Gathering 2023
This year’s Knights Gathering in Denver is quite a contrast from last year’s in San Jose. The major difference was the attendance: seventeen people for last year versus four for this year. Surprisingly, the four of us that did make the trip had a good time together. There were three Seattle Jet Chapter Knights: Rich, Toby, and Eugene while I was the only Vancouver Dogwood Knight to attend. The main highlight of the July 7-10 weekend was the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo in Aurora. I think none of us have ever been to a gay rodeo before. Eugene and I only stayed until Sunday, July 9th while Rich and Toby stayed until the 10th. Here is how the weekend went.
Friday I got up at 4am and did the usual routine of final packing. I had to go on my computer quickly to put in a refill request on my cholesterol medication at my local pharmacy. I said goodbye to mom before my father and I left the house about 4:30am. I had one chicken wrap for breakfast while talking about how the first week of the scrub at my school was going. Traffic was great that early in the morning as I got to YVR before 5:30pm. After saying goodbye to dad, I dropped my luggage off with WestJet. Security screening via NEXUS was easy and I did not have to take my shoes off. There was not much wait at the gate, about 20 minutes. We departed on time at 6:30am. I sat in an aisle seat for the flight to Calgary, having water and a bag of pretzels. We arrived before 9am MST for a less than 2-hour layover. I walked to the E gates and had to go through security screening again, this time with my shoes off, even through NEXUS. Bullshit. Before going through Customs, I was asked by an official if this was my first or second flight in Calgary, I replied it was the second. I then had to wait a little bit in a room and check the screen to see if any luggage unloaded from another Canadian city was waiting to be transferred to the US city. I am guessing this is implemented because of the problem of missing luggage during layovers. Once I saw Denver on the screen, I was free to go (though I had to show my boarding pass a second time!) There was a long lineup for US Customs, but my NEXUS card got me as the only one in a separate line, likely saving me 20 minutes. The Global Entry machines were down so I had my picture taken at the Customs desk. The interview was easy, and I walked to my gate. For an early lunch, I had a chicken udon soup from a Japanese grill. Not long after my meal, I got terrible news from Seattle leatherbear Rick Ruben, that our friend, Daddybear Bradford Sparks, suddenly passed away recently! It must have happened earlier this month, but we do not know what he died from. I was very upset - he was a good friend and I only just saw him last October. Rick was trying to call me, but I did not notice in time. We would talk soon about it. I then bought a bottle of water and a pair of headphones as I forgot to pack my other pair from home. We boarded the flight to Denver at Gate E72, sat in a middle seat, and departed before 11am. I read one chapter of C.S. Lewis’ Miracles and played a couple games of Sudoku on my phone for the two-and-a-half-hour flight. Over halfway through the flight, I think over Wyoming, we hit bad turbulence that lasted 5 minutes. We were warned beforehand that this would happen - even the attendants prepared for it. We shook quite a bit and felt quick drops in altitude. It was a little scary, admittedly, but things were okay after we were out of it. We landed in Denver before 1:30pm. I texted Rich from the Seattle Chapter of my arrival while we were taxiing. I expected a long walk to baggage, and I was not disappointed in my expectation, but it was not the worst admittedly. My luggage appeared a few minutes after my arrival at the carousel. I got a Lyft to take to the hotel though the app wanted me to be on the opposite adjacent side of the airport, where the signs are blue for transport. I was on the red sign side. It makes no sense since there are signs on the red side that are for ride share app pickup! My driver found me, thankfully. It was about a half hour trip to the hotel and on the way, Rick video called me. We talked about Daddy Bradford (I will write about him in my upcoming July entry), and Rick’s recent trip to Orlando to Disney World for Gay Days with his gay nephew. We ended the call when I arrived at the host hotel, the Residence Inn Denver City Center. The ride cost me almost $60 Cdn with tip. I waited downstairs in the lobby for Rich and Toby, as Eugene would not be at the hotel for another few hours from Spokane. They arrived the day before. Seattle