I still can't believe I visited Canada without trying Tim Hortons. One of the many missed opportunities I will rue. There's exactly five people who have made their way from Hong Kong to Vancouver who will continue onto Reno, eventually into Black Rock City. We take the 7:20 pm flight from Vancouver, to Reno via San Francisco. The legs are short, but given the jet lag, the trip feels long. We arrived into Reno and check into the hotel just after midnight. It's a long day but we still find time to play the tables. Two cities, two casinos.
We start mid morning and the owner of the truck and the trailer meet up in the hotel car park. The trailer brings back memories from the last Burn. Technically I didn't stay in the trailer, but I did have to drive it back last time we were out here. This trip would be the same, I would drive it in and be responsible for driving it back out. The truck is a little different this year. By different, I mean older. Real old.
It takes me a while to get used to this car. The gear box is not intuitive, there's a cassette player and the indicators do not auto-cancel. There's no indicator of what gear you're in, or any indication of what is happening. It's all coming back to me, the trailer is heavy and responds with latency. I check myself and re-learn driving on the other side of the road. We find the nearest Walmart and load up on supplies, one of my favourite parts of the trip, strolling the isles of an American supermarket.
We leave the carpark at 2 pm and start off on the journey - I check everything, the dash is fine. I always forget how the pedal hand break works. Pressed means off? Right? We drive along the highway, the car is slow, I floor it and it barely responds. Cruising at a pedestrian rate of 50 mph I comment that I'm flooring the accelerator and that the car feels sluggish, "It's like I'm driving through cement!". Not five minutes out of Walmart and from the passenger seat I hear a laugh followed by "I think he was pointing at our car". Immediately I see grey smoke billowing out of the left hand side of the bonnet. I pull over on the highway to the shoulder. The car is spewing out smoke and there's oil dripping from under the hood. That's not good. We contact the car owner, he's 90 minutes away. We wait by the side of the road and attempt to open the hood.
It's at this point in time it dawns on me. Pressed means on. I google this. Yep, it's official, I've been driving the last couple of miles with the hand break on. I sheepishly admit this two the other two people. Ugh, how stupid of me! We sit by the side of the road and eventually pop the hood, the car has overheated. I have successfully perpetuated the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers by blowing up a truck. We pass time by sucking in roadside pollution, spending time trying to open the hood, followed by spending time trying to close the hood (this car really is old). This proactiveness all stops the minute a sofa flies off the back of a passing truck and lands 10 metres and rolls along the highway. The two of us look at each other and silently acknowledge that we just missed on being struck by a rogue sofa and sit back down on the barrier by the side of the road. Highway patrol come and visit us, finally at 4 pm, the owners return with a new truck. There's two kids in the back, we're being lent their personal car.
Take 2. We leave Reno and restart our road trip just after 4:00 pm. The drive is boring, for two and a half hours it's mostly straight road, there are two turns, two left turns (we actually missed the first turn). We lose cellular reception as we make the final turn into Black Rock City, arriving at 6:40 pm. Unfortunately we have hit traffic, we reach the first stage to pick up the vehicle pass at 9 pm. We meet the greeters at 10:00 pm. We have arrived. Burning Man 2019. We finally reach our camp Entheos. 4F. My second burn.
We start mid morning and the owner of the truck and the trailer meet up in the hotel car park. The trailer brings back memories from the last Burn. Technically I didn't stay in the trailer, but I did have to drive it back last time we were out here. This trip would be the same, I would drive it in and be responsible for driving it back out. The truck is a little different this year. By different, I mean older. Real old.
It takes me a while to get used to this car. The gear box is not intuitive, there's a cassette player and the indicators do not auto-cancel. There's no indicator of what gear you're in, or any indication of what is happening. It's all coming back to me, the trailer is heavy and responds with latency. I check myself and re-learn driving on the other side of the road. We find the nearest Walmart and load up on supplies, one of my favourite parts of the trip, strolling the isles of an American supermarket.
We leave the carpark at 2 pm and start off on the journey - I check everything, the dash is fine. I always forget how the pedal hand break works. Pressed means off? Right? We drive along the highway, the car is slow, I floor it and it barely responds. Cruising at a pedestrian rate of 50 mph I comment that I'm flooring the accelerator and that the car feels sluggish, "It's like I'm driving through cement!". Not five minutes out of Walmart and from the passenger seat I hear a laugh followed by "I think he was pointing at our car". Immediately I see grey smoke billowing out of the left hand side of the bonnet. I pull over on the highway to the shoulder. The car is spewing out smoke and there's oil dripping from under the hood. That's not good. We contact the car owner, he's 90 minutes away. We wait by the side of the road and attempt to open the hood.
It's at this point in time it dawns on me. Pressed means on. I google this. Yep, it's official, I've been driving the last couple of miles with the hand break on. I sheepishly admit this two the other two people. Ugh, how stupid of me! We sit by the side of the road and eventually pop the hood, the car has overheated. I have successfully perpetuated the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers by blowing up a truck. We pass time by sucking in roadside pollution, spending time trying to open the hood, followed by spending time trying to close the hood (this car really is old). This proactiveness all stops the minute a sofa flies off the back of a passing truck and lands 10 metres and rolls along the highway. The two of us look at each other and silently acknowledge that we just missed on being struck by a rogue sofa and sit back down on the barrier by the side of the road. Highway patrol come and visit us, finally at 4 pm, the owners return with a new truck. There's two kids in the back, we're being lent their personal car.
Take 2. We leave Reno and restart our road trip just after 4:00 pm. The drive is boring, for two and a half hours it's mostly straight road, there are two turns, two left turns (we actually missed the first turn). We lose cellular reception as we make the final turn into Black Rock City, arriving at 6:40 pm. Unfortunately we have hit traffic, we reach the first stage to pick up the vehicle pass at 9 pm. We meet the greeters at 10:00 pm. We have arrived. Burning Man 2019. We finally reach our camp Entheos. 4F. My second burn.
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