Exodus Sunday - we leave Burning Man 8/31

Sunday morning – Exodus for us – began with occasional wind gusts, a hint of what could come.

Our gear was covered in thick layers of Playa dust, looking like the aftermath of a Mt St. Helens eruption. The inside of our trailer was bad, but not too bad; John’s tent was a mess.

Little cleaning could be done – it just stirred up more dirt.

We piled everything into any space we could find, waved goodbye to our few remaining neighbors, and headed out to K Street and the exit at 8:56 AM (the time, not the intersection). It took another two hours to reach the paved highway.

In the meantime, we listened to Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR) hoping to hear encouraging traffic reports, and we did – at about our hour-and-a-half point we heard a report that exit times were 1-1.5 hours. Yeah.

But BMIR was good edgy radio. Some George Carlin. Some intelligent DJ-talk about ending the war and the importance of voting. Good alternative music, more interesting than corporate radio, even listenable. We also heard the Reverend Billy rail against consumerism and call for change, change, change. We learned that something must be done about the dictatorship in this country. For the first time since we arrived we heard news from the outside world – that Hurricane Gustav was threatening New Orleans.

The Man burns Saturday night and we left Sunday, as probably do most people. But there are other burns. The Temple is scheduled to burn tonight with the true Exodus on Monday. I learned from BMIR radio that the Reverend Billy is schedule to speak just prior to the temple burn. I’m sorry I will miss him.