Friday, August 22nd, 2025 — Day One: The Pilgrimage Begins
We were well prepared. Honestly, more prepared than I’ve ever been for anything. Jennie and I left early in the morning, hearts high, and met up with our magical friends Jim and Sarah in Park City. At their house we tied down the last straps, loaded the last bins, and set out in a caravan: my old 2005 Ford 350 pulling their trailer packed to the brim, and their SUV rolling behind.
Everything went smooth—until Wendover. That’s where the dreaded wrench light came on and my truck dropped into limp mode. My stomach sank. We pulled over, researched, tried everything. Finally, I called up an old high school buddy, Jim Burman, who’s a wizard with trucks. He immediately asked, “You towing something heavy?” Of course. He explained it was the computer not liking me running the turbo hard up steep grades. Solution? Stop the truck, reset it, and keep the turbo under 20 psi. It worked. But now we were climbing slower than we wanted.
A theme for the week: slower than we wanted.
Still, the ride was beautiful. Jim and I in the truck, the girls in the other car. We talked about politics, life, the universe, and then rolled into a long stretch of gratitude. I went so deep, I talked for over an hour straight. By the end, I was moved to tears at how blessed my life is. That one riff alone lifted me higher than any drug.
We stopped at Winnemucca Walmart in 100-degree heat for last-minute supplies, then pushed to Fernley and turned north toward the Black Rock Desert. The sun set. By the time we rolled into Gerlach, night had fallen. I worried about setting up camp in the dark. Jim reassured me it was better—cooler to work in.
He was half right.
We rolled up to the gates of Burning Man—and saw nothing but a sea of taillights. Hundreds. Thousands. The crawl had begun.
Seven-plus hours of stop-and-go purgatory. The gate was undermanned, the wait eternal. I was in high spirits the first five hours—laughing and talking with Jim, crawling through dust. But exhaustion ate me alive as the night dragged on. By the time we reached the greeters and got our map, it was 5:00 AM. The sun was rising. We hadn’t set up camp in the dark… because it was no longer dark.
➡️ Tomorrow: The Playa breaks me before it even buys me dinner.
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