Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend 2019
From January 19-21 I was in Washington, DC for the popular Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend. I did no touring this time and kept it specifically toward events, shopping, and socializing. I travelled alone but a chub friend from Virginia that I met at BiggerVegas 2017, Charles, shared my hotel room with me.
I got up at 3:30am with less than 2 hours of sleep. My parents were up to take me to YVR airport, I arrived after 5am. After dropping off my luggage, I got to use my NEXUS card for the first time to do security screening, which was faster and easier. My Air Canada flight to Toronto departed at 6:45am and I had a window seat with one other guy in my row, but he sat in the aisle, so we had a free seat in the middle. Nice for us to put stuff down and have elbow room. I watched 3 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and read a chapter of The Screwtape Letters. Looking outside the window, I noticed a lot of the Canadian landscape was covered in snow as we travelled east. I landed before 2pm EST and as I expected, it was snowing outside. At Pearson, security screening for gates “F” was crappy: no NEXUS screening at all except at the end for Customs. The lineup for security took at least 20 minutes as only 2 out of 4 x-ray machines were being used. Thankfully, Customs was fast: I used the Global Entry kiosk and when I got to a TSA agent, I showed my passport and ticket, he scanned them and that was it - no interview! Nice! I had a much-needed washroom break on my way to my gate. I also had Tim Hortons while waiting but they didn’t offer any sandwiches or other good hot food - just mostly breakfast items even though it was the early afternoon. So, I had a bowl of chili, chili cheese wedges, a chocolate glazed doughnut, and bottled water. It was a decent meal. I then sat and waited at my gate while watching some Star Trek reviews on SF Debris on my laptop. My flight was delayed by an hour due to the snow and ice but thankfully, they didn’t cancel it! It took awhile to depart because the plane had to be de-iced outside with some kind of greenish liquid sprayed all over the wings. I had a seat to myself with no one next to me and I watched the movie, Venom, on the in-flight screen. I arrived in Washington, DC at about 8pm. I got my luggage and noticed how much it was raining outside that night. I took a taxi to the Hamilton Hotel as it was the best I could find price and quality-wise. Much to my surprise, it's attached to the same building where The Washington Post is! The main entrance lobby was being renovated so I had to enter the building on the side and climb up to the second floor to get to the makeshift lobby in one of their smaller conference rooms. Charles, the bear I met at BiggerVegas in 2017, was waiting for me and I checked us in. He paid for two nights parking for his truck - $60 a night! We were in room 735. It was small but the room itself was very nice. We relaxed and cuddled together. I wanted to go to the host hotel of MAL, the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, to buy a ticket for the Sunday contest. This was the same hotel I stayed at during my last visit in 2017. So, I went in some basic gear and took a Lyft to the Hyatt Regency. There was big lineup to get inside. Those with weekend passes got to go in a separate line with immediate entry. After 20 minutes, I walked in and saw hundreds and hundreds of men all over the hotel! But I found that registration was closed so it was kind of a waste of time. I saw Daddy Tom for the first time, he was very handsome, and he had his young pup from Los Angeles with him. While waiting for a Lyft to the Green Lantern to see a pup I’ve been chatting with on Recon for a small while, I saw a bear bud from Pennsylvania who I’ve chatted with for about a couple years on and off. We got to hug and kiss a bit before he went inside the hotel. At the Green Lantern, I met the pup and spent about an hour with him. After he had to go, I went upstairs to the dance floor (I didn’t realize it existed when I first visited the bar in 2017) and saw Charles who did some dancing. I stood by in the corner and was bored for the next hour. Latexdad from Los Angeles was in town. Sigh… Charles and I left after midnight and found that our hotel was only a few blocks away. It wasn’t raining anymore so walking was easy. I got a message from Ed, the leatherbear I hoped to do a fisting session with during my last trip, that he had to bow out this weekend. Bummer. Charles and I went to bed after 1am after we did some playing around. I didn't sleep that much.
