Argonauts of Wisconsin Northwoods Leather Run 49
Continuing on from Part 1 in Texas, Part 2 is my arrival in Madison, Wisconsin on August 16 and my attendance with my leather family at the 49th Argonauts of Wisconsin Northwoods Leather Run from August 17-20 in Brillion. Part 2 ends in New Glarus after we arrive home that Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday 16th
After landing and taxiing in Madison, I texted Donovan to let him know and he texted me back saying they were running late and to meet him and the others outside the airport arrivals. Sadly, this meant that the tradition of exiting the main terminal and going downstairs to baggage claim and seeing them waiting for me would not happen this time. I had a bit of a scare at baggage: I waited a few minutes for my carry-on to arrive, but my big luggage was nowhere to be found! I thought someone accidentally took it! During deplaning, I looked out the window and saw the baggage handlers put both my luggage and carry-on in the truck, so I knew it arrived with me. Eventually, one of the handlers who was waiting to see if there were any of us who were going to possibly file a missing luggage claim -namely me- asked what my luggage looked like. Black, sadly. He went into the back area and in about a few minutes, brought it out! What ended up happening was that my bag tag fell or ripped off, so they didn’t know for sure what to do and hung onto it. I thanked the nice man and went outside the airport. It was a less than ten minute wait for the whole family to arrive. We did our initial hugs, and we were off. For dinner, they wanted to go to this one place I’ve not been to before, but it closed at 7pm and it was minutes after when we got there. We decided to go to Perkins though there was reluctance as their last visit wasn’t very good. But it was decided to give it another try. I had the beef pot roast as usual but there was a difference: this one was a plate instead of a bowl and it had two sides included. The portion is smaller, but still not bad. I got fries and green beans & bacon as my sides. It was all very good. For dessert, I shared a strawberry & cream filled turnover with Donovan. Michael is allergic to strawberries and Anthoney and pup Nick declined on it. It was pretty good and not too sweet. I paid $20 for my meal and I was about to pay Donovan the $200 for the leather run we were about to go to the next day, but he declined it, stating that they owed me for all I did in San Francisco (I paid the base price of the hotel room for 3 nights, paid for three out of four of our meals, and paid for all transportation.) I was really grateful! I said I’ll make it up to them during my visit. We returned to their home in New Glarus. The two corgis, Tux and Penny greeted me where I gave them plenty of pets & strokes. I put my things in the usual guestroom upstairs and relaxed for the rest of the night. Nobody did anything down in the living room, so it was pretty wind down. I mostly stayed in my room and did stuff on my phone. I went to bed around 2am. I found out later that there was a brief storm with lightning that I slept through!
Thursday 17th
While I should have taken one of the pillows away, I did get some decent sleep. I got out of bed about 10am on my own. I soon showered after pup Nick was done with his. We weren’t much in a rush as there was packing to do. But we filled up the car and started our journey northeast. It’s about a 2-and-a-half-hour drive to Brillion, but we did some stops on the way to break it up a bit. We stopped at their usual gas station store to pick up drinks and then a quick stop at a bank so pup Nick can get some money out for the weekend. We then stopped at a MOD Pizza for a late lunch, the same one I was taken to before in 2019. I had a Caspian pizza which was a BBQ chicken pizza. I added in some chocolate & cream cinnamon flatbread dessert, and a fountain drink. I had Michael & Donovan take one piece of the dessert to split among them and they liked it. I did also, it was definitely sugary with the icing on top, but I didn’t much feel the sugar rush later. The pizza was great too. I got a Coke Zero for a drink at first, but then refilled it with a blackberry lemonade before we left. Our final stop was the Walmart in Madison that they usually shop at. We tried to look for the Snyder’s Sourdough Pretzels I usually like, but they didn’t have them. We were not sure if they were sold out or they stopped selling them. I found a copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 for PS5 for $20! Nice, my third PS5 game in my collection. Pup Nick took advantage of the back-to-school sales while Michael & Donovan got a few things they needed for the weekend. It took a small while for me to leave with them as I had to wait for someone to open the casing in which the game was in after I paid for it. We continued on to Brillion, enjoying the scenery and even passing Lake Winnebago on the west for over the next hour. We arrived at the Argonauts of Wisconsin Northwoods Leather Run just before 6pm. Donovan paid for everything on behalf of us: $200 a person, $50 for a private room to sleep in all weekend, and $40 for Thursday (most come in Friday.) I had to fill out a simple form since this was my first time attending. For representing a leather club, I chose to write the Knights since I only have a vest of them anyways and was the President. We were given our weekend badges with our names on them.
