Gathering 2019
Probably the earliest of Gatherings to take place in a year from my memory, it is just 3 months shy from our previous Gathering in Sacramento last summer. This year's was in Long Beach during the Pride weekend, May 17-20. The Fresno Chapter was hosting it. Only Wayne T. and I were representing Vancouver as others couldn't make it.
I got up Friday at noon and on the way to YVR, I ate a couple of chicken sandwiches that my mom made. My dad dropped me off after 1pm. After dropping off my bags, I saw Wayne entering security screening. I got his attention before I went into the NEXUS lane. Surprisingly, US Customs scrutinized me considerably (my large luggage were scanned, and he wondered why it had so much stuff considering I was going for 3 nights), much to my surprise. But no harm, no foul. I didn’t wait long for Wayne to complete his screening and on the way to our gates, we stopped at a couple of Duty-Free shops but didn’t buy anything. We sat together and he got me some chips and a bottle of Coke. My delayed flight to Seattle was first but his direct flight to LAX wasn’t far behind and he would arrive just before me. After 3pm, I had a quick flight down to Sea-Tac. I had to quickly get to my gate, so I took the tram to the next terminal and quickly boarded my flight to LAX. On the way south, I watched Mary Poppins Returns in-flight and I did not like it. Made the trip practically painful, honestly. I touched down just after 8pm in Los Angeles. I got my bags and found Terminal 6F outside so I could wait for Wayne and the Super Shuttle. In about half an hour, Wayne found me. We continued to wait for it some more and it finally came. We were driven to our host hotel: The Golden Sails (it was formerly part of Best Western). We got our room, 363, and put our stuff down. Pup Jerame of Fresno let us know which rooms Kevin and Thad & Charlie were in. All three came and gave us a quick visit. Thad & Charlie were tired, so they went to their room for the rest of the night. Pup Jerame was staying in our room all weekend so he brought his stuff from Kevin’s room. I went over to Kevin’s room to meet Kirk and Riis plus get some distilled water for my CPAP. I inquired about finding a place to eat as most places were closed and they suggested In-N-Out Burger nearby. Wayne and I were driven by pup -as he would do for us the entire weekend- to In-N-Out though I don’t think I ever been to one before. I asked if they sold any chicken burgers but nope, just beef ones. Wayne bought me two orders of fries and I got an extra order and pink lemonade drink afterwards. After we were finished, we went back to the room and to bed after 1am. Puppy would sleep and snuggle with me all night.
In the morning, I snuggled and fucked puppy’s butt for quite awhile and he gave me a blowjob to finish it off - WOOF! I hardly slept during the night and wanted to sleep in more so both he and Wayne went downstairs to breakfast after 7am. I went down before 9am after my shower. Only Kevin was there with the rest of us. Wayne bought me breakfast (as we only got two free continental breakfast tickets the previous night) and I had blueberry pancakes and two peach yogurts. We were chatting a bit while Thad & Charlie were already out bar-hoping in the gay district. We returned to our rooms and eventually Kevin’s family and the three of us drove to a cigar store called “Don Lupe Cigar Lounge”. I bought one cigar for myself while Wayne bought two: one for Charlie and me to have later. We then drove to the gay district on Broadway, but we spent half an hour looking for parking. Pup dropped us off at The Brit while he continued to look for a spot. Kevin was still looking for parking too. Wayne and I entered the bar and while it wasn’t bad, it could use more UK pop cultural staples. There was a nice portrait of the Queen though. Drinks were expensive: a can of coke was $4 each! I got one for both of us but that was it. Kevin and family came about 20 minutes later. Pup was still having difficulty finding a spot and after nearly an hour, we went next door to the Mine Shaft. Soon, Thad & Charlie came plus Fugi from San Diego and his boyfriend, Armando. Pup was finally able to join us. We spent nearly an hour together until the three of us left to walk all the way back to pup’s car, which he parked near the beach. After some time at the hotel, we went to Enrique’s across the street that was in a small shopping centre. Since we arrived first, I got us on the list for 9 people. Only Riis couldn’t come due to pain in his back. It took over a half hour wait even though it wasn’t totally full. But thankfully, we got to seat all together as they moved the tables together for us. I had a spicy chicken dish with black beans, and rice. Was very good! I forgot about the flour wraps that were included so after I was done my meal, I gave them to Wayne. I had a Shirley Temple to drink. Wayne copied my meal (in fact, he kind of has a habit of doing this if he can't make up his mind). I paid both our bills in the end. During the meal, I was talking to Charlie mostly and Thad too. We talked about past times, and I showed pictures from my phone. One that Charlie liked and nearly choked up on was a picture of him and the late-Kenny Felks that I took in Seattle at Assembly 2010.
