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Finding the Launch Site
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It rained until 4:00 in the morning, and I was very
concerned about the drive out to the launch site. According to the directions
on their web site, anywhere from the last four to seventeen miles would
be across the playa. "Playa," of course, is Spanish for beach. This particular
beach spends its time as either a lake or a dry lake bed, it is rarely
a beach. Events like rocket launches and Burning Man count on the playa
to be a dry lake bed. Drivers heading out there count on the playa to be
a dry lake bed, when it isn't dry it is impassable. This morning it was "damp."
We did see some smoky rocket trails streaming up from the horizon, and that was enough to juice up the testosterone and rev the motorhome for a run across the playa.
This is what the view looked like for the next ten miles. To the left
of our path you can see water-filled ruts. The ground we were on stayed pretty
firm for most of the way. I kept the motorhome in first or second gear the
whole way out there, topping out at about 20mph. Every once in awhile the
lake bed would get muddy and I didn't want to hit that at a higher speed.
At one point it was pretty thick, I kept it in first gear at drove at a
steady 15mph. The motorhome started to slow down, bogged by the mud, and
I pictured us sitting there for a very long time waiting for the surface
to dry before trying to get out. Luckily we kept moving and got through the
worst of it.
After twenty minutes of driving towards an empty horizon the camp appeared.
We didn't assume we made it until we finally pulled up next to everyone.
This was the most unique campsite we had yet, a small enclave of people
on one side and absolutely nothing on the other side. The final picture
here is of the motorhome with Shane pretending to drive. Shane loved it
out here, he was ready to run - we took him away from the rockets (which
he always barked at) and let him go. The ground was spongy even when dry,
and he would run in giant circles until he couldn't move anymore.
The good news about the rain was that it cooled the desert down to a really comfortable temperature. It was probably in the upper 70s or low 80s, we didn't even have to run the air conditioner. We had been anticipating temperatures in the 120s, which is typical this time of year. The only bad part was the cloud ceiling that kept us from being able to watch some of the higher rockets for their entire flights.
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We drove to Gerlach, which doesn't show up on
the map here, but is most of the way up from Fernley, right before the
line gets squiggly. The directions say to stop at Bruno's Cafe/Casino/Bar
and check for directions taped on the window. No directions, but diners
in the cafe who were heading out to the launch site. They had been out there,
but it was still pretty muddy and tough going, and they had pickup trucks.
We decided to sit it out for a bit and wait for the ground to dry some before
heading out in the motorhome. We had breakfast and Bruno's and then followed
the directions to the end of the paved road to the turnout across the playa.
We found the marker and sat and waited some
more. We watched a couple of drivers head out there, and saw the dirt get
kicked up quite a bit. We could also see pools of water in places. We couldn't
see the launch site, as cars drove out there they would disappear into the
mirage like Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.
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We did see some smoky rocket trails streaming up from the horizon, and that was enough to juice up the testosterone and rev the motorhome for a run across the playa.
This is what the view looked like for the next ten miles. To the left
of our path you can see water-filled ruts. The ground we were on stayed pretty
firm for most of the way. I kept the motorhome in first or second gear the
whole way out there, topping out at about 20mph. Every once in awhile the
lake bed would get muddy and I didn't want to hit that at a higher speed.
At one point it was pretty thick, I kept it in first gear at drove at a
steady 15mph. The motorhome started to slow down, bogged by the mud, and
I pictured us sitting there for a very long time waiting for the surface
to dry before trying to get out. Luckily we kept moving and got through the
worst of it.
After twenty minutes of driving towards an empty horizon the camp appeared.
We didn't assume we made it until we finally pulled up next to everyone.
This was the most unique campsite we had yet, a small enclave of people
on one side and absolutely nothing on the other side. The final picture
here is of the motorhome with Shane pretending to drive. Shane loved it
out here, he was ready to run - we took him away from the rockets (which
he always barked at) and let him go. The ground was spongy even when dry,
and he would run in giant circles until he couldn't move anymore.The good news about the rain was that it cooled the desert down to a really comfortable temperature. It was probably in the upper 70s or low 80s, we didn't even have to run the air conditioner. We had been anticipating temperatures in the 120s, which is typical this time of year. The only bad part was the cloud ceiling that kept us from being able to watch some of the higher rockets for their entire flights.