Queer Visalia - A local gay blog

So we had great plans for Pride Weekend in San Francisco.  We’d take the train (and bus) to San Francisco, catch the Saturday night Castro Street party, then the Parade and Festival Sunday, and ride the Amtrak home.  Well….   as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men…..

I’ve never ridden Amtrak, so I was looking forward to it.  In the week prior to the festivities, I booked my seat on the Amtrak San Joaquin out of Fresno for a round trip.  Now, I’m NOT a morning person, and the train was leaving the station at 6:50 am!  This presented me with a conundrum.  To make it up there in time, I’d have to either just stay up, or try to go to bed early and get up at around 4am, to have enough time to drive to Fresno and meet up with the guys.  I knew this was problematical, but I made the reservation anyway.  The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to drive to Fresno.  I canceled my reservations, and changed them so that I could catch the train in Hanford instead.  That way, it would only be about 20 minutes of driving, rather than 50 or 60.  Well, that plan didn’t last long.  Friday night was a BBQ at Ted’s.  At first I was not going to attend, but later changed my mind, with a bit of coaxing from Ted.  He suggested I just stay the night, and we’d all catch the train in Fresno.  Ok, so I canceled the reservation AGAIN!  Right back onto the website to reserve out of Fresno, as I had originally done.  Uh oh….  the website says it can’t book my reservation!  Some cryptic error message (no doubt inspired by Windows error messages!) that provided no information about why I could not rebook was flashed on my computer.  I went to call reservations, and got one of those wonderful “all our operators are busy” and the wait time was “estimated” at 12 minutes. I hung up.  Once I got to Fresno Friday night, Ted explained what the problem was. Seems the website can’t handle bookings in the last 24 hours before a scheduled departure.  So I called on the automated system, and made reservations that way.  Whew…. I thought for sure I was going to miss the train!

The Friday night BBQ went well, Ted’s a great cook!  And we watched some movies before the light-weights went to bed.  I grabbed my sleeping bag and stretched out on the floor, but of course I can’t switch my sleep schedule like that, so I wasn’t sleepy.  I spent most of the night trying to find something interesting to watch on television.

Saturday morning rolls around, I haven’t really slept, and it’s time to get moving!  Time keeps marching on, waiting for no queen.  We finally get everyone in the car, and I know we’re going to miss the train.  Sure enough, we pull into the Amtrak Fresno station, at 6:58, and the train is long gone.  Note: when Amtrak says they depart the station at a particular time, they mean it!  So we get refunds and start trying to figure out what to do next.  The next train arrives later in the day that we want, so we decide to take my car instead. A fateful decision.  The drive up to San Francisco was fine, no problems.  We got up to the hotel and parked the car and made arrangements to check in later, as it was just before noon.  Off to find lunch, and wander around the City.

Boy, these guys can shop!  Shoe stores, A&F, Macy’s, and I don’t know what else.  My room is finally ready, thank goodness!  We can crash for a while!  I’m bushed.  Ted’s on the phone several times to one of the guys who came to the BBQ, but did not come up to SF with us.  Ted finally talks him into driving up and joining us. Another fateful decision.

Later that evening, after a brief nap, it’s off to the Castro.  The straggler joins us, and we ride the Muni subway from the Powell Station over to Castro.  The street is already packed, and we dive in.  The guys grab some pizza at “Escape From New York” (that was a movie!) and chow down.  It looks nasty, so I pass.  Eventually we ended up at Badlands, and after waiting in line for an hour or so, we got in.  Now, Jim can’t dance (see my very first blog), so I just stood and sat around and watched.  Some nice eye candy moving around, and dancing.  It didn’t take long for the drama to start, though.  Someone said something…  someone got pissed, and the evening came to a screeching halt.  Back to the hotel, which I didn’t really mind, since I was dead on my feet by this point.  I ordered room service for dinner.  Probably the most expensive hamburger I’ve ever had!   But pretty decent, considering.  I opened the curtains on the floor-to-ceiling-wall-to-wall windows in my corner room and drifted off to sleep watching the lights of the city blink at me.

Sunday morning and it’s time for the parade. And then past time for the parade to start.  Oh well, I’ve seen parts of it before, so we’ll catch whatever we catch.  We get together, and go find lunch at Mel’s Diner.  It’s built into an old building in the city, so it’s not too much like Mel’s Diner, but it goes with the 50’s Happy Day’s theme as best it can.  The food was so-so.  Off to the parade. Then past the parade. Seems the Festival grounds is our destination.  We spent the afternoon there, enjoyed the sights, and I got sunburned on my head and face like nothing I’ve had before!  The weather forecast was for overcast and cloudy, so I left my hat in the car, locked in the parking lot.  Another fateful decision!  (I’m peeling now, looks terrible!)  But anyway, we had a good time at the Latin pavilion, saw some hotties.  Once 4:30 starts nearing, I’m watching the clock like a hawk, since the lot I’m parked in closes at 6pm. I’m NOT going to miss that deadline!  We make it with time to spare, and start working out the next stage of our excursion.  Dinner in the Castro is the decision, and the late comer will follow us over there.  A very fateful decision.

We’re South Of Market, close to the Moscone Center.  We have to find our way to Castro.  Ted’s navigating, using his Blackberry to get directions from Google or Yahoo or somewhere, and off we go. Go this way. Go that way. Turn here… no, wait, go gayly forward.  Our little two vehicle convoy sticks close together, and as we near Castro….  it happens.

Damage to the Taurus

BANG!  The latecomer introduces his truck to my car.  Fortunately, no injuries, and damage is relatively minor.  He’s really bummed out, and once we make it to Castro, parking is impossible.  I find a spot, but he can’t and between that and feeling really bad about the collision, he decides to just head home.  We had a good dinner at a place who’s name escapes me now, something like “Firewood”.  The drive home afterward was uneventful, with the other three sleeping most of the way!

So….  we missed the train. That led us to taking my car.  A fifth member of the gang is talked into coming up Saturday afternoon.  That brought the other vehicle to the area.  Drama happens at the club, so we leave early.  The first half of Sunday went pretty well, but later things unraveled.  Driving around San Francisco, traveling unfamiliar streets, brought us together at the wrong time.  So many plans, so many decisions, such an unexpected outcome!

I’m hoping next year works out a bit better!