We are back to the real world now. What a wild ride.
We arrived on the playa late Sunday night- the gate line and will call lines were a complete and utter chaotic disaster- six hours later we arrive at our campsite at 4 and H, threw up our tents and shade structures by the 3am moonlight and all snuggled straight in to bed. Even playa arrival excitement could not overcome that exhaustion.
Monday morning I awoke, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I prepped the cart for a few hours, the boys finished the chandelier, minor repairs, reorganization etc and around noon scampered down to playa info to get our permit. The Nevada Health worker was a very nice woman, who agreed to come inspect us straight away after her shift. So back to camp we ran to do last minute prep- filling sanitizer bottles, hanging the paper towels on the cart just so, etc etc. But our inspection time came and went with no inspector- I wandered the street looking for her- asked around, left messages at large landmarks- but alas, nothing. I chalked this up to a standard burner time experience and decided to move on with my day.
Cheese service, as we began to call it, was an eye opener. First and foremost- it was awesome. The surprised shock, the emerging joy on all of your faces when I found you and asked you if you wanted a grilled cheese made every moment of prep, building, etc totally worth it. This was easily the most fun I have ever had at a burn. So thank you. Thank you for the 1000 hugs. The gifts. The drinks. The cheesy lines. I'll even thank the hippy pervert who bit me and humped my leg out by Pier 2. Burning man is not Burning Man without you weirdos.
It was very quickly apparent that our original plan of one sandwich at a time with one person at the table was never ever going to happen. The siren call of cheese meant that the moment we set up we had at least 10 people in line. We gave up on sitting people down, we started serving half sandwiches instead of wholes and developed a system to make 16 perfect servings at a time. We rapidly burned through supplies and by Tuesday we were sending out emergency text messages for more. Imaging receiving this text from your friends on the playa: "We need 400 slices of cheese, 30 loaves of white bread and 16 pounds of butter" Our campmates rock and despite some extended costco shenanigans, they got the job done.
There were other changes. I had really not thought enough about playa weather in my costumes. They were both too hot and too cold and were rapidly abandoned in favor of my more standard burner gear. The only nod to the 50's that remained was the victory rolls in my hair. That apron I spent a week making.. yup, I wore that once. For an hour. Over some ruffled undies and a corset. Oh well.
I'm fairly sure we did some level of cheese service every day- honestly it's all a blur though. In the end we estimate we made about 450 whole sandwiches, that were served mainly as halves. Somewhere between 750 and 1000 of you ate grilled cheese with us.
Round about Friday the Nevada health people circled by again. I was rallied out of my post pancake stupor by "CARRIE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS HERE FOR YOU!" My friends are quite sure that they are hilarious. I had a moment of panic, as in reality by the end of cheese service the cart is destroyed- it takes about 1 to 2 hours to get everything cleaned and presentable again. And we usually spend that 1 to 2 hours right before we leave. So I was about to be inspected by the health department on a rolling hunk of metal with cheese and butter smeared all over it. Thankfully inspection was not a big deal though. We just talked about all the guidelines, I answered the questions correctly, she looked at the cart from afar (thankfully not up close) and by the end we were 100% official. They even gave me a tiny rubber duckie.
As soon as we find all of our cameras, and our brain cells start to fire again, I'll post the final shots.
Rest assured cheese junkies, this is not the last you have heard from me. We will be back. And we will be better, faster, bigger and stronger. No one is more hooked on serving you a cheese sandwich than me.
