We're back. We survived. We had fun. It will be a long time before I even try to take Dee back to a desert.

There were good things: being able to walk around naked or topless, seeing great art, interesting people. It's like Las Vegas in the desert...well, a different desert.

But even though every veteran "Burner" warns you about the dust, and even though we were well-prepared, this year was windier than most previous burns, and the dust and the cold all but stole the middle of the week.

We spent the first two and a half days helping to build our camp, and just as we were ready to start playing in earnest, the dungeon was so cold at night that the girls had to leave their clothes on. We did manage to do a couple of scenes in the open desert before the dust storms hit, but it was disappointing to miss other opportunities. Those two scenes will appear here shortly in the galley section.

We built and brought a custom-made steel suspension frame that could accomodate up to 4 players at a time. In this photo, you can see that we made good use of the frame. Here we see Dee in a horizontal rope suspension. She's wearing a beautiful silk robe we bought in a Chinese store in Toronto.

One particularly satisfying part of the week was unveiling our gift to our camp, the Temple of Atonement. The group wanted a St. Andrews Cross (from the Fettered Pleasures web site), and we agreed to make them one of steel.

One of our constraints on furniture was that anything we brought had to break down for shipping and had to fit into the hallway of our travel trailer. In trying to figure out how to make a steel cross, I hit on the idea of two curves instead of an "X", and then I drew a diamond above the two curves. The Burning Man logo lept out at me, and I knew I had to build a "Burning Man Cross":

Even though this was sitting in our shop for over a month, we've kept it hidden until the week of Burning Man. Watching the reaction as people first saw the cross was glorious...everyone in the group loved it.

This was a very popular piece of furniture during the play parties at the ToA. But we never managed to get a photo scene shot using the cross. Fortunately even though Dee and I aren't likely to be at Burning Man for a while, the people from the Temple of Atonement have promised me that the cross will be back on the playa next year.

The following two photos show the amount of dust...of course the first thing you see is that Dee is topless in both photos...but in the first photo, you also see that the bikes are purple and the umbrella is black. The second photo shows the bike on Saturday. Even after a thorough cleaning with a dust brush, the umbrella is a tan-grey.

The night of the Burn, Dee wore the EL wire dress (see the Electric Rope Dress gallery). But since it was so cold, she wore her blue spandex body suit underneath.

Finally, during the long drive home, we noticed in Nebraska and Iowa a convenience store with a name that we simply couldn't believe. So we had to take a flashing photo in front of their corporate logo.

Maybe someday we'll have Dee do a masturbation scene inside one of their stores.