Charles and I did some more playing in the morning before we showered separately and dressed. I didn’t gear up to go back to the Hyatt as I would return to do that. I went down to the registration desk on the main floor to buy my contest ticket and entrance to the lower floor vendor fair. Charles and I walked the vendor fair and were surprised how many there were. He ended up buying a leather vest and jock. Not long into looking around, I saw the Glovedaddy from Iowa I played with while I was in Baltimore in October. Stompers of Fort Lauderdale was there and had a nice selection of beautiful boots. Too bad I couldn’t afford them. There were even Sam Browne waist belts, but they were a little too small. I needed about a 48-inch one and unlike the ones I bought off EBay, these ones were more malleable and not stiff. At Northbound Leather, I inquired about Daddy Eric’s vest and found that they haven’t heard anything and were considering throwing it out as they have had it for over a year! I didn’t want his vest and patches to be lost so I assured them that I would talk to him about it. I ran into a couple more bears I knew and said hello. Charles was staying while I returned to our hotel room to change into my uniform. Before I went up to my room, there was a Starbucks outside the hotel, so I bought a piece of lemon loaf and some pink drink. After eating and gearing up, I went back to the Hyatt and attended the MAL contest, which was in a separate big room near the vendors.
I saw Pup Mufasa and said hello while he was with a Sir and kneeling. With him was one of the guys from the Ottawa Knights so we chatted given we were “cousins”. I saw pup Micro and another guy I knew from Seattle. The contest started at 1pm and there were 6 contestants. A couple of them were very woofy! There was the swearing in of the new Centaur Motorcycle Club board, the local police agency giving a talk, pictures for Mama’s Family (which Pup Mufasa was a part of), etc. I noticed current IMLB, Ali Lopez, was in attendance so I snapped a picture of him. In fact, there were LOTS of titleholders and I got some pictures of them too. I once again saw Daddy Tom and his boy from LA, they looked cute together. The current International Mr. Leather was in attendance, James Lee, and he was one of the judges. Also, one of the judges was Gerard Turner, the current Mr. MAL that was stepping down. I met him at IMLB weekend and found him to be a nice guy.
After some Q&A for the contestants and a final speech from Gerard, the winner was announced: contestant 4, Emerson. Second place was contestant 5, Sir Brad, the one I cruised the most. After a lot of pictures with Emerson, including my getting a picture with him, the contest was over by 4pm.
The room opened up and Charles came in to sit down and eat a salad. I decided to do one more walk around the vendors on my own. I went to Wolfstryker Leather and found that one of the hot bears from IMLB weekend was the owner. I bought a flogger for myself plus another for Daddy Eric, and a hunter green hanky. The two floggers have the leather pride colours on them (though more white than black) so I wanted one and thought I’d add to Daddy’s collection. While I texted Daddy Eric earlier, I heard nothing from him but affirmed to Northbound again that I would investigate the issue with his vest and Chicago Hellfire patches. I left after 5pm and went to the DC Eagle for the BLUF gathering. I noticed Daddy Eric saw my text but didn’t answer so I called and left him a message on the way.
Just after crossing the bridge going east on Benning Road NE, I had to cross the street and walk to the building. Thankfully it was still light out, so it was less creepy compared to my previous 2017 visit. The entrance was now on the side of the building and not the back. Going upstairs, we had about 20 of us at first but it eventually increased to about 100! There was food for $10 a plate and I had a hot dog, fries, chips n salsa, cookies, etc. I saw one of the BLUF local guys who attended our event last year in February, and I also met his partner who was in contact with me beforehand. The bootblack from IMLB was there, and he spent hours that night doing many boots. I was hoping to get my boots done and thought I’d wait until later.