Knight Dougie originally was supposed to attend and share the room with them, but I think he had work to do that weekend and bowed out. Damn it! I like Dougie and wish he were with us all weekend. Rich fetched me in the lobby and took me to his and Toby’s room, 830. In their room, we watched Justice League, the long Zack Snyder cut. It was entertaining. At the end of the film, we got a hold of Eugene who had just landed and was about to take a taxi to the hotel. We went downstairs to the lobby and waited in the nearby bar for him. About half an hour later, he arrives. We did greetings and I took my bag up to our room, 1126, to prepare for the formal dinner. After settling our things, Eugene and I put on our Knights formals. Rich and Toby were not in formals (I do not know why Toby, but Rich cannot fit in his shirt anymore) but it wasn’t a big deal. After 7pm, we walked to West of Surrender for the formal dinner. We split the bill two ways with me paying for Eugene and I. We had drinks: a coke for Eugene and coke zero for me, while Rich and Toby had beer. Both Eugene and Toby had some kind of meat salad dishes while Rich and I had burgers. Mine was a chicken burger with green chili plus fries on the side. It was very good, and we all enjoyed our meals. For dessert, I got us Caramel Cheesecake Egg Rolls. Rich and Toby did not take one (there were four) and Eugene only had one. Delicious! The bill for both our meals was high: about $96.07 Cdn with tip. But it was a good meal overall. We walked back to the hotel, and it was starting to rain just before we made it back. It wasn’t a long stay at the hotel as we were going to the Denver Eagle next.
Rich rented a Tesla for the weekend, and it was our first experience with it. We took it to the Eagle, trying out some of its features. The back of the car had low seats and little leg room, which was discomforting while wearing my Wesco Highliners. On the way, Rich went to a charging station next door to a Shake Shack to see what it was like. Charging does not take that long (he only did 10% as a test) and does not cost that much. We continued to the Eagle and parked nearby. Inside, the bar was a little small but nice, and there were plenty of space for smokers in the back: both covered and uncovered. It was an underwear night and there was some nice jockstrap bear eye candy. We stayed over an hour and left before midnight. Back at the hotel, we bid Rich and Toby goodnight while Eugene and I went to bed before 1am. I slept okay that night.
After some naked cuddling, we got out of bed about 9am and had a shower together. Eugene was feeling dizzy that morning that he stayed in the room. I went down to the lobby for breakfast. The selection was not bad. I had Belgian waffles, sausage, a cup of fruit yogurt, and cranberry juice to drink. After returning and some downtime in our rooms, Rich, Toby, and I we left for Aurora to the gay rodeo sometime after noon. Eugene still was not feeling well so he stayed in the room. It was a half hour drive to Aurora, which is east of Denver. The Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo takes place at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, which is in the southeast part of town. Rich paid for our tickets and the parking. It had a decent turnout, about 200-300 people. Drinks could only be purchased via tickets and there were about four or five food trucks. We first did an American BBQ which had the biggest lineup, but it was not a long wait. About three people in front of us, one of the front table ladies erased the beef brisket, which Toby and I wanted but they were sold out and the next batch would not be ready for another three hours. Rich had a pulled pork sandwich, Toby a sausage dish, and I had a hot dog and chips. We sat to watch the rodeo for a bit. They had someone with the Canadian flag but sadly, sang the “politically correct” 2018 version of the Canadian anthem, which boiled my blood. It was nice to be represented though. After the Star-Spangled Banner was sung next, we had someone do a prayer for the animals (sigh…), which was also politically correct. They had about six stuntwomen and drag queens do some dangerous stunts on their fabulously decorated horses to begin the rodeo. Chute Dogging and Calf Roping were done next. It was quite hot out that we knew we were getting burned. The three of us got up to check the vendors for a bit and get some drinks. Rich bought a cowboy hat and it looked spiffy on him. After buying some drinks, we returned about a half hour later and got different seats. I did not stay long to watch so I got up to do a little bit of photography.
