Dore Alley 2022
Time flies fast when you’re busy that I can’t believe I haven’t been to San Francisco for the last 2 summers! Going back last weekend felt very familiar as if I only missed one summer in the city. I was only visiting from July 30th to August 1st. Joining me this year was Daddy Rick of Seattle, the same leatherbear who joined me for Palm Springs Leather Pride in 2018.
I got up at 5:30am and did some last-minute packing. Mom made me a chicken sandwich and after saying goodbye, my father drove me to YVR. I talked about work on the way and how the summer scrub was progressing. After saying goodbye at the airport, I checked in and dropped my luggage off. There was a lineup for security screening, so I did NEXUS to bypass the lineup. It sucked that we were required to take our shoes off. Yuck. I walked to gate 72 and did some more walking around a bit since I was pretty early for the flight. I bought a bottle of water for the plane ride and before sitting down to wait, I volunteered my carry-on to be put on as luggage. On the Air Canada flight (which originally was supposed to be United), I sat in 30B, and we departed on time at 8:30am. I wasn’t uncomfortable during the flight, and I had arm room despite being seated in the middle chair. For the entire flight, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time ever, ending just as we landed at SFO at 10:45am. I thought it was a great classic film. I texted Daddy Rick to let him know I’ve arrived first, knowing he’ll get the message later. While waiting for my luggage, he did text me to know he had just landed. I grabbed my bags and took the AirTrain to the BART station, texting Rick my progress. I brought my Clipper card and added some funds to it. I also got Rick a card and added a balance to it also. He had not seen my messages yet, and when he arrived around half an hour later, he didn’t get the messages as his phone had died. It was great to see him again and we gave a big hug! It’s been over 3 years since we last saw each other outside of video calling.
We had a yellow line train take us to Civic Center Station, which took nearly half an hour. We emerged from the subway to Market, and at 8th street we saw the former Holiday Inn building has become BEI San Francisco. The lobby was completely redone, and check-in was easy. As we were waiting for an elevator, Sir Brent from Palm Springs emerged out of one! He wasn’t staying in the hotel though - he was visiting someone to play with. He was wearing his full BLUF gear and was really sexy! I introduced him to Rick and after a few words, we said parted ways. We were staying in room 1242. The room was quite nice, it has definitely been updated since the last time but even the Holiday Inn rooms were nice too.After dropping our bags off and setting things up, we took a Muni bus on Market to go the Castro district. Near the corner was a place called Orphan Andy’s, a diner that Rick recommended. It was small but I did like the classic vibe. He had a French Beef Dip with fries while I had a Philly Cheesesteak with fries. It was good and the fries tasted quite fresh. Our host asked if we in-town for Dore and we replied yes, given both of us were wearing our leather jackets. He was a sweet guy. After I paid for our meal, we walked to various places along the village.
I don’t remember all the places we went to - some I’ve been in with Daddy Eric and Daddy David in previous years. We went into the location of Castro Camera - the same location that the assassinated SF politician Harvey Milk owned. The last times I passed the place, it was a Human Rights Campaign office. It has become a local GLBT art gallery called Queer Arts Featured. We bought a few bear-themed stickers. In the back was a leather harness making workshop that was just starting but the curtains were drawn for privacy. Rick next showed me the location of Daddy’s Barbershop, but it was closed for good, and business is still continuing in Palm Springs (maybe I’ll check it out sometime?). We checked some of the sex toy shops on the way. Nothing for me, and I don’t think Rick got anything either. We then stopped into Walgreens on the corner of 18th so I could get some beard wax as Rick commented that it could help with the texture of my beard and making it less frazzled. He soon after stopped into Louie’s Barbershop to get a small haircut. Before ending our Castro walk, I quickly got a cigar at a nearby smoke shop.
We went down to Harvey Milk Plaza to take the train back east and we walked to Leather Etc. There were a few things of interest, but they weren’t that cheap. Rick got a silicone cock ring set for himself. By about 5:30pm, we finally went next door to Mr. S Leather. After dropping our bags off, we went in but I didn’t see much for myself. I thought about a new black muir cap, but I didn’t like that the bills are not the glossy finish similar to mine and others but with this more matte finish. Rick wanted to get one with a chrome trim, but none were there. We both got new Sam Browne Belts: both were black but his was with blue piping, and mine was white piping. They were $90 each plus tax. Rick got a Mr. S t-shirt and for whatever reason, gave it to me as a gift. Aww! We couldn’t leave just yet as the belts had to be fitted and finalized. After waiting about half an hour, they were given back to us. I retrieved our bags and started the walk-up 8th to the hotel. Rick was getting sore feet but we stopped at a market on the way up so I could pick up a few drinks and a jug of distilled water. He got a can of orange-flavoured seltzer. Back in the hotel, we relaxed and determined where we were going to have dinner. Rick called his gay nephew who was very familiar with the city and helped make some suggestions. I ultimately decided on a ramen place though it was closing in half an hour. I had it delivered to us via Uber Eats. It was very tasty, but they forgot the potstickers in my order! Argh! After we were done eating our pork spicy ramen, we geared in our uniforms (I was wearing the usual one with my jodhpurs and black shirt with NYPD patches) and took a Lyft to the SF Eagle. It was (I think) $5 to get in and only a 5-minute wait.
