My first day

Ruth and I woke up early. We got some breakfast and ran around picking up last minute jugs of water and snacks. We left Reno before 10, blowing our estimate of noon out of the water. A quick half hour drive and we were at the turnoff to make our way into the desert. By now we were amidst a huge caravan of RVs and cars with bikes strapped to then every which way possible. Past the Paiute reservation, another hour to the tiny town of Gerlach - the last town. Parked vehicles lined the town, everyone picking up last minute supplies.

Finally, we hit standstill traffic. The mob of cars made a slow turn off into the dessert, we had made it! Along with 60,000 other people. The traffic was atrocious. 8 lanes of traffic, inching along. After a few minutes, there was a man outside the cars, walking along.... Soon another then another. The traffic was so bad that people were getting out and walking around. Before long there were people riding bikes, topless ladies and naked men. People were climbing on top of their RVs which moved about one car length every 5-10 minutes. This lasted for 7 hours until we finally hit the main entrance gate.

Our tickets were checked, bent, and the embossment felt, to ensure no one was counterfitting and getting in for free. They searched our car pretty extensively, checking every compartment for stowaways, making us unpack a bit so they could see around the car better.

We passed the inspection and went on our way- into more traffic. Another hour or so, and finally we had a straight away, with a 10mph speed limit, to make our way to camp.

Mutant bikes and mad max cars everywhere.

We pulled into camp, setup our sleeping area in abou 20 minutes and jumped right into our duty making dinner in the kitchen.

Burritos for 65. Meat, Spanish rice, guacamole, mango salsa, beans, marinated onions and peppers, cheese, sour cream, olives and hot sauce. Yum.

I go my belly full, wrote out this entry, and am about to go explore.