BTW, there's a Tribe for Burning Man RVers...

burningrv.tribe.net/

Okay, see, I do it differently.

I go out with suitcases filled with empty 5 gallon water jugs, perennial RV supplies (like fuses, you really don't want to get caught without fuses) wooden "silverware" (it burns), and a portable computer or two and various peripherals and some other theme camp supplies. Then, somewhere between Pahrump and Reno, I buy all sorts of stuff that a New Yorker who rarely leaves town might buy: underwear, socks, khaki pants, all at prices that don't reflect Manhattan real estate.

Then I go food shopping in ginormous supermarkets. Not quite Fairway, but how often do you get to Trader Joe's if you don't live near Union Square? Plus, Raley's, they could teach Food Emporium a thing or two. By the time I hit the Playa, I'm used to the climate, and being able to shop several times, I don't forget stuff that I wanted and I can efficiently fill the fridge and freezer.

Then, on the way home, I meander through Fallon (great pancake place there, and they don't seem to mind you coming in covered in Playa) -- it's always the big Labor Day picnic in Fallon when I pass through. Then I spend a day or two in Beatty, which has these very clean hot springs at one of its 3 RV parks. I clean the RV, I clean me, I spend a couple of days in a place where there's nothing but a few other Burners doing the same thing and some misguided German tourists and a few jack rabbits. We finish off the food we didn't use, try to make the vibe last a few more days, and mail the water jugs and other lightweight but bulky stuff back home.

Finally, back to Vegas, to a very nice RV park that used to be way south of town (and is now, sadly, in the southern part of town), and then, suitably decompressed, back to New York.

A shower every day, more bacon than you could shake, well, bacon at, a roof for sunbathing, heat at night (not really a/c during the day, I only run that if somebody I'm camping with has trouble with the heat), a full kitchen and a fridge, all for a price that equates to a crappy NY or SF hotel. I leave no trace, carry some camp trash out with me, come home healthy, happy and ready to start planning for the next year.

Now, the expense is up there, so it's best to share. But I love spending the extra time in Nevada and I love not having to deal with civilization right after BRC.

To each his own, of course.