After some time, walking around the clubhouse and checking the downstairs dungeon, we saw the private rooms. Because the clubhouse was likely originally a barn, the rooms likely housed cows in them years ago. They each had different sized beds. Since I was sleeping on my own, I got room 10, a single sized bed. After Donovan moved the van to the lower back entrance, we started emptying the van. Donovan put my bed together soon after. I needed something to put my CPAP machine on, so I borrowed a dirty chair and proceeded to damp wipe the seat. The dirt was really caked on, so it took a couple of wipe downs. I then wiped down a container in the room that contained a sheet or cover in it so I could put my luggage on top. There was a locker in the room, but it was pretty rusted and I wouldn’t dare use it. Dinner was sometime around 8pm, which was ribs, pulled pork, beans, coleslaw, and rolls. The pulled pork was quite good, the beans okay, and the rolls were okay too. I had a couple more plates of the pulled pork. Looking at the number of men that night, there was around 20 of them. More are supposed to appear tomorrow. Sometime after dinner was over, Mikey from Milwaukee had come after a trip getting some stuff (he arrived before us). It was nice to see him again after Chicago. Michael & Donovan went to bed after 9pm while I stayed upstairs to work on my laptop. I called Wayne T. to see how he was doing. He spent the day with his friend Jack at Metrotown. Jack had never been there before as he was originally from eastern Canada. Wayne was recovering well from his second hip surgery earlier in the month that he could walk around Metrotown just enough. After the phone call, I moved from the spot I was sitting as a projector was used to show the film, The Wiz. I went toward the bar section of the clubhouse and would be there for the entire movie going on. At the end of the film, I noticed Mikey and his friend setting up their leather gear vending table called Bear Authority. I went downstairs to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. I returned up to see Mikey for a bit as he smoked a cigar. I ended up going to bed sometime after 2am. It was difficult to sleep as the bed was a little small and the night somewhat cold. But I managed to after over an hour.
Friday 18th
I put on my phone and found it was about 8am. I had to get up anyways so I could go pee. Michael was up and dressed and said they were serving breakfast now. I did my business and had a shower. The hot water worked well and there was body wash and shampoo nearby. After dressing, I went up and joined the family for breakfast. Most were already done theirs by the time I started eating. I had hash browns, bacon, sausage, and a biscuit. There was orange juice to drink too. It was a nice breakfast. The plan for the rest of the morning was to go around the area. I talked to a man who represented the Leather Archives & Museum because he recognized my Knights of Malta vest. We eventually got to talking about my late-Daddy David and his being on the show “-Kink. He expressed interest in wanting to get copies of the five seasons of the show into the LA&M, but I told him that the website that used to sell the DVDs is defunct and there is no known way to purchase them. I only had season one and I could give him a DVD-R copy of the three discs if he wanted to check it out. I said that the producer of the show was David Paperny, and that he could try to contact him and see what he can do. We would talk later about some of this. The family and I left the site, and our first stop was a St. Vincent De Paul thrift store. I think both Michael and pup Nick got something. We then went to a nearby Antiques Up store in a shopping center. Again, both of them found something to buy. In Michael’s case, he found this cool Star Trek book on collectable merchandise that was published in 1992: Greenberg’s Guide to Star Trek Collectables Volume 2 from F-Postcards. Sweet! We then drove to a Walmart in Appleton and spent about half an hour or more there. I picked up a box of 100 lenses wipes and I found another Disney’s Gargoyles figure - this time of Bronx (which matches well with the Hudson one since they are usually together on the show lol!) I didn’t find any Synder’s sourdough pretzels at this location either. Bummer. The rest of the family generally bought things related to the leather weekend. Next was a stop into a Goodwill store. Pup Nick found a masquerade mask and a steampunk top hat that look good on him.
