The plans have been laid; now we need to find Black Rock City in the dust.
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I’ve spent the last two days hanging out with the Survey crew. Led by Coyote, this little group lays out every street, every point from Hysteria to the Temple and all the way out to the Gate.
The octagonal shelter was set up yesterday around the Golden Spike, and it serves as a makeshift shade structure – the only shade for miles around.
While I’ve been spending my evenings blogging, this crew works in the early morning and late evening. They sleep in the shelter, get up at dawn, and try to get as much done as possible before that white light, white heat, and desert shimmer make it impossible to see.
In two days, they’ve marked the Esplanade and the first four streets (Amnesia, Bipolar, Catharsis, and Delirium – find out more at the City Plan); later tonight, they’ll finish Ego. Each street is meticulously measured out and marked with flags; later, the roads will be driven over and over until they’re clearly visible.
As soon as surveying is done, the shelter will come down, and the Man Base crew will start construction – and before you know it, an entire city will have risen from the dust.
I feel lucky to be out here now, on the empty playa. You can still see for miles, and the view is lovely in the solitude of early morning. There is a certain sense of privilege among the DPW: we are allowed to be here when the desert is still empty and silent. Every once in a while, we all look across the hard-baked playa floor and try to visualize how things will look in less than a month…
It’s exactly one month now until Exodus, and there are undeniable rumblings coming from beneath the earth. It’s unstoppable. Truckloads of art, acres of geodesic domes, and tens of thousands of beautiful people are hell-bent and headed straight for us. Burning Man is almost here.
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