It was pretty packed that we had problems finding a place we could hang around, compared to previous years’ visits. There was caution about the current monkeypox pandemic that I saw in print adverts. One of the first pictures I took with my DSLR was PipeDadSF, who was grateful for my taking pictures of him and his family member(s). To my surprise and shyness, he was cruising me big time. I continued taking pictures throughout the night. Sometime after midnight, I had my cigar with PipeDadSF lighting it up for me. I tried to get pictures of myself smoking, but the lighting was bad. Even Rick and I tried to get pictures of each other despite the lighting problems. We left sometime after 1am and took a Lyft back to the hotel. As we wore our jackets all night, our leather shirts were somewhat full of sweat once we took them off. It was about 19C that night, but it didn’t stop us from sweating too much. We went to bed around 2:30am.
After some playing and wrestling around in bed, we started getting up after 10am. I took a shower first and after dressing in regular clothes, I put the beard wax on my metal comb and brushed it in. It looked better textured and controlled some of the frazzle. I told Rick I was going to a nearby smoke shop to get a cigar and will come back to gear up. I did so and by the time I returned in 15 minutes, Rick was just starting his shower. I geared up in my dark green leather shirt, the new off-the-rack black pants I got from North Bound Leather back in April, and my usual stuff. For Rick, he wanted to borrow my blue leather tie as it matches his black shirt with blue trim. I wanted to wear it though, but I let him use it while I went with my black leather tie. I then took pictures of him in his uniform so he can use them for future membership in BLUF. We wore our jackets again despite it being in the early 20C cloudy and overcast weather. We walked down to the Fair and was joined by a young man who was on the way but has never been to Dore Alley before. I knew where it was, so he walked with us. He was from Fort Lauderdale and drove all the way to SF! He says he wants to visit all 50 states so this year, he is concentrating on the south half of the country and next year, may do the top half. Cool! On the way, I believe on Howard or Mission, Rick was trying to get a picture of the “sugar bears” mural on an upper wall that he took a step back, hit on some milk carton, and fell forward hitting his left shoulder into a light pole! We helped him up, but his shoulder was in some discomfort. It wasn’t broken, but it was definitely tender. Thankfully, he would toughen it out for the Fair.
We arrived at the Folsom Street entrance of the Fair and we paid our $10 suggested donation individually. There was no sticker given this year, which was strange. Soon after we got in and went our separate ways, I found Daddy David (SFBootbear) immediately and he was in his full BLUF gear! WOOF! We chatted for a bit and got some pictures done. Before leaving him, he said he had his boots done but the bootblacks and to head to them soon as it is likely to be a lineup. Soon after on the way, there was a guy I took pictures of, and he took some great pictures of me in return! I got to the bootblack booth, which was near the only food truck that was set up and saw Alexander (boy Zander). I paid the $10 donation at the front desk and got him to do my Chippewas. I believe this is the first time they have been professionally worked on since owning them and I was glad he was given the privilege to clean and shine them up. He did a great job on them as we were chatting and gave him a $15 tip. I went to the opposite side of the same street and saw The 15 Association booth, doing kink play. Soon after as Alex was on his break from bootblacking, I met his Sir and Alpha for the first time. I continued walking around and taking pictures for the next hour.
For the last hour, I went back to the food truck and bootblack booth. I texted Daddy Rick where I was and also PipeDadSF on Recon. I was quite thirsty, so I got in line at the truck and got a bottle of watermelon juice and a bottle of water. The juice was very sweet but had good flavour. While waiting around, I ran into Alex and his family again. I noticed he knew some of the handsome muscle bears I took pictures of within the last hour. Lucky him! By about 3pm, Rick found me. I said goodbye to Alex as we wouldn’t be seeing each other for the rest of my visit and said goodbye to others. As Rick didn’t know where The 15 Association booth was, I thought it was logical to take him there and exit the Fair from there. I let him quickly check the booths on the way. While he has toughened the pain on his shoulder, his feet were tired so walking back to 8th was slow, but I let him hang onto me for support. We stopped back at that same market as the previous day so he could get a drink and a deli sandwich. I got a bottle of cherry coke zero. We painfully got back to our room, pulled off most of our leathers, and had the turkey BLT sandwich which he shared with me. It was nice and fresh. Rick called the front desk requesting an ice pack for his shoulder. He was impressed with their concern, and they put together an ice bag and it helped decrease the pain and tenderness. We took over an hour napping/relaxing before debating dinner again.