We then proceeded to Schlotzsky’s in west Appleton. I’ve never heard of this franchise before, but apparently, they make pretty good sourdough sandwiches. I got a medium turkey bacon club with drink, jalapeño chips, and small Cinnabon. I got a regular Dr. Pepper fountain drink this time. It was a nice meal though I don’t think Anthoney cared for the sandwich he got. Donovan then drove us to another Goodwill. He got a nice tie with pigs on them, Michael a Bluetooth speaker, and I forgot what pup Nick got. We finally went to another St. Vincent De Paul thrift store, which seemed the least successful of the four thrift stores. Pup Nick bought some sheet or towel and that was it. Donovan then drove us all back to the Argonauts clubhouse in Brillion. Michael had a small nap in his room while I spent a little time with Mikey and the rest.
For dinner, lasagna, bread and butter, and salad. I don't like lasagna so I stuck to more bread. Dessert was great: blueberry or cherry or lemon tort. Donovan had blueberry, Michael cherry, and I had lemon. I joked that they were our hanky colour preferences: while Donovan would be right to have blue in different shades, Michael should have yellow, and I should have red.
There was a minor contest on who made the most decorative masquerade mask and a trivial pursuit game. I talked to a professional photographer for a bit and also made a phone call to Norman, Secretary and Road Captain of the Knights, to move the meeting one hour forward this Sunday and he agreed. After everyone in the family went to bed, I geared up in my neoprene shirt, leather pants, gauntlets, gloves, and rebel cap to have a cigar with Mikey, who picked some up for the weekend. He liked what I was wearing, and it was fun smoking with him! I didn’t wear my boots as I didn’t think it was necessary and having to deal with taking them off. We chatted about a few things while enjoying our cigars for about the next hour. I talked about Smokeout and running into Mr. Saggers that weekend and while incident-free, felt that he was still the same person as before. After I was done and he was winding down, I finished things on my laptop for awhile and then went to bed after 2pm. It was colder that night, which had me sleep on and off throughout.
Saturday 19th
I could hear Michael and others around the hallway which got me to check my phone. It was about 8:20am so I got up to shower and dress. Breakfast was about the same as the previous day, though the hash browns weren’t quite as good this time. We were going to do another antique/thrift store run again so after a quick stop for drinks at a gas station, we went to another Antiques Up store. Before going inside, there was a kind of garage sale going on in the parking lot that we checked. Inside, we spent about half an hour. I picked up these collector’s Burger King plastic cups based on Disney animated movies. I got an Aladdin one because it featured Genie on it (the original VHS cover), and Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas for $8 each. Michael had an upset stomach and wanted to get some ginger to quell it so we went to a Piggly Wiggly in Little Chute but couldn’t find anything ginger. They didn’t have my Snyder’s pretzels either. We went east to a St. Vincent de Paul in Kaukauna. What made me laugh when I looked at their second-hand books is a copy of Prince Harry’s Spare was on the shelf - and that book was released early this year! LOL! After that stop, Donovan and I went into a Festival Foods grocery store and found a small container of dried ginger for Michael within a minute of going in. They also didn’t have my Snyder’s pretzels either. We got back to the clubhouse about 12:30pm. After 2pm, we had lunch, which was soft tacos with chicken, steak, rice, some corn with cheese sauce, mashed beans, salsa, etc. I didn’t bother with the corn stuff, but I ended up eating four soft tacos, three of them chicken. The nachos we had as a side were very good too. It definitely made up for yesterday’s meal.
There were a few games, the first two I ignored while the third, Rings, I took some pictures as Michael and a sexy Leatherdaddy were playing with others. Michael got one ring while the Leatherdaddy got two, so they got better prizes with others who managed to get the rings on the bottles. After some time, I got pictures of past Northwoods titleholders plus Anthoney. I also got pictures of the judges. I ended up missing one photo opportunity because I was downstairs gearing in my uniform! Fuck! Anyways, after a sweaty gear-on I emerged upstairs. Some guys liked my uniform, especially Mikey. I soon talked to the man who was with the LA&M and gave him one of the three DVD-R copies of Kink that I brought with me on the trip. I was originally going to give it to Mikey, but I soon promised him that I would mail him a copy once I got back to New Glarus, where I have the other two copies. I talked about the Knights with the representative of the LA&M, giving him the skinny on how we began and what we became. Dinner was after 7pm which was like a Thanksgiving dinner, but without the turkey: stuffing, mashed potatoes, ham, pieces of chicken, gravy, and so on. It was very good for the final dinner of the weekend.
