Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 — Day Five: The Departure
We were frazzled, but it was time. We were aligned in our hearts and minds to go to Burning Man. We were aligned to change the plans and go early. And even though the whole event was just getting started... it was time to go home. There was a clarity there.
We packed the camp under cloudy skies, ate a simple breakfast, hugged a lot of people goodbye... and rolled out.
We hadn’t had the wild “Playa experience.” No drugs, no orgy tents, no manic all-night adventures. What we did have was storms, survival, and each other.
On the long drive home, after 8 hours of deep beautiful conversation, Jennie took DJ duty, blasting a string of hits that carried me through the final stretch, which included a torrential downpour over the Salt Flats as we traveled from Wendover to Salt Lake City.
We pulled into home at 11 PM, exhausted, grateful, contemplative.
Why had we gone?
What had we gained?
What had we given?
I don’t have final answers. Maybe I never will. Burning Man has a saying: Fuck Your Burn. You don’t get the burn you want—you get the burn you need.
Maybe I didn’t need what I wanted. Maybe I didn’t even want what I needed. But I got something: a test of skill, heart, and spirit. A reminder that humans can break, adapt, rebuild, and keep going.
And above all, I got this: Jennie and I came out stronger. We do hard things together. We survive storms together. We go on adventures together, again and again. And that’s worth more than any wild Playa night could have given me.
➡️ And that… was my first Burn.
PS - Will there be another?
Interesting question. I can only answer that intuitively... I think there might be. We would take an RV. We would have Air Conditioning. We would stay longer...
But will it actually happen? Who knows?