New Glarus/Madison, Wisconsin 2022
To finish off my travel for the year, I returned to New Glarus, WI to visit my leather family again for Thanksgiving from November 24-27, but didn't make it home until the 28th.
On Thursday I got up after 4am and did some quick packing. After saying goodbye to mom, my dad got me to YVR airport at about 5:30am. I dropped off my luggage and while I was in the NEXUS line for security screening, a stupid official put me in for regular screening. Customs was easy though. At Gate E79 my United flight departed on time at 6:45am. I sat all the way back in 34F. On the United app, I saw the Christmas comedy film Elf. It was okay, cuter than anything. I did little else for the rest of the flight and found it dumb that there were no power outlets. I landed in Chicago's O'Hare Airport sometime after noon. There was a long, over 20-minute walk to gate F28. At the gate, they had seats with individual power outlets, so I sat, relaxed, and watched a few YouTube videos while my phone was charging. I then found that the gate changed to nearby F18. Before sitting down there, I got a strawberry cream cheese Danish to eat. The flight to Milwaukee departed on time at 2:40pm. I sat in 7D and being a short flight, I played a couple games of Sudoku on my phone. We landed on time at about 3:30pm. Antoney saw me first and then Donovan. After initial greetings, Michael and then pup Nick were at a nearby bookstore when we said our hellos. Donovan drove an hour and a half back to Madison with nice dusk scenery on the way.
Before home, we had dinner at Perkin’s. I had a pot roast dinner, Michael & Donovan and Nick had turkey dinners, while Antoney had French Toast. Our meals were quite good. Antoney and I didn’t have dessert though the others got a slice of pumpkin pie that was included with their turkey dinners. Donovan then took us all home, while I provided tunes from my phone via Bluetooth. At home, the corgis Penny and Tux welcomed me, and I put my bags in the usual room upstairs. We didn’t do much for the rest of the night outside of watch some TV. I puttered on my laptop and looked at flyers for Black Friday deals but found nothing. I later went up to my room to naked cuddle and talk with Donovan for about an hour. It was lovely! After we were done, I went to bed after 1:30am.
I was in the process of waking up when Michael came in the room and after some small talk, got me to suck his cock. It didn’t take him long to cum and have my first small meal of the day lol! As pup Nick had to work, he couldn’t join us for Black Friday shopping. After my shower, we left the house sometime after 10am to first go to a nearby estate sale from someone in the neighbourhood that was recently deceased. We didn't find anything of interest and likely the nest stuff was already sold. We returned home to pick up Antoney.
The first stop on the way to Madison was a QDOBA Mexican Eats in Fitchburg. I had a large burrito while the rest had bowls. It was a good lunch to hold us over until dinner. We then went to Bricks & Minifigs, which had a good turnout of Black Friday shoppers. I don’t remember if Antoney bought anything, but Michael bought a couple of things. There was nothing of interest for me. We next went to Best Buy, which had more products than currently what is offered in Canada. I picked up four things: a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Nintendo Switch, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Complete Edition for PS4, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 for PS4, and a Metroid Dread Amiibo set. All together it was $121.28US. I already had a copy of the Zelda game, so it was going to be a Christmas gift to Nick and Antoney (I handed it to Michael or Donovan before I went home). Metroid Dread itself was nowhere to be found, which was a bummer as I wanted to see if it was on sale. We next went to a nearby Goodwill store. Some of the Christmas knick-knacks looked a little tempting (especially anything that involved Santa and other bearded characters!), but I decided to not get anything. I don’t remember if Michael picked something up. We stopped into a Hobby Lobby so Donovan and I could do a washroom break. Michael went into the nearby Michaels store to pick up something they needed. As Preplayed was permanently closed, we went to a couple of retro game stores next. The first was Mega Media Xchange in the eastern side of the city. It was decently sized place, but it didn’t sell much rare stuff compared to Preplayed. I did manage to find a couple copies of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 combo on Blu-Ray - but I already got mine from months ago. So, I didn’t buy anything from Xchange. We took a ride to downtown for Michael & Donovan to quickly stop into a spice shop. I called my mom back home and asked if she needed any spices, but she said no since she cannot compare prices, but thanked me anyways. Donovan drove just a little further to the next store: Video Game X-Change on Atwood Ave. Near where we parked, Antoney saw a small, abandoned kitten who was crying just under the back bumper of a car parked in a driveway! Two local ladies who just happened to be taking their puppy to a veterinarian, volunteered to take the kitten! They even had a carrying bag with them, so they carefully scooped up the kitten and put it in the bag. The puppy wasn’t using the bag - likely it would be used for the end of its visit but one