The contest was after 8pm with two contestants: Taco, and I forgot the name of the younger contestant. I took pictures plus one of the older members did too (why didn’t they get the professional photographer to do it too?) Anthoney was too shy to be co-emcee, but he passed the mic around. It was five questions for each contestant, one per judge. I could tell the first and youngest contestant was struggling a bit with the questions. After they were done, I volunteered to get them both bottles of water in the back room. After tallying, Taco won the Mr. Northwoods title.
I got several pictures of him and with other people. After the contest was over, I approached Mikey and asked if he had anything within his store like my flogger holder, except I needed one that could hold on to my thick police belt. For $25 he found one that used Velcro for the holder, but the entire thing fits my police belt. Sweet! Afterwards, he gave me a nice big cigar to smoke with him and a couple other men. I noticed that I got cruises on Recon from the Leatherdaddy and a submissive (who was one of the judges) that I was checking out and smoking cigars with us. A Master named Robert from Memphis introduced himself and his slave/pup to me and we had a nice conversation. He later cruised me on Recon so we could continue chatting. I went back to my cigar and did lots of pictures, especially with us smoking (though a lot of those pictures didn't turn out that well.) After that, I called Wayne T. back home about the Knights meeting the next day. Sometime after the call, things were winding down. I grabbed my shoes downstairs, and I had the submissive help take my boots off back upstairs. I returned downstairs to do some packing, which I had to sort through given my things were strewed around my luggage by me throughout the weekend. I later came back up as Mikey was heading to bed as he thought I retired for the night. We said good night after he let me know that pizza was out for a late snack. After he left, I had a couple slices of baked pizza. I was mostly naked when I was upstairs that I caught the eye of this hot naked Daddybear I’ve been cruising all weekend! He approaches me to give my hairy chest a feel since it was a turn-on, and we soon proceed to suck each other off. WOOF! He wanted me to cum so he could swallow it, which after some jerking, I obliged. We thanked each other and I packed my laptop and went downstairs to bed around 2:30am.
Sunday 20th
Our final day of the Leather Run, I got up sometime after 9am and went to go do my shower. I went upstairs and had the last breakfast of the event. It was the about the same as the previous days though they had some leftover diced steak from yesterday. All five of us emptied our rooms and got the van filled up. We said goodbye to the people we knew and thanked them for a great weekend. I said goodbye to Mikey and thanked him for coming up and was nice to spend time with him. I also said goodbye to a few other men I had conversations with, saying I may return next year. We left the site sometime before noon and we made a few stops along the way before home. The first was a Goodwill though I don’t think there were any purchases.
The second was an antique shop in Fond du Lac, which was quite interesting and owned by a nice family. We went more into Fond du Lac and stopped into an A&W on Winnebago Drive. I have no memory eating at an American A&W or it must have been a very long time ago. It was a drive-in style restaurant, so our food was brought up to us in the van. I had three chicken tenders, fries, and a raspberry shake. The chicken tenders were different than the Canadian ones and I’d argue, the American ones are better. Still, there is no dedicated chicken burger (except using chicken tenders) compared to Canadian A&Ws which is a bummer. “Chubby Chicken” was introduced to Canadian menus over 20 years ago and I do love those burgers, tenders, and wraps. I do like the various kinds of shakes, slushies, and other fun desserts that the American restaurants have compared to how little we have up in Canada. I mentioned that the next time Michael & Donovan will be able to visit me up north someday, that I will take them to an A & W and try the difference. After our meal, we continued out of Fond du Lac and getting into the Madison area. We stopped at one last Goodwill, and I got a much-needed poop break. I think there were a couple of purchases from the family before leaving. We made it back home about 4:30pm. I quickly set up my laptop and let it load it while I helped bring our things back in the house. I was about to start the Knights Zoom meeting but since I haven’t updated Zoom since last year while on a train to Tampa, it had to go through an update. I called Norman to let him know. It sucked because I had a long report to get through and we didn’t have much time in the meeting to flesh things out. After the meeting, we watched some TV and Michael got us a large pizza. I forget what kind it was, but it was very good. Given how tired Michael & Donovan and pup Nick were, they turned in early. Anthoney spent most of the night downstairs in his area while I watched some episodes of American Dad, Antiques Roadshow, and South Park. By the time I was done, Anthoney finished also. I played some Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and went to bed about 3am. I slept easily as I was tired that night.
Part 3 will be my final entry on the rest of my trip in New Glarus and Madison. It concludes with my final stop in Fresno.