Getting to Black Rock City

We drove to Rocklin (just east of Sacramento) Friday night after work. Rocklin was not rockin', but then again, we arrived at the Day's Inn after midnight, and left shortly after 8 AM. We drove the rest of the way to Black Rock City (BRC), through lots and lots and lots of desert that is mostly reservation land or under the control of the Bureau of Land Management.
They say the desert has a stark beauty... I guess I see it. Maybe I'm just a forest / ocean gal.

It took us close to 6 hours to get to BRC, and then another hour or so to find our camp site, but we found it (thanks to a guy named Baulknaub)!
The rest of our group showed up that night, and we got to put up our shelter in a wind storm. Fun! The next day another wind storm blew our shelter apart, and we had to re-do & double-down on the tie-downs. Now we're home!
Bill will explain the giant cell tower in the next post. Hope all is well back in civilization!

Leaving for Black Rock City

So last year I got talked into joining some colleagues at Burning Man 2008. You can read about the camp I was a part of if you want. Basically, 50,000 people show up, camp for a week, and build an impromptu city out of a dried up alkali lake bed in Nevada. There's a ton of art, from body painting and costumes, to enormous sculptures and eight-story steel-girder buildings placed out on the playa, to fire dancing, spinning fire, and generally lots of stuff that emits flame. Yeah, not the kind of thing anyone who knows me would expect me to go to, but despite my self-conscious feelings of being far too normal in crazytown, it was a ton of fun.

This year, I have talked Jennifer into going along. We are participating in the Krewe of Papa Legba Camp with many of the same people as last year, and will be trying to build a free cellphone text messaging service using free software and equipment like the USRP commonly used with GNU radio.

So what do I bring to this party? Lots and lots of camping gear, and a willingness to help. This year, we're building a shower and evaporation pool, a solar electrical system, a 70 foot radio tower, and lots of fun goodies. Pics on all this to follow if we get an Internet connection. Here's what it all looks like packed on my Jeep (last year I did this with a Miata!).

Jennifer on Julia

Like many American women, I went to see Julie & Julia this weekend with a few of my favorite gal pals. And I was so enamored with the food presented in the movie that I talked about it until Bill took me to Borders and bought me a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (and a few other ladies).

After our adventure out at the Disneyana swap meet this morning, I purchased all of the ingredients for Julia's Boeuf Bourguinon (beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onions, and mushrooms). I started cooking at 2:00, and by 7:30 we sat down to a truly scrumptious meal.

I won't/ can't cook like this every week (my waistline would HATE me for it!), but every now and again, I'm just gonna have to bust out the Julia Childs' cookbook. Even without pictures, the recipes in her book just make your mouth water.

Now that I've had my weekly allotment of butter, it's salad and fruit for the rest of the week.

But, damn, it was worth it!! :)