Story: In the days before Burning Man

Photo by Tiffany Brown / Las Vegas Sun

Amber Wise strolls toward the garage of her perfectly landscaped 1956 ranch home. After e-mailing a real estate client, she rummaged through leopard-print hats, bright sashes and other body decor, then stepped outside, where her husband, Bill, and a friend are working on an art car.

Day-Glo green faux fur hangs from her knees. A hot-pink sash hugs her waist. Her husband’s flame-throwing boat car is parked in the driveway next to tidy arrangements of lantanas mingle with potted cactuses.

Another art car is parked on the street. Its fuzzy balls and assorted accoutrements dangle in the sunlight. At night they come alive, glowing wildly as the car and its blaring music move through the dark playa of the Black Rock Desert with dancers clinging to its stripper poles.

For now the only sound to interrupt the cicadas in this quiet neighborhood is the scream from the power tools that Gene Gunnels (aka Bam Bam) uses to mend the mutant vehicle that he takes to Burning Man. “There’s one thing about having an art car,” says Bam Bam, drummer for the Strawberry Alarm Clock and Burning Man regular, or “burner.” “You’re never really done with it.”

Yet there is a lot to be done in the final days leading to the event in Northern Nevada. There are costumes to mend, art cars to weld, flame-throwing fire hats to fine-tune and Hula-Hoops to pack.

At 50, this is Wise’s sixth trip and her husband’s eighth. Gunnels and his art car are legendary at the event. Like the other burners from Las Vegas, they’ve been preparing piecemeal for months. Their annual pilgrimage is no secret to the neighbors, Bill Wise says. “When you drive boat cars with flame throwers through the neighborhood, it’s pretty obvious.”

View Trent Ogle’s video of Amber and Bill Wise.

Look for Sun coverage of this year’s Burning Man from Kristen Peterson, J. Patrick Coolican, Tiffany Brown and Zach Wise at http://blogs.lasvegassun.com/burningman.