We were actually supposed to go to Burning Man in 2023. It was something that Herb has always wanted to do since the 90s, but I was never that keen on it and besides, tickets through their “random selection process” were hard to get.

Frustrated from not winning the lottery in the past, Herb took it upon himself, without asking his less enthusiastic “Burner” spouse, to buy 2 FOMO (fear of missing out) tickets, which were significantly more expensive.

These tickets were priced at $1,500 and $2,750 (rather than the usual $575) because it pretty much guaranteed that we would get in. Herb was so desperate to be a “Burner” before he died, so he went big, and when the $1,500 ones sold out, he bought the $2,750 ones.

Needless to say, I was not pleased for several reasons: first he didn’t consult me, second there were a lot of other ways I would like to spend $6K, and third, I am not exactly the “Burner” type.

So about a month before it was to start, I told Herb I didn’t think I would survive 10 days in the desert heat, but would be willing to do 5 day, which is actually the average number of days people do stay at BM, and I was pretty sure I was a below-average Burner.

Thinking that the 5 days was not worth $6,000, and knowing I would probably be miserable those 5 very expensive days (and therefore so would he), he agreed to return the tickets and get a refund, which we did.

This was all before Hurricane Hillary hit the West and basically turned the Black Rock Desert in Nevada where Burning Man is held into a muddy, slippery mess where people couldn’t get in or out. It was the major headline in the news. I felt pretty smug about our early selling of tickets, as people weren’t able to even give them away anymore. How prescient of us.

Well, at least we put all that silliness to bed, or at least I thought. But then, two years later it reared its ugly head again when Herb once again bought 2 tickets. At least this time they were much more reasonable - a mere $900 a piece.

The 2023 storm seemed to have scared people off, so tickets were actually not sold out.

I still wasn’t on board, but read on if interested in learning more about how Herb finally convinced me to go and what the Burning Man experience is all about.