It’s Nevada and the land is both unfamiliar and dry. We assembled a small camp for our first year. We have no land to claim as our own, and not everyone’s paid their camp dues. Our entire camp fits easily into a 12 passenger van Josh and Danver have driven up from Orange County. Along the way to Reno from San Francisco Tracy gave playa names. Officially Josh is now to be referred to as Jhana and Danver, Saphira while on the playa.

In Reno we all stand infront of the hotel where we pick up John and Angela. Below, Danver (Saphira), Leon from Denmark, Tracy (Takoda), Angela, Josh (Jhana) front and center, Kat (preggers and also from Denmark), and John.

We plopped ourselves at 7:30 sector in the middle of the night after a 10+ hour wait. We built our 20 foot dome in the blackness and thankfully none of lost fingers from the meeting of sledgehammer and stake. Some of us put up tents and we were all out like a light just after midnight, exhausted and hungry.

The next morning we built our kitchen, shelter and shade. Structures that took just under a few hours. The afternoons and subsequent days were spent exploring individually and together. We absorbed five French guys into our camp who ate solely Ramen noodles each night.

Thursday, a night a celebration was spent slathered in vodka (mostly). The burn on Saturday and Sunday were both epic. Clean up and departure were done quite well – little moop to de moop and our exodus took a few hours. We must remember to pack snacks departing and arriving.

actors behind the scenes practice