Thoughts On the Ride Home

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I staked out camp and assembled what I expected what I expected to be a first draft of my home, then pedalled off to Centre Camp to find the good folk at Artery in a meeting about art placement. They use radios, range finders, golf carts and GPS to place the works out on the unmarked desert. I am to be their first placement and test case.
This is only my second year of placing art at BM, but a couple of them seem to remember my Monolth from last year, at least Crimson does. They welcome artists warmly, and the feeling of long acquaintance is hard to shake.
Q & A:
brought presskit
yes, I see locations
Yes, I'm ready to place
I have flags to mark my spot, but back at camp
meet at head & 8:00 in 5 minutes
will bike to & stake out da Vinci-meet golf cart and take short ride out to find flag 827-near Burning Man who has yet to have risen to his standing position. Great Spot!

My guide offers a lift or a pull on my bike out to the site for Wizzard Oasis, but the wind is to my back and the playa is hard an uniformly cracked. I ride a parallel path all the way out, but I accept a tow back against the wind a bit later.

Site #1001 @ 11:30 and ??-way out in the middle of nowhere. Still it is a mere 375 yards from the back corner of the BIG BURN scheduled friday night. The folk at Artery seemed worried about this one for some vague reason and it was the biggest area staked out on the whole map. It was either cancelled or postponed till after I left, the weather friday was too extreme for a lot of flames.

Those WERE the lights of SLC! I am only 20 miles away now. 3:30 am is a good time to ride the belt way around the city.
I've been riding, hitching and driving through SLC for 30 years and these folks have a problem with I-80. In all that time, it has been open for only about 4-5 years. The rest of the time traffic is detoured around, away from the main Tabernacle. I think it is because they don't want strangers (non-mormans) to casually see their holiest of holies while blasting by in air conditioned bliss, unaware of what this lad looked like when they arrived. Hardly blame them if my conspiracy theory is true. I felt similar feelings only recently.

4:17 nap in the middle of the salt expanse on the Knolls, Utah entrance ramp to I-80. Two hours later, the cold and wind wakes me and I race away from the rising sun. Nine miles now to NV. I'll beat the sun to the Silver State this day. Past the half way point between my houses, when the hills light up and he sun peek between the peaks.
Last tunnel ... exhale.
About 4 more hours in NV then 4 more through the crowded streets of CA to get home. Should be about 5 this afternoon barring problems or further sleepiness.

When casting the fiberglass/bondo mix into the plaster mold, I need more vaseline from my greasy stockpile as a release agent everywhere except for the hands, parts of the feet and a couple other areas where the detail was so good in the molds that I was afraid the vaseline would fill in too many spots. I tried a spray on sealant followed by a spray on release agent that I had bought over the internet as part of a kit including some silicone casting materials. It would take much longer to get the plaster off these parts as a result and I never got one of the feet released, and was incomplete on the hands. Given time I could get it cleaned completely with the loss of some detail, but the overall effect of the bondo/fiberglass/wax/unreleased plaster gave the surfaces an interesting patina, and the unfinished foot was more educational than distracting.

As the sun approached the hills to the west at BM each evening, it was time for a quick nap or food or at least a rethinking of the wardrobe for the night. Find the glitziest costume, add layers to fight the wind. as darkness falls, light sticks attached to the bike and around my neck will afford some measure of visibility tot he citizenry of my town as I careen around in the dark. Recheck and stock the bike, water, film, da Vinci cards, green paper for chai, tp in case the porta pots have been busy.

I leave camp-day or night-with the keys in the ignition and my wallet visible to casual passers-bys. I feel no fear of theft in the early days. Theives have invaded BM in the past and surely must be here this year, but I know all my neighbors. We all see everything.
It is this same trust that allows me to run around naked when the weather is hot or to change clothes in my open wind blind without hiding. We are all adults and there is more skin showing than hidden when the mercury is up.

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	I staked out camp and assembled what I expected what I expected to be a first draft of my home, then pedalled off to Centre Camp to find the good folk at Artery in a meeting about art placement. They use radios, range finders, golf carts and GPS to place the works out on the unmarked desert. I am to be their first placement and test case.
This is only my second year of placing art at BM, but a couple of them seem to remember my Monolth from last year, at least Crimson does. They welcome artists warmly, and the feeling of long acquaintance is hard to shake.		Q & A: brought presskit yes, I see locations Yes, I'm ready to place I have flags to mark my spot, but back at camp meet at head & 8:00 in 5 minutes will bike to & stake out da Vinci-meet golf cart and take short ride out to find flag 827-near Burning Man who has yet to have risen to his standing position. Great Spot!
	My guide offers a lift or a pull on my bike out to the site for Wizzard Oasis, but the wind is to my back and the playa is hard an uniformly cracked. I ride a parallel path all the way out, but I accept a tow back against the wind a bit later.
Site #1001 @ 11:30 and ??-way out in the middle of nowhere. Still it is a mere 375 yards from the back corner of the BIG BURN scheduled friday night. The folk at Artery seemed worried about this one for some vague reason and it was the biggest area staked out on the whole map. It was either cancelled or postponed till after I left, the weather friday was too extreme for a lot of flames.
Those WERE the lights of SLC! I am only 20 miles away now. 3:30 am is a good time to ride the belt way around the city. I've been riding, hitching and driving through SLC for 30 years and these folks have a problem with I-80. In all that time, it has been open for only about 4-5 years. The rest of the time traffic is detoured around, away from the main Tabernacle. I think it is because they don't want strangers (non-mormans) to casually see their holiest of holies while blasting by in air conditioned bliss, unaware of what this lad looked like when they arrived. Hardly blame them if my conspiracy theory is true. I felt similar feelings only recently.
	4:17 nap in the middle of the salt expanse on the Knolls, Utah entrance ramp to I-80. Two hours later, the cold and wind wakes me and I race away from the rising sun. Nine miles now to NV. I'll beat the sun to the Silver State this day. Past the half way point between my houses, when the hills light up and he sun peek between the peaks. Last tunnel ... exhale. About 4 more hours in NV then 4 more through the crowded streets of CA to get home. Should be about 5 this afternoon barring problems or further sleepiness.

	When casting the fiberglass/bondo mix into the plaster mold, I need more vaseline from my greasy stockpile as a release agent everywhere except for the hands, parts of the feet and a couple other areas where the detail was so good in the molds that I was afraid the vaseline would fill in too many spots. I tried a spray on sealant followed by a spray on release agent that I had bought over the internet as part of a kit including some silicone casting materials. It would take much longer to get the plaster off these parts as a result and I never got one of the feet released, and was incomplete on the hands. Given time I could get it cleaned completely with the loss of some detail, but the overall effect of the bondo/fiberglass/wax/unreleased plaster gave the surfaces an interesting patina, and the unfinished foot was more educational than distracting.
As the sun approached the hills to the west at BM each evening, it was time for a quick nap or food or at least a rethinking of the wardrobe for the night. Find the glitziest costume, add layers to fight the wind. as darkness falls, light sticks attached to the bike and around my neck will afford some measure of visibility tot he citizenry of my town as I careen around in the dark. Recheck and stock the bike, water, film, da Vinci cards, green paper for chai, tp in case the porta pots have been busy.
	I leave camp-day or night-with the keys in the ignition and my wallet visible to casual passers-bys. I feel no fear of theft in the early days. Theives have invaded BM in the past and surely must be here this year, but I know all my neighbors. We all see everything. It is this same trust that allows me to run around naked when the weather is hot or to change clothes in my open wind blind without hiding. We are all adults and there is more skin showing than hidden when the mercury is up.