i drove west from austin on the 13th of august, 2003, at 4pm. i returned at around 7am tuesday morning, the 2nd of september. i drove over 6,000 miles and met hundreds of people; i saw some mindblowing geology, geography, nature, and art.

[the next paragraph contains links to all of the pictures i took. there are a lot in there. i recommend reading the 4 parts of the journal linked at the end of this page and checking out the links therein (which are the best/most interesting ones), and coming back to the galleries below afterwards in case you really want to see 414 pictures of the grand canyon]

the first leg of the journey was an exploration of phenomena natural and manmade; from the davis mountains in west texas, to carlsbad caverns, to the grand canyon, and through las vegas via the hoover dam. then i slowed down in california, spending some time cruising from friends in LA up the pacific coast highway through some venerable redwoods and up to more friends in san francisco and san jose.

from there, Flex and i drove to a remote desert wonderland known to the outside world as the burning man festival and spent a week among some of the most creative, wonderful people on the face of the planet. if i had to choose 30,000 people to hang out with on a desert island...well, these would be the ones. words and pictures can't capture the experience but it was truly insane, inspiring, and quite frequently beyond belief.

a good single event that expresses the random joy of the experience was a journal entry which says merely

for more information on the burning man festival, community, reality, and all else, check out their website. also of interest even to people who may not be that interested in the nitty gritty details of living in the middle of the desert amongst the unwashed masses, their image gallery contains a plethora of amazing and beautiful images from 2003 (when i went) as well as many other years. my own photographic exploits are sometimes blurrier and more bourgeois somehow, and also document the rest of my experience in addition to the awesome moments--the good, bad, and the dirty. there are over a thousand pictures in the gallery, and many are probably not of interest to anyone else. i tried to link all the interesting ones inline, in the journal but you're welcome to browse, of course.

i learned a lot this trip, from appreciation of the tiny (puppet theatres at carlsbad) to the huge (the grand canyon, and the immense immediateness of black rock city out in the middle of the Nevada desert). Vegas was superlative in every way it could possibly manage, but kind of soulless--a good contrast to the intense soulfulness exhibited on the playa.

below are links to my trip journal in 4 pieces. this was intended to be more a memory assistance to myself, and i'm not a boy of few words, but therein lie some good lessons, some funny stories, and some very strange moments. this trip, and burning man in particular, remains one of the most intensely interesting experiences i've ever had the pleasure of participating in. take it as you will.