I returned when they got volunteers from the audience to try an event called “Goat Dressing” - which is to get underwear on a young goat (it was done before by the professionals that were in the rodeo). The first one to do it was this man/woman pair. He was wearing chaps with a jock, but his (cute!) butt was exposed. I tried to get pictures of him but the zoom on my camera was not strong enough. I barely got a chance after they lost (they were not as fast as the ones competing after them) to get a picture of his ass as they left the rodeo ring. I did not see him for the rest of the day. I then checked out the vendors and had political conversations with the Log Cabin Republicans and the Stonewall Democrats. Nothing too controversial, but it was interesting to hear their perspectives on both Americana and Canadian politics, both past and present. They both loved knowing I was Canadian and had an interest in American politics and issues. Sometime later, I got a cheesecake-on-a-stick dipped in white chocolate and had pieces of salted pretzels on it. It was a nice size and very delicious, though my prediabetes was slapping me up a bit lol! Toby gave me his remaining drink tickets and while they ran out of bottled water, I got a diet coke instead. I bought a $15 Bear Pride flag from a vendor but she didn't have any Leather Pride flags left (Leather Puppy flags wee available, though.) We left the Fair just after 4:30pm. On the way back to the hotel, I accessed the Tesla’s Bluetooth and played some songs from my phone, which was better than the radio. Toby and Rich liked my selections, especially the eighties tunes. We got back sometime around 5:30pm. Eugene was doing okay; he was up and had been since 2pm. Sitting down made him feel better than being in bed.
The four of us soon after went to dinner just on the corner of 17th & Champa streets called Panzano, an Italian restaurant. There was nothing on the main menu for Rich and me, so we ordered the same pizza from the drink menu while Eugene and Toby ordered from the limited main menu. My problem was that a lot of the items had something seafood related. The pepperoni pizza Rich and I ordered separately was very good, and just the perfect size. I had all six pieces while Rich had three. There was also a plate of marinated green olives that was shared among the three, but I do not care for olives. None of us had dessert except for Eugene who had a cup of Tiramisu. It took a long while to wait for it that we were getting late for the Interchapter meeting. We let the other Knights know we were delaying it about half an hour. Eugene took the bill this time for he and I. While leaving, Toby quickly went to the nearest liquor store to pick up a few bottles of alcohol and a couple of 2L bottles of Diet Coke and Pepsi. I grabbed my laptop from the room, and we went to Rich and Toby’s room for the meeting. Rich set up the meeting on Skype via his phone and we had Kevin and Carol from Fresno. Not long after the meeting started, Victor & Drake from Seattle joined in.
The meeting began at 8:19pm MST with Rich as Chair and I as Recording Secretary. He began with an apology for the slowness in getting the weekend set up and that not more Knights could attend. We agreed that we were having a good time regardless and enjoyed the gay rodeo. We then did roll call: Rich, Toby, Victor & Drake, and Eugene from the Jet Chapter; Kevin and Carol from the Yosemite Chapter, and myself of course. After roll call was recorded, I read last year’s Minutes from San Jose and were approved by vote. Rich then began his report on his chapter. They are having their first fundraiser since the pandemic: doing a coat check at CC Attle’s. His hope is that it will become a monthly thing. Victor & Drake have moved to Palm Springs as snowbirds, and I hope to see them when I plan to be down in late October. I then gave my report on my chapter. Our meetings are still being done via Zoom. We had our first fundraiser since the pandemic, Ball Fever in March. Anniversary 42 was fun, though Eugene could not make it as his travel was cancelled. He did attend Vancouver’s Rubbout 30 in late March and had a good time with some of us. I also mentioned that I have brought back the local BLUF socials in March and May, with decent success. I am encouraging Seattle to bring theirs back too. I plan to invite both Knights and BLUF members to our formal dinner at Anniversary 43 this November. There was also good news: American Knights no longer must worry about using the so-called ArriveCAN app if they want to enter Canada - it has since been scrapped. Americans can now enter Canada like they used to before (i.e., with passport). Kevin then gave his report on his chapter via Skype. Not much has changed since last year. They are still having social dinners as meetings and the manager at Denny’s is always happy to have them. Daddy Eric visited them recently and attended the Court hospitality. The Court was happy to see the Knights in attendance too. Two