I chose Grubstake as per tradition and thankfully, they were still around! We took a Lyft over around 8pm and while the décor hasn’t changed thankfully, the service had. There were no waiters or waitresses, you sat yourself down, ordered from your phone, and the food is brought to you. I guess that was how they weathered the Covid storm for those 2 years. Bummer. Rick got a pancake breakfast with eggs, bacon, and hash browns. I got a Cali Chicken Sando on sourdough bread with fries, and it was okay, kind of sour. For dessert, we shared a Maui Pineapple Crisp which is baked with cinnamon. Was quite nice. We took a Lyft over to the Lone Star Saloon. After we paid $5 each… we found hardly anyone was there. WTF? We spent under an hour there, chatting with a few guys for a small bit before walking over to the Eagle. Of course, it was packed but not quite as much as the previous night. It was $5 to get in and paid for both of us. There was a hot big Leatherdaddy from Seattle smoking a cigar and getting a blowjob from a hot cub. Lucky cub! I got his picture at the Fair earlier. I wish I got pictures of him playing! There wasn’t really anyone from before there, so I was mostly by myself. For my cigar, I asked the Leatherdaddy if he had a lighter and he used his lit cigar to light mine at first. He then gave it to his cub and helped me to fully light it up. It took awhile, but it worked. Nice. The cigar itself was quite bitter, I didn’t know if that was its flavour, or it has rotted. There was this one small Daddybear wearing chaps over jeans that I was checking out. We chatted for a bit and showed some interest in me, including getting a crotch rub from him. He was a bondage top though I wasn’t much into it myself. I hope I can find him online or run into him again next year. While I lugged my camera, I took no pictures at the Eagle. Rick and I left sometime around midnight via Lyft. For the next hour, we started packing some of our stuff. My new leather pants were obviously sweat damaged from the whole day use. We went to bed about 2am.
Daddy Rick got out of bed about 7:30am after we had some cuddle time. He had his shower and after dressing and getting his stuff ready, he thanked me for a great weekend and we hugged and kissed goodbye. His flight back to Seattle was around 10:30am and he didn’t know how crowded it would be. I went back to bed to relax for another hour and after some “release” I got up to take my shower. After dressing and packing, I left the room and checked out after 10am. I thanked the front desk for everything and will be back again. I walked back to Civic Center station and took the BART to SFO Airport. The ride wasn’t busy and pretty quiet. When I got to the airport, I walked to WestJet (like United above, Delta did the same thing in switching carriers!) and they were surprised how early I was for my flight. I got to volunteer to drop off my carry-on for free at the same time as my luggage, which was convenient. At screening, I took the Pre-TSA which had no lineup. The TSA officer who let me in was quite nice and liked the Legend of Zelda t-shirt that I was wearing! Screening itself was fast and easy. While the gate for Vancouver wasn’t ready, I knew where WestJet had theirs at A4 which was preparing for a flight to Calgary in a couple of hours. After I bought a bag of Jalapeño flavoured Chex Mix and a bottle of refillable water, I sat down near A4 and typed on my laptop for about the next four hours, only getting up once to check the desk after the Calgary flight had departed to make sure it was going to change to Vancouver next. Thankfully, I was right. Boarding was at 3:10pm so I quickly went upstairs for a washroom break and then boarded as within the last 5 people to board. I was surprised at how fast the boarding went: I was the first person waiting for the flight for hours and ended up being one of the last to be on the place! LOL! I called my folks that I was departing on time at 3:50pm. I sat in 6A and watched a couple episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise on my Netflix app. I had water and a small bag of pretzels provided by the crew. We landed just after 6pm. My father was visiting his sister in New Westminster when I called him and would leave immediately to go pick me up. Unlike most other times, the walk to customs was not long and NEXUS had only a couple of people. I waited about 10 to 15 minutes for the bags to arrive and both of them came pretty early in the queue. I had to wait over 10 minutes for my father outside the airport but that was fine. I made it home sometime around 7:30pm.
While I had a wonderful time in SF after 2 years of absence, I wish I could have spent more time there. Either next year or the year after, I want to arrive on Thursday to go to the BLUF dinner as I hear it gets a good turnout. I ended up missing a number of guys I knew locally or visiting too so I was a little saddened to not see them at the Eagle and/or Fair. But I am already excited for next year’s Dore Alley and will save up some extra money for it.