of the ladies was holding him anyways. We were thankful, especially Antoney! Poor kitty! We continued to Video Game X-Change. I thought it was a better retro game shop than Mega Media Xchange. I saw some slightly hard to find stuff, but not much of interest. There was a copy of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for GameCube that piqued my interest but looking it up on eBay, I could get it at a slightly lower price than what they were offering in-store. We didn’t get anything, but I enjoyed the visit. We were almost done but there were a couple more places to go to. I was taken to GameStop, the usual one in Madison (I believe on Mineral Point Road), as they usually had deals going on. Antoney and Michael went in with me. I don’t think Antoney bought anything, but I picked up a couple of Kirby shirts: one t-shirt and a hoodie for $28.48 as shirts were on sale. My bill said I saved $36.98! Sweet! Much to my surprise and temptation, they were selling PS5 consoles for $500US. This is the first time I ever seen a PS5 being in stock at a store! Everywhere in Canada, they are sold out. But since I won’t be playing it for years, there is no point in getting it right now. After GameStop, we finished our shopping at Westfield Comics nearby. They did have a sale on all books, minus individual comic books. I forgot what Michael got, but I got a copy of the Super Mario Encyclopedia for $33.75. I went back to the van to wait with Donovan as both Michael and Antoney went into the Dollar Tree next door. After some time, we went to the nearby World Buffet for supper. We decided to wait for pup Nick as he was on his way after work. Once he arrived, we started to get food. Soon after, a friend of theirs from Iowa, Christopher, arrived. It was a good meal, and I had a noodle soup and a plate from the Mongolian Grill too. I paid for all of us while Chris paid a $20 tip. After a fun day, Donovan drove us home while Nick and Chris went in their cars. On the way, we listened to tunes from my phone. When we got back home and eventually settled in the living room, we watched some funny YouTube stuff, including a couple of Nostalgia Critic episodes. In previous years, we saw his Stephen King movie reviews of Children of the Corn and It. This year, it was The Langoliers, and we had a good laugh. I forgot the other episode we watched before Michael & Donovan went up to bed. Not long after, I had a long talk with pup Nick about a recent incident with a so-called leather “Master” that he had. They’ve been chatting online, and this guy wanted Nick to open a bank account to collect royalties from dungeon parties or whatever. Obviously, this is a red flag and Nick was conflicted on it. He did open the account at first, but then shut it down immediately before anything was done. Of course, the “Master” wasn’t thrilled at this, and Nick is now conflicted as to the roles of the Master/slave dynamic. I did the best I could in explaining this dynamic and my years living with a Master: namely, Daddy/Master David. In all the years we were together, I never knew him to do anything like this with his slaves - real or fake. So, it was bizarre that this “Master” who has never physically met Nick nor by webcam either, would ask him to do something that could be legally questionable. I’ve seen his profile on Tumblr and while he gives off Dominant vibes, there isn’t anything that gives off that he is a “Master”. But Nick has thankfully cut him off for good, even though he is still in a state of confusion about his role in the leather lifestyle. After we had finished talking and he went up to bed, Antoney and I soon talked next about leather and his apprenticeship with his Sir. He asked if I gained my Muir cap the same way and I replied that I have not. David didn’t oppose my getting a Muir cap though this was just before he passed away. I got mine as I was taking on a more Dominant role and I also needed it to complete my uniform. He showed me a book that I haven’t seen before: The Leatherman’s Protocol Handbook: A Handbook of “Old Guard” Rituals, Traditions, and Protocols. I was intrigued and would later on, bought a copy from Amazon Canada. After we were done, I went to bed after 2:15am.
I got up before noon, showered, dressed, and went downstairs. I soon later got a call from Kevin in Fresno and talked for an hour. Thanksgiving dinner began at 1:30pm and we had everyone at the table including Chris plus a family friend I’ve met before but forgot his name (he recognized me though). The dinner was lovely, and we toasted to our coming together in health and friendship. It lasted for just under an hour and at the end, I helped wash the majority of the dishes while Michael dried them. By the time we were done the dishes, their friend had to leave and said goodbye to us. I think Chris went up to his room for a bit. For a film, we watched the gay British comedy-drama Benjamin. I don’t know how this was considered a comedy as we did not laugh once and should just be considered a gay drama. It was overall not a great movie. We then watched Disney's Brother Bear as I’ve never seen it before. I thought it was okay. We then watched some Nostalgia Critic episodes including his commentary on The Secret of NIMH that he did earlier this year, The Care Bears Movie, and one other review but forgot which one it was. After everyone went to bed soon after, Chris and I talked for a few hours. I then went to bed about 3am.
