Burning Man (what time is it?)

(Note: If you can't see the slideshow in your reader, go to the post)
*Blink*

It's dark... Vague memories... 200+ miles of being co-pilot with S, trying to guess which vehicles we passed were heading towards Burning Man too. S honks as we pass a blackly fuming combi van! "BURNING MAN! YEEEAH!" I grin like a lunatic as S puts pedal to the metal and tells me seriously, "This is to the floor and it's not going very fast eh?", as the speedometer flicks at 80 miles per hour. We stop at a gas station, helicopters, rescue engines - "Are you ready for The Burn?" Me, the naive n00b, "How did you know??" Twilight, we were at Gerlach... shouts from the outside about this being the last gas station before hitting the playa, yet the Garmin tells us there's a Shell station ahead. Would you have taken the risk? :)

*Blink*

D is driving the RV at a crawl... Our dusty compact home on wheels for the next 6 days. We have reached the desert.

Our initiation begins :) All out to taste some dust! We're instructed to hit the floor. S does an impressive forward headroll! T&D create some dust angels! I'm about to start flapping my arms on the dirt, when S goes, "NOO!!!!" and starts ROLLING ME around in the dirt!

Greeter: "Welcome home!"

We clang a bell loudly, each chanting, "I AM NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE!"

Our RV parks perpendicular to our companion RV (filled with 3 Canadian Frenchies + 1 American) at approx 7:15 Hummer Avenue. A blood red Mustang with an Italian and another Frenchie pulls up to close off our little residential area. We're here :)

My first sight - STARS! Millions of them. The last time I saw this many would've been at Mt Kinabalu... Those three stars on Orion's belt, I must've been in Oz the last time I saw those.

My second sight - Glowing bicycles!! :D

The old pros take us around the playa. I don't know what time we got here. I don't know what time we went to bed. We walked in the darkness till it was dawn. Who knew the dark could come so alive?? This wasn't something I expected. The Man glowed at us constantly from the centre.