5: The Wee Hours of Black Rock City

We turned right at the corner of 4:30 and Gestalt and rode up the spoke, inward, toward the sounds and the lights. Past Fetish, past Ego, past Desire, and on our left was a bar. Sure the tables out front were a bit raggedy, but inside there was a handful of people whooping it up at a long, wooden counter beneath shade tents and strung with lights. A generator grumbled from the darkness behind. I smiled as we rode by. It felt great to be on the bike, with our friends, heading for our first true taste of Black Rock City. Off to the right we'd passed some trampolines, and then there at the corner of 4:30 and Catharsis was a Roller Disco. Five or seven people were out there on their skates, crusing around to the sweet funky sounds.

Insanity on bikes wheeled by. Horns with glitter, goggles with flames, capes and fur and fully decked two-wheeled weirdness rolled by and around us as we pedaled inward. Past Bipolar, beyond Amnesia and I could tell we were getting close. It had taken us about fifteen minutes to roll from Curvas Peligrosas to the Esplanade where the true heart of Black Rock City began. Where open playa met camp. Where the inhabitants of this temporary city lived, strolled, rode and wandered with the night, beneath bursts of fire and amid the roar of artcars and the wheeling, weaving, wacky madness of all of us riding on the edges of our tires. On either side, the shape of the tents fell away, and before us in all directions lay the whirling, glow-dappled scene of humans at play.

First we rode to the right and soon found a mass of parked bikes. Beyond them people danced and spun as a dj pumped tunes into the throng. Poi dancers spun hulas of flames and ropes of fire. Thick, warm fur covered limbs and heads while cleveage and cracks and dilated eyes peeked from cool skin. There was a hypnotic feel to the crowd. It was a place between decisions, where the gravity of loud, chest thumping bass drew the shimmering forms of burners deep into their night. We slithered in to see what was going on. From a booth before us the dj twisted and spun then WOOOSH from above the booth a huge burst of flame exploded. The crowd murmured a cheer through their dancemoves. We wove in and out, getting closer, then chilling, then pulling back out to where we'd parked our bikes to see what else we could find.

I needed motion. I needed to see it all. So much out there! Artcars in the distance seemed to skate across the packed earth, skimming with light and sound as people on bikes circled and trailed, pulled by the thumping grooves of the twenty foot flower as it petaled across the dark desert. Music was the nectar that it sprayed across the flatness, drawing riders to it. I rode nearly sidesaddle as I watched the bizzare forms whisk by. The people on the bikes were caught in the wake of each new, motorized, music-filled alien form.

Then art surrounded us. Metal structures emanating heat curved up and around, the sheetmetal sides punched with tiny holes to create pictures and forms that glowed with the deep embers of the coals within. We stopped to warm ourselves from the chill playa wind. Then onward. Into the Blue Head. We had seen a picture of this online a few days before leaving, and now we were about to go inside.

Buried up to His nose, we circled once in wonder, then found the entrance at the back of his head. Inside was warm with twenty or so people splayed out together around the center hearth or resting against the walls, or just sitting, chilling out, warming up, thinking the thoughts together that Man's mind surrounding needed them to. The curved inside of the large skull seemed covered in brains. Plastic tubing and hanging fabrics made me feel as though I was within his mind. All of us were. And the only thing I thought we needed to truly make the mind correct, was a fresh, fragrant bowl of delicious buds. As it passed through us and then to the larger group, I could see those interested by the way they turned towards the smell, the eyes going bright and their smile sliding back easy. Everyone who wanetd got a taste.

"Careful with that. There's cops around and they will nail you for it," Wags informed me even as she took a hit.

"Gotcha," I replied. "I'll be stealthy."

"Bones..."

"Yeah baby?" I replied, turning to Lu.

"We have have to be careful out there, too. Don't lose me!"

"I won't! But the thing is, we have walkie talkies, so we don't have to worry about that, really. Just keep it tuned to the same channel, and if we ever get separated, we can just radio each other and meet up."

"That's true, but just stay close, okay? It's crazy out there!"

"I will baby," I replied and then kissed her. "There's no way I could lose you, ever."