8/03/2001 - The Plot Thickens

Ah, the dunes. Hot. Hot hot hot. We got a late start on things today (since everyone got in somewhat late last night) and suffered for it. The heat was overwhelming. Just like the alkali flats, it was the wind here that really got us though. I've never seen anything like the sand storms that assaulted us. May not be as bad as they can get, sure, but definitely more awful than anything I had previously experienced. We we were miserable. Everyone had to wear glasses and/or some sort of protection for their face or you couldn't open your eyes. Barfly had neither at first and boy did he pay the price. I spent a good ten minutes with him, trying to create some cover while we cleaned out the quicksand pits that his eyesockets had become. The poor sap. He must have been in a lot of pain. He couldn't even open his eyes at first. We fought and fought and tried to wait it out, but there was just no way.

We couldn't shoot. Hard core.

We wrapped as fast as we could and had a pow-wow back at camp. Hawk and Short-Fuze took off on the ATC to scout for some locations we had scheduled to shoot the next day where the wind might not be so bad. The rest of us passed out immediately, most of us on the bare ground. We were that wasted. And this was only the first day.

After a needed respite, Hawk and Short-Fuze returned and a skeleton crew went off to get what shots we could get to salvage some of the day. Bronze had overscheduled our time at this location, and we'd have been sunk if he didn't. The day wasn't a total loss, but a lot of time and energy, both of which were in increasingly short order, were wasted. Early to bed and early to rise.

Photo Addendum - Barfly lies helplessly alongside the video monitor underneath a sound blanket. One takes what little sanctuary they can find out here.

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