Pre-Burn
8/25-8/28
EWR → RNO
August 25
Bug and I started our journey in NWK airport at 5pm after a long day of work and errands. While craving a glass of red wine, I remembered there were some nice lounges in Terminal A. Josh and I wondered why we didn’t realize this before (“What are we, POOR?”), but were quickly humbled when the AA lounge receptionist told us they did NOT take Priority Pass or an Amex card (survey says, we are poor).
We landed in RNO around 12AM, arrived at the Nugget Resort Casino an hour later, and quickly went to sleep.
August 26
A day dedicated to errands, errands, and more errands. We:
Picked up our rental car
Got our tent from Sportsman Warehouse (Which I had ordered two weeks prior)
Bought a camping stove and portable charger from REI
Acquired necessities (e.g. toilet paper) from Walmart
Went to REI again for camping chairs
Checked the Burning Man dashboard incessantly for weather updates
Our original plan was to leave for Black Rock City (BRC) first thing the next morning, but they had just experienced thunderstorms with more on the way. We had our own weather situation — having gotten caught in a storm while we ate at Carolina’s BBQ — and had to walk through a flooded parking lot to get to our Uber. We spent the entire afternoon in squeaky wet shoes!
After much deliberation, we decided to stay another night in Reno to tie some loose ends in our camp set-up, let the inclement weather pass, and try some Raising Canes. Those were arguably the best chicken strips we’ve ever had.
August 27
It appears we really had nothing better to do this day except explore Reno and hope Thursday would have better weather!
We started off at the cutest coffee shop, Roamer, where we decided our course for the day.