ORLANDO 2002
My first sighting of a palm tree came when our company went to Orlando, Florida for a conference at the end of May / beginning of June 2002. We all stayed at the Crown Resort Plaza - a very nice place. I had a huge room with 2 beds, of which I only used one. It so happened that this company trip coincided with Orlando's 'Gay Days'. The bars were packed, even Parliament House had special events with Ru Paul. all this was too much for me, so I decided to check out the only gay spa. Listed as a 'private men's health club', Club Orlando was just the place for me. I went there all 3 nights. My most memorable night was the second night, where I met a younger man who had a room. We started making out, then he asked me if it was ok for him to take pics of me with his web cam. He asked me to pose and 'flex' for him. We continued to make out when he asked me if he could make a movie of us making out. I hesitated, and he waited patiently while I fumbled for a answer. The next thing I know, I was a porn star. I must have been in his room for hours. At one point, his laptop's battery was running down, so he went into his duffle bag, pulled out an extension cord, and threw it over the wall and plugged it into the outlet just outside the room. As I was getting ready to leave, he asked me for my phone number and contact information so that he could send me a DVD of the movie he made of us. It would never arrive.
The other 2 nights, I also got lucky, but no stories to tell. (link to Yahoo coming soon)PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA 2003
Friends of mine (Buddy & Alki) go out to Palm Springs every summer as Alki is a teacher and this is the only time he has for vacations. This year they asked a bunch of friends to join them at the house that they rent for 2 - 3 weeks from their other friends who own the house, but live in Toronto. It turns out that I was the only other friend from Toronto who could make it; aonther friend from Dallas joined in for the same week. I flew out of Toronto, and had to stop in Dallas for a couple of hours, then off to Ontario, CA, where the guys picked me up. Every morning, we'd lay by the pool for a couple of hours while cooling off in the pool every now & then. We ended up going to the casino a few times; line dancing at a place called 'Ground Zero', and going at the gym every other day or so. The gay population is higher here than any other city, and the guys are more or less our age. You don't see any guys in their 20's, and not many guys in their 30's. We visited a few gay restaurants like 'Blame it On Midnight', Hamburger Mary's; I don't remember the name, and it's not there any more, but it was a Mexican style restaurant in a plaza. The owner was also a real estate agent. We also went to a bbq restaurant where they served 'Texas style' bbq. All definitely gay owned and operated. (link to Yahoo coming soon)FORT LAUDERDALE 2006
I had the opportunity to get away in the Winter of 2006 with a friend of mine, Robert. We drove to Buffalo airport and flew to Fort Lauderdale via JFK (New York) for $39.00 USD each way. We found an inexpensive motel in Hollywood that had an efficiency that we stayed in for 2 weeks. The best thing about this efficiency was the ability to make our own meals. We ate well with a grocery store right across the street, and Big Irv's Farmer's Market about 2 blocks down the road, where we bought fresh fruits and vegetables that were quite reasonably priced. We went to Sebastian Beach (predominantly gay) almost every day where we tried to get a tan. I ended up meeting a friend of mine, (who stayed in Toronto for 6 months while being a music director for a film being produced here) Brent-Alan, at Manhattan North while line dancing. On another night, I met Michael who is from Chicago, while visiting his parents in West Palm Beach. I met Michael in Chicago in 1997 while line dancing at Charlie's Bar. We also went to 'Jackhammer' on Sunday night for the retro music. I met a nice guy from MYC (Freddy). We went back to his (gay owned and operated) hotel / villa. I spent the night there and he drove me back to our efficiency in Hollywood. We also visited 'Ramrod' and 'George's Alibi'. picsMIDDLE EAST 2007
When my friend Abdul lost his job as a travel agent shortly after 9/11; I helped to support him, so he changes his carreer to become an ESL teacher in China for one year, then now in Muscat, Oman where he's currently enjoying his second year. He's been here for a vacation in November 2006, when he gladly paid for my ticket to visit him in January / February 2007. To see my pictures, click here to see them. To read my journal click here.