After we were done, we went back to the hotel to gear up to go to Eagle 562, the local leather bar. Everyone but Kevin and his family joined us. It was an over 20-minute drive to there, but pup managed to find good parking nearby. I got inside first and at the front table, I saw Daddy Frank of LA! It was $7 each for our cover charge so I paid for us. I immediately noticed that almost the entire bar didn’t have a roof. While it allowed us to smoke, it meant that the wet weather could be a problem. Thankfully, it only trickled a bit at times throughout the night. The 3 Seattle crew (plus Armando) came in soon after. Charlie and I lit up our cigars and enjoyed them. For both him and Thad, I bought them a drink each while Wayne got me one. I got some pictures of us plus a few other hot bears around. I even got to chat with a couple of them. There was this one hot leatherbear in chaps playing with the nipples of this other Daddybear. Was nice to watch at times (he would later see my profile on Recon that night but didn’t message/cruise me - bummer!). After 1am, the three of us left while Seattle stayed behind. On the way back, we listened to 80’s music on my phone via an auxiliary cord he had. Was nice to have us singing and enjoying the ride. We went to bed before 3am.
Breakfast was at 8:30am and while everyone was there, only Riis couldn’t make it as he was still in some pain and Kirk came but only for awhile. After breakfast, we ended up saying goodbye to Fugi and Armando as they were going to the Pride parade and home to San Diego afterwards but not sure if we were going to be there with them. Sadly, it ended that it was the last we (Wayne, pup, and I) would see them that weekend. A quick note about Armando: he had many firsts this weekend - his first kiss with Fugi in public, his first kiss with another man besides Fugi, going to a gay bar, and going to his first Pride parade! Good for him! Pup took us back to the gay district and as expected, no parking anywhere. We got desperate so Wayne paid $30 for pup to park at a mechanic’s lot. Kevin’s family plus Fugi & Armando were around the beginning of the parade route while we ended up near the end, so it was too late to get together and watch the parade together. It wasn’t far from our parking spot.
The parade started at 10:30am but by the time we got there, the Dykes on Bikes haven’t arrived just yet. We were there about 2 hours and we all got some good pictures. Pup even got some video of the parade. Peter (BootblackAstro), whom I met in SF in 2017, was the 3rd group in the parade as part of the flag contingent. The leather contingent came not long after and it was great to see. There was a snag during our watch: one of the guys in the parade wanted to try on pup’s mask and pup loaned it to him thinking he was going to get it back. But he walked with it on and never returned it! Poor puppy was upset to lose his black rubber mask (Wayne will later mail him a spare mask he happened to have at home)! By 1pm we had to leave to return to the hotel for the Interchapter meeting, even though the parade wasn’t quite over. I sent Kevin the Minutes of last year’s meeting so he could print them at the hotel’s business center. The meeting took place in Thad & Charlie’s room and it began at 2:11pm with Thad as the Chair and I as the Recording Secretary.
There was quite a bit to discuss. The Jet Chapter was still doing okay, though they find that the newer members aren't that reliable and the older members are still taking up the slack. When it came time to talk about our chapter, I talked about the cheque fraud case: the background, what we did, and the ruling against us. Our report lasted quite awhile but there was a lot we had to talk about. The Yosemite didn't have much to say outside of a couple members are expressing interest in coming back. For Gathering next year, Seattle wants Fresno and us to talk it over and give them suggestions so they can finalize a location and date in the future. For New Business, we talked about club patches, the giving of our physical and digital archives away to the Leather Archives & Museum for safe keeping someday, Seattle Campout theme for the year: "Gilligan's Island", etc. We finished with Good & Welfare.
