In the summer of 2003, Charlotte and I decided to take a trip across the country by rental car (why a rental? Don't ask--it's complicated, dull, and annoying.), stopping at various friends along the way, seeing the sights, and culminating in our annual visit to the Burningman festival in Nevada. This is the diary we kept along the way.
| Rough Itinerary | |
|---|---|
| July | |
| 14-20 | Jamestown NY |
| 20-21 | Cleveland OH |
| 21-24 | Louisville KY |
| 24-25 | Memphis TN |
| 25-26 | Hot Springs AR |
| ? | Oklahoma City OK |
| ? | Albuquerque NM |
| 30 | Taos NM |
| 31 | Mesa Verde CO |
| August | |
| ? | Grand Canyon AZ |
| 6-8 | Tucson |
| 8-10 | Phoenix AZ |
| 10-11 | Indio CA |
| 11-13 | Los Angeles CA |
| 13-16 | Yosemite CA |
| 16-24 | San Francisco CA |
| 24 | Tahoe CA |
| Reno NV | |
| 24-Sept 1 | Black Rock City NV |
| September | |
| 2 | Salt Lake City UT |
| 3-11 | ????? |
| 12 | Louisville KY |
Charlotte writes:
Our camp is a group of folks who work for the greater good of Supersnail. We greet folks coming to have their pictures taken by Julian. These go up on the website. There is six years of beautiful portraiture of Burners at Supersnail.com. We camp at center camp, most parades go by our front door: Fuzzy nation, the Billion Bunny march, critical tits, critical stilts, drunk and belligerent santas, klowns and save the man protesters. Most art cars go by our camp. Many people paint themselves in our body painting garden. The lamplighters also go by our camp.
The lamplighters wear tunics covered in flame. They have poles across their shoulders, which are laden with oil lanterns. Everyday at dusk a couple hundred lamplighters process through the city to the beat of a drum and hang the lanterns which light our town.
Every evening as the lamplighters pass, a campmate of ours—Patrick—has been the catalyst for an evening serenade. We sing "You light up our lives" each evening. We sang to them last year, too. After we finish singing, we cheer them on. This year they gave us lamplighter pendants. I wear mine with pride.