What we did on our summer vacation

[Greg Young]

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Here's the tale, told on a map, with pictures and notes from
every stop along the way: http://www.communitywalk.com/bluefire2009
The blue lines are travel in our 1986 Bluebird Wanderlodge PT-40, Bluefire, the
red lines in the two car. All the stops are color coded for what kind of
place, and you can click on each for pictures and stories.

Really, it was more than a summer. From May 5 to October 28,
we lived inside Bluefire, and traveled the country.

It started out as an art and business trip and turned mostly
into an adventure. In January we
proposed to the folks at Burning Man that we would be ambassadors for their
event, attending local events spawned off the big event in Nevada and other
events at which we might meet people interested in the movement. Along the way we might help out with burner
communities in need of some guidance. At
each point we'd be documenting what we experienced with photos, interviews and
video.

But like everyone else in 2009, Burning Man had a budget
crisis that caused them and us to rethink our effort. So instead of setting up our video wall and
other art at events every weekend and traveling all the time, we revised our
plans to be a bit more leisurely. Well,
that was the thought at the time.
Between May 5 and October 29 we travelled over 19,500 miles in Bluefire,
plus another 3,000 in the car we were towing, visited 23 friends in 11 cities,
participated in 5 local burner events, toured 11 national parks and numerous
state parks, stayed at 8 nudist parks and 44 clothing-compulsive campsites, and
broke down 5 times.

Like life at home, there were highlights and learning
experiences. All the parks were
spectacularly beautiful. Glacier NP in
Montana was our favorite, though Banff in Alberta was a very close second. We stayed for three weeks at LARC, a nudist
camp in the Seattle area. The middle
week was Critical Massive, the Seattle area Burning Man event, our favorite of
those. Visiting my best friend from
college who still lives within sight of the Notre Dame campus was a great
experience for me. And our rush across
the country caravanning with our friend Jenny to her new home in Vermont was
filled with adventures and breakdowns and lots of happiness and some
stress. And when Bluefire needed work on
the fuel system in Fort Stockton Texas we learned a lot (and spent a lot of
money!).

Please explore the map and enjoy the pictures. I hope next trip to be able to post more
regularly and include live or nearly live video as we travel.

Greg & Barbara Young

Now back at home base in Escondido CA

86 PT40 Bluefire

Each time you judge yourself you break your heart.
-Kirpal Venanji