I took some pictures and noticed some guys were coming from upstairs. I go to check what was up on the next floor and… Holy Shit! It was a dance bar with guys smoking cigars and whatever! Nice! I had one of my two cigars that I was supposed to smoke the previous weekend in Seattle, so I cut one and had it lit up by a guy I knew from LA. We chatted a bit as I took pictures of him and his partner at the last couple of Dore Alley weekends. Latexdad was around, looking woofy as usual and we managed to chat slightly. I liked the guy he was with and we chatted a bit too. One of the Leatherdaddies from the Palm Springs BLUF dinner recognized me, so we got to say hello. Ken from Seattle was there too but we didn’t see each other for long. I went back downstairs and while waiting for bootblack service, I went outside to make a few calls on and off: one to Pat in Fairfax, VA but he was too tired from work to meet up, second one to Daddy Maurice but he was busy with someone beforehand to meet up, Doug from Maryland who is a member of MAUL; but he was too busy to meet, and Bryan of the Seattle Knights; talking about the whole cheque fraud thing my chapter was dealing with. After 8 or 9pm, things started to die down and the bootblack was done for the night! I was irritated because he prioritized everyone else and worked overtime for them but when “I” wanted my boots done, I was snubbed. It can be argued I should have been more vocal on it, but this was the second time this happened - the first was in Baltimore. Sigh… anyways, after he told me he is closing up after he was done on the current guy he was working on, I left the Eagle. Inside the entrance as I was waiting for my Lyft ride there was a German couple, “Leathrcop” off Recon from SF, and another guy waiting around. The front door guy asked us about where we were from, I answered last with “Vancouver” and Leathrcop answered that he had been there before as he used to live in Seattle. Nice. My Lyft ride came and was glad she knew how to get to the bar so to be picked up in front. I got back to the hotel around 10pm and I walked in on Charles and a friend of his about to play around. Charles had texted me a little earlier that he had someone in the room, but I didn’t answer. I took my gear off and let them have their play time as I went outside to find something to eat. It was very cold outside, I’d say -11C of wind chill! I wasn’t wearing my gloves, but Charles let me borrow his nice scarf. I walked south to a Five Guys, but it closed by 10pm so I found a nearby McDonalds to the east. I got an order of a buttermilk chicken sandwich meal, 10-piece nuggets, and a cherry crème pie. I wanted to sit and eat but all the tables were used, mostly by those who were going well beyond their stay. Grrr… so I walked back holding my bagged food and drink, crossing northwest through Franklin Square, with the cold air making my fingers numb. Charles texted me just before I left McDonalds that he and his friend were done. I got back to the room as they were cuddling and ate my food while the 1990 movie, The Grifters, was playing. Charles friend left shortly after I was done eating. Once the movie was over by about midnight, I called Kevin in Fresno. Once I was done, Charles put on his night mask and ear plugs and went to sleep. I joined about an hour later, about after 1am. Like last night, I couldn’t sleep much.
Monday morning, I did some packing and had a few snacks before we went to the Starbucks downstairs and I got a couple of pastries: banana nut bread and strawberry yogurt scone. Charles paid but found that our hotel discount is only for coffee, not pastries (I didn’t know when I bought the previous day). Still, I thanked him for the breakfast. Back in our room, we finished our packing and eating before we went down to the 2nd floor lobby to check out. It took quite awhile for his truck to arrive outside from the valet. Around 11am, he dropped me off at DCA and I thanked him for everything. We’ll probably meet next at BiggerVegas in July. I took my luggage from the back of his truck and he drove off for home. After dropping my bag off, I got to do Pre-TSA and outside of having to take my belt off because it set off the metal detector, it was very fast. I’m liking this, thank you NEXUS! Anyways, I used my laptop at my gate to watch some SF Debris and work on some of my write-up on here. I left my carry-on at the gate and the Air Canada clerk upgraded my seating to the front of the plane, 2A! Sweet! I wish it could have been for the longer trip back to Vancouver, but any seat upgrade is a nice gift. We departed around 1pm and my seat was just for myself. I had a coke in a glass, a bowl of almonds, got a free copy of the Ontario edition of the Globe and Mail, but refused a salmon dish. The flight to Toronto was an hour and a half. I read a couple chapters of Screwtape and relaxed. After we landed in Toronto, we had to wait quite a bit before we could dock. There was still some snow and ice on the ground, but it looked like it hadn’t snowed for awhile. When we finally deplaned, some of us were separated for customs if we were transferring to Vancouver. Once they found everyone was together, they took us to a customs area, and I was the first to go. No interview, I handed my customs form and it was very quick. I was then directed to go down to a bus outside and after some time, we were shuttled to our gate area. It wasn’t a long walk but there wasn’t any time to eat as we were boarding soon hence why airport staff had us go through those avenues earlier. I had a washroom break and then got in line for my trip back to YVR. I was in the back of the plane, seat 35F. I had someone next to me, but it wasn’t much of a big deal. We departed at 4pm. I napped a little bit at first and then proceeded to watch 4 episodes of ST: Voyager and play a little bit of Dragon Quest II on my phone toward the end. I landed at YVR at around 6:30pm. My folks were at a Costco in Richmond, so they weren’t far away. After getting my bags, they picked me up and took me home.
I had a decent time in Washington despite how short it was. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see Pat and Daddy Maurice again. And another missed opportunity with Ed… while Charles was good to have around, I questioned if my going on this trip was truly worth the cost and use of one vacation day. I may not go back to MAL next year, but 2021. I may return to DC later this year and hope I can see my bear buds again.
