A few days later, they showed up. Hoooray!! With the kitchen stuck in Sturgis, we set up Sun Dog Waterdogs. We basically filtered water for the family. We set up just past Road Kill Cafe and down from Pasta Explosion. In a way it was nice to not do a kitchen. It gave us plenty of time to enjoy the gathering for what it is. We love to feed the family, but a break sure is nice.
I had been doing my usual Shanti Sena/Firewatch thing. People were quite well behaved and the personal fire thing was getting under control. That in it self was great because there were only about three or four of us to patrol the whole site. Thank you to all our brothers and sisters who listened to us and watched their neighborhoods for us. It made such a difference. I was actually able to get some sleep at night.
We only had one fire this year. It was pretty small, about 30 foot diameter. I'm not sure, but I think there might have been a camp there at one point. Old campfire someone didn't put out all the way? I think it happened on the 8th or 9th of July.
One night, people came running out of the woods yelling about cops raiding the rave that was going on above Oz. We all took off for the area. I turns out that the ravers had set up their scene very near the road. Which, in my opinion, was not the best of places. Plus, the music could be heard all over the gathering. That's my bitch. I did not come to woods to hear preprogramed electronic disco. I could lay in my tent, a little behind Kid Village, and hear it clearly. Anyway, we all coverged on the area and talked to the folks that were still there. They said the cops told them that the elders had asked them to come up there and stop the music. Now that was a big load of BS. We all know that our family would not send the cops to do something like that. The cops made a couple drive bys. I was down at the road monitoring them when they stoped to ask me a few stupid questions, like, "are you on drugs" "no just coffee." Holding up my 52 ounce mug," You should try some. It's high test". I was able to transmit the entire conversation via a concealed microphone. They then left me and drove down the road a little way and found Circus. He tried to transmit but he didn't have the mic I had. The cops told him to turn it off. 420 rushed down to aid. I moved to some bushes nearby and stayed in contact with our "Sheriff" on the radio. 420, as many of know can be a little hard to deal with. The cops gave up and moved on. Didn't get to sleep that night till the morning came around. It was a beautiful sunrise.
One day I was walking down main trail and discovered a hot air balloon someone had brought in. People were billowing with air while a raging drum circle went on inside. It was great for when it was chilly out. We stayed nice and warm under this rainbow colored balloon.
The 4th of July celebration was awesome! I was down at the main meadow. Everyone was just sitting around. The Crystal Kitchen Crew found me. Gary suggested that we start forming a circle. We moved back a little ways. They joined hands and others starting joining, too. I started walking around and gestering and mouthing the words" Join hands. Make one big circle." I really didn't think they would take me that literally. Before I knew it the circle just grew and grew and grew. I don't know anyone that could count that many people but the best estimates were in the neighborhood of 30,000. This was by far the biggest single circle in the history of Rainbow. Need I say the energy was very intense.