For (what was should have been) my final day, I got out of bed before noon though pup Nick said goodbye to me before he went to work. I showered and dressed but there wasn’t much packing I had left to do. I went down to watch some TV with the family and have a turkey sandwich. Chris said goodbye and left for home before we left about 2:30pm to go to MSN airport. I played tunes from my phone on the way. It took about an hour to get to the airport that I thought I could just barely make it to my 4:13pm flight to Chicago. After saying goodbye to Michael & Donovan and Antoney, I found I missed the luggage drop-off by 5 minutes and had to be rebooked for next morning with a transfer in Denver! Had I not had to drop off my luggage, I could have made it to my flight just barely. Sigh. I called Donovan to come back to pick me up and then called my folks to let them know I wouldn't be arriving that night. The United agents did the best they could in all this and got resistance from their main office on the phone, who sounded like they were trying to punish me regardless of the reason. I will arrive in Vancouver the next day at 1:26pm PST even though my shift begins at 3pm! Oh boy. Anyways, Donovan came back and drove us all back home. We watched Disney’s The Black Cauldron as we ate Hawaiian pizza that they ordered. Surprisingly, Michael immediately turned to the NC’s review episode since he noticed it the previous night as I was browsing through episodes on YouTube. After Michael & Donovan went up to bed, I watched some episodes of Game Grumps while Antoney was on his phone mostly. Both he and Nick said their goodbyes to me as they would be still sleeping when I was to leave in the morning. Back in my room, I decided not to unpack my CPAP machine as it wasn’t worth the hassle. I was in bed before 1am.
I got up just after 5am and after a quick trip to the washroom, I went down and had a small bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I said goodbye to Michael as he had to go to work soon and then I put my bags back into the van while Donovan drove me back to MSN during the cold sunrise. I enjoyed the quiet drive back to the airport with him. He got me there just over an hour before my flight and we said our last goodbyes. I dropped my bag off and did TSA-Pre screening. I got a bottle of grape flavoured Propel and waited for my flight at Gate 5. Boarding began after 8am and everything was going well until… they decide to de-ice the plane’s wings and tail before taxiing! So, 10-15 minutes of wasted time later (why didn’t they do this earlier?), we left about 20 minutes later than scheduled at 9am. I sat in 11E and did very little on the way to Denver. I was concerned about the very little layover I was going to have to deal with and if I was going to miss my flight. That concern became more pronounced when we landed at about 10:40am MST and had to wait at least another 10 minutes just so they could tow away another plane at our gate before we could park! Arghhh! When that was finished and I finally got off the plane, I immediately walked to my gate without stopping and just barely made it to my flight! But I knew deep down that not all was all right: given that I was delayed twice, I knew that my luggage wouldn’t make this flight to home. And checking the United app’s “track my bags” feature while in-flight, it showed that it didn’t make it! It was sent to San Francisco’s SFO to later be sent up to Vancouver later in the day. My flight left on time at 11:16am and I sat in the way back in 35B. I still didn’t do much given how anxious and sick I was. We landed in Vancouver before 1:30pm PST with the added benefit of my ears popping during landing, which meant my hearing was decreased for the rest of the day. Lame. After waiting forever to deplane, customs was very fast. I had to wait at the United baggage service for one woman in front of me who took forever putting in her baggage claim. I did mine and handed the form to the last customs official before exiting the baggage area (this was to let them know I was leaving the airport without my luggage accompanying me and the reason why). My father picked me up and got me home by 2:50pm. On the way, I called and left a message with the secretary at Rosser that I would be a little late and to let me Sub-foreman know. I dropped off my laptop bag, cleaned up a bit, and then took my medication and late lunch and quickly got to work. I arrived at 3:52pm, without my foreman knowing and I managed to get my work done despite how much time I had lost. I would get my luggage the following early afternoon the next day.
While it got rocky at the end, I enjoyed my time again with my leather family and making up for lost time since the pandemic. I may see them again for International Mr. Leather in Chicago next Memorial Day weekend, and probably in August again too.