more bars have closed: Legends and The Alibi. They only have the Red Lantern, which reopened. They also have Fam, and Splash bars in the city too. Otherwise, Fresno is still holding on and doing fine. Next was Old Business, starting with a report on the status of inactive chapters. Kevin says that the SF leather community has told him that the plan to reopen the SF chapter from a former member has faded in smoke. Some remaining members from Salt Lake City have moved to Vegas and it is the last he has heard of them. I mentioned that I ran into Arthur from the SF chapter, my second meeting since 2017. He recognized my vest, but not much was said since the last encounter. We then got to the heart of the meeting: my chapter's hosting Gathering in 2024. A good possibility will be San Francisco for July 26-29, 2024, during the Dore Alley weekend. Kevin and I will try to find a host hotel, but it is likely to be expensive. I admitted that I was fully aware of the homeless problem in the city, and I will structure the weekend to minimize problems. I am attending Dore in a few weeks and will give my honest assessment of the weekend for the Knights. If it cannot be done, then a backup plan for Gathering will be realized. Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, and Palm Springs are backup possibilities. After that discussion and to finish off Old Business, Toby will be attaining Lifetime Membership status in April next year. For New Business, Rich suggested that the bylaws need to be updated and other chapters need to consider updating theirs. Given the pandemic and the current trends in the wider gay community, it would be best to look at our bylaws and make changes that reflect the current climate. Seattle is looking forward to getting back into fundraising. Things will not be as successful as previous years and the change at The Cuff has hurt the chapter. I wanted us to continue looking into giving our archives to LA&M someday and if anyone knows of people in it who would be willing to work with us. The concern is that we will lose our archives due to members passing away and the families not giving them to us, just trashing it. For Good and Welfare, Toby’s (both) hip surgeries was a success. Doghouse Leathers in Seattle has been getting good business lately, and Toby is now employed there. Rich thanked everyone attending both the meeting and weekend. We adjourned at 9:45pm.
After adjournment, I finally had a drink of Diet Pepsi - two drinks in fact as I had not drunk anything since dinner. Eugene and I did not stay long as we went back to the room for me to change back into some leather. He still was not up to snuff to go back to the Eagle so it would be the three of us again. Back in the Tesla, I played some tunes from my phone again and Rich got a much better parking spot compared to the previous night. After we got inside, Toby got us drinks and we proceeded to the same back area as before, but near the BLUF banner this time. A few minutes after we sat at the table, a handsome burly Daddybear approached us and asked if I was with the Knights of Malta. I replied that yes, the three of us were Knights. He replies that he recognized my vest and that he was a past member of the Denver (Stockman) chapter back in the eighties to about the mid-nineties! His name was John, and we were super excited to meet him. Rich got his contact information, Toby took a pic of the three of us, while I showed a couple of pictures to see if he knew a few senior members. He had no memory of Fugi and Kevin, but he did remember the late-Chuck Wilson. After some words about the Knights, he returned to his spot at the front of the bar. A couple of drunk guys were curious of us, another couple of guys recognized me from the rodeo as I took a group picture of them earlier that afternoon. One of them was at Smokeout in April but sadly, I did not have a picture of him in my collection. Things changed when the next couple of guys joined us. The first was a big leatherbear I have been chatting with on Recon, the other was a friend of his named Eric. Toby and Eric hit it off and were all over each other. The leatherbear and I chatted and enjoyed our company. Rich got our picture taken together before we left the bar and after Toby gave Eric a blowjob. We said goodbye to them and said goodbye to John before exiting. Back in the car, I played the last tunes of the night. We got back to the hotel before 12:30am and parted for the night. Eugene was relaxing in bed when I got in. He was still dizzy and soon after, lost balance and fell on the floor! I helped him back up and had a fresh small scrape on his leg. He was okay, but he still had no idea what was causing his dizziness, especially in relation to his lying on the bed. Sitting in a chair he feels fine. After that, I got him checked in online for his United flight for home in the early afternoon. Before bed, I finished the Minutes from the meeting while it was still fresh in my head. We went to bed at 2:30am.