The meeting adjourned before 4pm. Kevin and I talked with Thad & Charlie for quite a bit before we returned to our rooms. Kevin and family would go to Eagle 562 that afternoon while the three of us stayed in and napped. After our nap, Wayne and I got into our Knights formals (Kevin was the only other Knight to be in formals…) while every other member was dressed casually (boooo!). We returned to the same shopping centre across the street but this time, we went to Cesar’s Bistro, a Central American restaurant. We met Mark, a friend of Kevin’s who is local. We chatted a bit about travel and he expressed interest in visiting Canada. Also found out he is a Trekkie too! I made a video of all of us there with my phone for Daddybear Bradford from LA/Palm Springs. The same one I was introduced to by Rick Ruben last October as he wanted to “meet us”. I ordered a couple of chicken enchiladas and a delicious steak dish. Wayne copied me, again. I paid for Wayne and pup's meals too. It was $100 with tip. At the end, we took group photos. Kevin wanted to start a new tradition -similar to “JetDog”- by using a rainbow hat and Charlie was wearing it (aww… so cute!). For hospitality, Wayne and I went to a nearby grocery store to pick up cups, a bottle of vodka, some Corona, and small cans of Coke and Ginger Ale. It wasn’t much as only Kevin, Mark, and Thad came by our room soon after. Mark left first, then Thad, and Kevin stayed the longest. Riis back was acting up again while Charlie wasn’t feeling well so they stayed behind. We still had plenty of drink left over and the vodka was left unopened. We went to bed after 1am.
Monday morning after 9am, we had our final breakfast downstairs. The three of us plus Kevin and Kirk were there. Had my blueberry pancakes as usual with orange juice. We spent over an hour before Kirk, then Kevin, and then the three of us left. We returned to our room to finish packing and checked out of the hotel at 12pm. Wayne and I had a lot of time to kill before our flight and while we were heading to pup Jerame’s car, we saw that Kevin & family were about to leave in their van parked next to us. We said goodbye to them and off they went (Kevin wouldn’t get home until 11:30pm despite leaving before 1pm). We didn’t see Thad & Charlie for the rest of the day, sadly. Pup took us to Seal Beach nearby to start killing time. We walked on the beach a bit and the pier too. The temperature was warm, but it was nice and windy to cool things down. We walked along Main Street to look at the various small shops. Soon, pup wanted to go to a Starbucks, so we went to a nearby Pavilions that had one inside. Wayne got me a drink while pup did a blueberry, strawberry, dragon fruit, vanilla ice cream, etc. blend and Wayne got it too. We sat for about an hour until we got up and walked back down Main street again, this time on the opposite side. We went back and sat near the beach, where the washrooms were. After that, we departed back to the hotel as we had used up enough time. We continued to listen to some 80s music on my phone both on the way back and as we waited for the shuttle while chatting. The SuperShuttle came after 4pm and we said goodbye to puppy and thanked him for everything that he did for us. Wayne and I arrived at LAX by 5pm. We checked our bags in Terminal 2 where WestJet was but the gate for our flight was in the terminal next door! WTF? So, we walked outside to it and went to screening. I did pre-TSA and it took a few minutes. Wayne was left with a significant line-up. Since he was going to take awhile, I went to Gate 33B first and waited for him. It was a perfect opportunity to work on my write-up on the weekend. Almost an hour later, Wayne finally arrives. He got delayed because of the bottle of Vodka - he had to pay just over $50 to get it through screening! I got him a drink and chocolate bar to cheer him up. He later got me a chicken and apple sandwich. The plane was late coming in and we departed late, almost 9pm. I sat in 8F while Wayne sat more toward the back. During the flight, I watched thee 2018 Tomb Raider film through the WestJet app. It was okay, just not terribly rememberable though it is loosely based on the reboot game that came out a few years ago. I then watched a downloaded episode of Star Trek: Voyager through the Netflix app. At that time, I ate my sandwich. We landed about midnight in Vancouver and met Wayne at the luggage carousal after we were done Customs. There was an initial scare that he thought someone took his bottle of Vodka but thankfully, managed to find it! My parents were waiting for me outside to drive me home while Wayne took a taxi.
It was a more fun Gathering weekend than last year. This was mainly due to the turnout and that it was an event weekend as part of the backdrop. We had a much better turnout of Seattle Knights and while we had slightly less of both Vancouver and Fresno, it seemed a lot more unified. I'm excited on whatever Seattle chooses for next year's Gathering.