Burning Man is coming to a close and Burners are preparing to head home. The event officially ends tomorrow, but some of those burners are beating the traffic and getting a head start on their journey back home.
Rain and wind closed the Burning Man gates multiple times during the event's first days for hours on end. One burner says it didn't weigh down his time there.
"I mean, the weather is the weather, right?" Wolfgang Muller says. "You go for the experience, and I think that was what we all embraced."
Muller was one of a few Burners who stopped at a roadside car wash just off of Pyramid Way north of Spanish Springs. Martin's Cleaning Service, a local cleaning company, provided the service.
Muller says his chaos wasn't contained to the playa.
"We got our wash and one of our vehicles ran out of gas," he says, "someone had to go get the gas with the other truck, but they forgot the keys. And so now, ... one of the trucks passed by and missed the exit."
Some burners had troubles before they got to Black Rock City. One first-timer says she had a rough start when she first got to Reno.
"When I came in on Friday night," Tressa says, "my luggage was lost."
Tressa says she got her luggage back the next day, but that was just the start.
She was supposed to get on the "Burner Express" shuttle bus at 11 a.m., but didn't until just after 5 p.m. Then, she lost her bag that had her ID in it. Fortunately, she found it four days later at the bus depot.
Tressa says the community helped her through her whirlwind of troubles.
"Honestly, I just made the best of it," she says. "There's people around you to talk, have a snack, whatever.">
For Burners heading home, the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority has a few extra rules in place. All burners are asked to put on shoe covers at the entrance, and airlines are providing plastic bags to wrap their luggage in.
Public Affairs Manager Nicolle Staten says these moves will keep the airport running smoothly during this busy time of year.
"That playa dust is very thin, and it cannot get into our baggage matrices," Staten says. "We can't have those shut down."
The Airport Authority expects this weekend to be very busy. They advise all travelers to arrive as early as possible for their flights during this time.