We got out of bed sometime before 8am and I had a shower. There was little packing left to do after I dressed. We went down to breakfast at 8:30am and only found Rich there. Toby was either still tired or not feeling well. There were a few changes from Saturday morning: the eggs were now scrambled, there were tater tots that I could have, and there were thicker sausages cut up. I had a few waffles with the tater tots mainly. After we ate, Eugene and I returned to the room for a bit until we were ready to check out. We first went to Rich and Toby’s room, but we weren’t in for long. It would be the last Eugene and I would see Toby as he was staying in the room for most of the day. We said goodbye to him and took our bags down so that Eugene could check us out with Rich waiting in the lobby. We went down to the parkade and put our bags into the back of the Tesla. Rich drove us out of the hotel and drove to the airport, with my providing tunes again. We arrived just before noon and said goodbye to Eugene, giving our hugs. Rich then drove back to the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds for the rodeo one last time. We spent about a few hours there, watching some of the same stuff as the previous day. Rich got some tickets for drinks, which were coloured orange for that day. My blue tickets given to me from Toby could still work so I got a bottle of water. We sat down to watch some of the same event competitions from before. There were very little clouds and more sun than the previous day, so I got more burned on top of what I got before. I eventually excused myself to get into some shade and make a few phone calls around the US. I first called Daddy Eric in Pennsylvania to discuss his upcoming trip to Austin for their Coronation and sharing a room with him. I then called Daddy Jeff in Illinois to ask about his surgery on his shoulder, only to find that it had to be postponed. Lastly, I called boy Alex in California to see how he has been doing lately after quitting his teaching job in Richmond, moving into the home of a couple friends of his, and practicing for the upcoming bootblack contest. I soon returned to Rich after my calls. We watched for about half an hour more, then decided to have a late lunch. There was a food truck with some chicken dishes that we decided upon, and I would pay this time. Rich got some kind of chicken sandwich with fries while I got 10-piece chicken nuggets with fries. We sat and enjoyed our meals. We talked a bit about sci-fi stuff as we were munching, including Star Trek and Star Wars. After the meal, it was after 3pm and time to go. The car’s battery needed to be recharged at the nearest station on the way back to the airport as it was low, and it may not be possible for Rich to make it back to the hotel after dropping me off. He found one at some hotel and gave it about 15 minutes worth of charging, I think just over 20% was added. It was sufficient and we continued back to the airport. I played some tunes for the last time on the way too. At the airport, we said our final goodbyes and I thanked him for a fun weekend and hope Seattle can come up for Anniversary. I then went inside to check in with Air Canada. For some reason, the ticketing agent could not pull up my information and thought I was supposed to be with United, even though I checked in online through AC. I go over to a United kiosk and there is no ticket for me. I go back to AC and after 15 minutes, the agent admitted he made a mistake in the system (his supervisor helped him) and I dropped my bag off. I proceeded to PreTSA security screening, all which took twenty minutes if you include walking to it and a lineup. I then took the tram to Gate A and walked to Gate A45. I sat down and did a little charging of my phone before boarding, which was about an hour. A flight from Montreal deplaned first at the gate. When boarding started, I quickly went to a nearby store and got a bottle of SmartWater. I then went to the washroom to have a pee. When I got back to the gate, boarding was almost done. I sat in 17F, and we departed sometime after 6pm. I watched an episode of Star Trek: TOS on the Netflix app and played a few games of Sudoku. We landed in Vancouver just after 8pm PST. NEXUS was easy: there was only one custom officer standing before the booths, simply asking if I had anything to declare. I only answered that I only had a $15 flag I was brining back, and he let me go through. Nice. My luggage didn’t take that long to get too, about 5 minutes by the time I found the carousal. I waited outside for my father at departures, and he arrived about 10 minutes later. I did not expect I would be this early but at least he didn’t have to wait.
Truth be told, I would argue that I had a little more fun in Denver than I did in San Jose last year. It makes a big difference when all present Knights conjugate together than be separate too many times. Even if it means a smaller turnout, I am at a point that it would be preferable than us ignoring each other as a large group. I thought it was a good way for Rich and Toby to know more about me and vice-versa. I am excited at the thought of having the Knights come to Dore Alley in SF next year. I only hope it can be pulled off.