire than one camera AND that the window slid open AND that the seat reclined so I could ge cleare better shots of pics I've probably already deleted! Thank Ben for this one.
I had lots and lots of time on my hands to be co Captain and photographer and at times we traded off the title RVDJ...depending on who was in charge of the tunes
Walmart was our friend while we were on the road. They are RV friendly...so many of our nights were spent in their lots
Adjusting the headlights
Morning and I'm up earlier than usual. Time changed as we went further West...but my inner clock stayed right on. Up at 6 here was still 8 am back east. Rise and shine
HAts for gifting
Shadow Puppet theatre
Don't you just love waking up in New MExico and seeing hot air balloons drifting by? I do!
Nice to know
Good advice
Looks like he's sleeping
Great artwork idea on the bridge
Sa weeeeet!h
I got to talking with the owner of this rig and pup and come to find out that one day while he was in Walmart shopping he left the pup in his rig and came back out later to find a mob of people around the front of the rig and poiting in and laughing/making interesting comments. The owner of the rig steps up and sez 'what's all the commotion?", one of the people points to the windshield and says that his pup is...well...uh...humping it's chew toy. Of course I just HAD to get a shot of the horny pup now in defense mode.
Goes in here...
Comes out here. My first dump experience...at least with Arvey. Now I know how it's done
Back on the road
yellow billboard
interesting reaction to pbj sandwiches
my favorite lunch
This was a typical fuel bill everytime we stopped for gas...Ugh Sometimes we got 6 mpg and sometimes 8...depending on head or tial wind, hills, etc.
Major essentials
Big Arvey hates high winds and so does Ben
Does this adequately illustrate how bored I am?
How about this?
That's not a full moon. It's a tractor trailer way off in the distance. We stopped to rest at this roadside pull off, for the night...actually about 2 am. Ben got some majorly awesome shots of the moon in the crystal clear sky
This is the lake we parked by the night before. Walker Lake. The night before with the moon reflecting off the lake...made it look like it was close enough to fall into.
It's like a quarter mile away!
The little town that lives next to Walker Lake. At this point in the trip we are only several hours from our target
WTF? Time to drive again?
It was about this far from Arvey that I realized the lake was a good lot farther than I had the time or inclination to hike
Our first art car/mutant vehicle sighting. This was the next to last gas station before Burning Man so we and many other burners decided to fill up on gas and potable water
Thank you for letting me take your pictures ladies and shrieking head!
The line into Gerlach...about 30 minutes more to go to Burning Man from here
The Gate
We saw Burning Man from way far away and it looked like this....now we were in it. The first of many white out conditions
The line starts here!3 hours from this point to getting in
I'm ready!
So are they!
We thought they were having car trouble. Turns out they were just trying to save gas.
Your own personal port a potty...now there's a good idea!
The un official Burning Man finger sign
Finally the official gate and greeter station
"You guys gonna be taking any photos ?"
Yup! Okay...so that's what these tags are for. Now we could officially take photos at Burning Man!
Pink Flamingo crane Mutant Vehicle
Now where did he say Taxi Jack's camp was?
Is that a blue light I see?
Welcome Home! Ben, Kahai, Taxi Jack
Whisky as a welcome home treat. Taxi Jack, You ROCK!
Taxi Jack reflection in blue
Cool sculpture next to our camp
Looks like something is missing here...what...what?
Por ta potties!
Beautiful! ...still looks empty up there between the peaks
D'Milo the creator of Chiton...the cool sculpture we are sipping Mohito's in. D'Milo came over shortly after Ben and I arrived and just seconds after our whisky shot welcome and asked if we were interested in some shade and mohito's...I'm in!
I think this is where Ben sez something like "Hey Mark, why don't you go get that cool thing you shipped forward to hang on our site
a beetle far from home
MMMMMMMMMMMohito!
interesting appterns start to form after two shots of whiskey and a mohito
I think we all had the giggles by this point
Voila! What do ya think?
just needs some adjusting
ok...a little more
not quite
A double rainbow! What does it mean? What does it mean?
Minutes after hanging the Silver Vortex in Chiton...we get a windy rain storm for a few minutes...and the Vortex gets hooked on one of D'Milo's lights.
Night falls and Bunring Man really starts to ramp up
One of the few beacons we were fortunate to have to home in on within a block of our campsite
Cool projection on the groaundRecognize the symbol?
The Man
Fir and LOTS of it!
Flashy fishy art car
Way cool steel and rubber willow
MAn this sculpture blew me away when I realized later that night that the flower at the top burns and rotates at the same time!
I have video of this. Two remote control pivoting jet heads on an axis. Made the coolest sounds too
...more soon...I promise
This is looking more and more like a painting requesting that it be painted
My starship: Walmart bike, EL wire and neon zipties
I remember this night! I was following Ben while he was "Taxi Jack" taxi-ing Taxi Jack and a fellow passenger. Suddenly we are deep into a herd of mutant vehicle/art cars and I immediately lost Ben. It was at that I realized that there is no other place I'd rather be lost in than Burning Man.
neon spider asking directions. shadow me and shadow bike
fire sculpture. I was drawn to them like so many others like moths to a flame. These towers were freakin' BIG AND they shot flames from each section.
This is a spinning hypnotic sculpture device. Burning Man is a series of inspiring, unbelievable, mind bending, thought provoking, tapestry of sensory overload woven into threads of scale and magnitude of what can be done as sculptures and events. Like a kid in a candy store, there was something competing for your attention..EVERYWHERE!
Burning Man party crown
Three icons: Gromor, The Party Crown and Taxi Jack crown
Taxi Jack shade structure...what a relief!
At some point we realized that keeping the dust out just wasn't gonna happen. Let the sun shine in!
My neighbor across the road Eli and his buddy Jules were great dudes to hang out with.
These purple blue flags were a great marker for our street corner.
I highly recommend having an RV or tower to get a better view of Burning Man. There is nothing like being up over the crowd to see the scope of what you are really in.
Jules
Goddess Kahai and the Sun
Indespensible
Eli and Jules
They never got the Pink Flamingos they needed for their Pina Colada bar. :(
Ben contemplating the next thing that needed to be fixed
Chillaxin'
Dust vortex
This one came right through camp. I was talking to the vortex all day and requesting that at least one come through our camp. I got to stand right in this one when it came through. Very Awesome!
Contrary to popular belief, this is not my brother!
Misty arrives and the dome takes shape!
Teamwork!
Now what?
Ta Daaaaaa!
my official Gnome adoption stamp
sculpture by Ben and spinning planets and moons/stars by Mark
Vortex gift in the dome of Misty and gang
Sunny side up!
The mud bug...party animal in disguise...sort of.
night preparations
in deep thought
Smiles like Misty!
Night falls and the place starts jumpin'
right about the time I started looking for the Temple, I noticed this big light in the sky. It was the moon rising over the Temple and guiding me to my destination.
This is the TEmple and I think it looks like a lava dome.
It is made of wood boards and strips
The walls of the Temple of Flux are covered with noted from loved ones, photographs, love letters, people mourning the loss of partners, friends, family, pets. Shrines in photos, personal items, letters...anything that would burn could be left behind and included in the burning of the Temple on Sunday.
This was a sculpture far outside the Temple and had glowing clear plastic leaves
a small room made of mirrors
One of many fire sculptures at Burning Man. This one was called Ein Hammer
