Laughing at clouds

What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again, I'm laughing at clouds

What a glorious feelin'

The trip back from West Virginia via DC took pretty much the whole day, which meant I arrived back at the place I was staying in Fort Lauderdale around 11pm. I let myself in with the keys that had been left for me and crashed straight into bed. The following morning I woke up, finding myself spread diagonally across the large double bed, taking up all the space. I headed over to the main office, checked in properly and helped myself to some breakfast. I sat at one of the tables outside. It was still early and there was only one other couple up having breakfast. It was already warm and sunny.

My room had a little kitchenette so I decided I would go get some proper, healthy food and spend a few days trying to behave and give my body a chance to recover from the food and drink of the West Virginia weekend. I checked the location of the nearest supermarket. There was a Publix about a mile and a half away. That wouldn’t be too much of a walk in the heat. I set off, taking my backpack with me to make carrying my purchases back a little easier. Having filled my basket with fruit and salad, as well as one or two less healthy items, I made my way back to the hotel. It was starting to get very warm and by the time I got back my t-shirt under the backpack was soaked. There was only one thing to do – get straight into the swimming pool. The hotel had two pools. The one closest to my room was empty so I headed to the other one to see if there was anyone there. The pool was empty but there were three guys sunbathing. They all appeared to be on their own. I found a spare sun lounger, spread my towel out on it and got into the pool. In between dips in the pool I did some writing and internet surfing while lazing on the lounger. What did we do before wi-fi?? I had a fairly quiet evening, having dinner in my room and catching up with Robby. I settled down to watch a bit of tv and ended up viewing several episodes of The Nanny. It suddenly dawned on me why one of the guys from NOLA had kept calling me Mr Sheffield (I had told him my birthplace) in a high-pitched nasal voice.

The next morning I once again had breakfast outside. One of the guys who had been at the pool the day before came and sat at the table next to mine. He was with another guy who I hadn’t seen the previous day. As I ate my bagel I pondered who he could be, deciding he was either last night’s trade who had stayed over or the boyfriend who had spent the previous day out of sight for some reason. As I got up to go refill my coffee the mystery guy said “Hey”. I responded with a “Good morning”. We introduced ourselves and got chatting. It turned out that they were friends, Shane & Louis. Louis had missed his flight the day before and had not been able to get on another one for several hours meaning he arrived late last night.

I'm happy again

The day was another one of sunbathing, writing, swimming and chatting to my latest new friends. There were not many people around the pool so Shane set up his laptop and speakers so he could play some music while we swam. It was a good mix of tunes and once more I was asked if I knew Adele when she began rolling in the deep. As the afternoon wore on they asked if I had plans for the evening. I said that I didn’t. We made a plan to go for dinner and drinks in the gay bit of town. I went off to get showered and changed. We had dinner at a great Thai/sushi place called Galanga. As well as the great food I had a sake martini. After dinner we headed just across the road to Matty’s on the Drive where it was Wild Wednesday. On Wild Wednesday’s all the drinks are 75 cents. I had a gin and tonic. It was no Hendrick’s but I’ve drunk worse. And given the drink cost less than the $1 tip for the barman I wasn’t going to complain too much.

The place was fairly full, there were two rooms both with a bar. We did a bit of a fruit loop before settling in to some seats in the bigger and busier of the two rooms. A friend of Shane’s was there so he went to chat to him, Louis and I chatted about my travels and where I had been. We chatted a lot about Philadelphia, which was where he lived. I reeled off the places I had been to in Philly. He gave me some tips on things to see and places to go should I ever return. The music in the bar was good and everyone seemed to be having fun. Given the price of the drinks I was surprised I didn’t see more people in complete drunken states. There were a couple of obviously drunk guys but no more than you would normally see in any bar at that time of night. The drinkers spilled out onto the front parking lot too, mainly smokers. We stood out there for a while as Shane smoked. It gave me a good chance to check out the crowd. There was a mix of young & old, guys and girls. I guess the options for gay nightlife on a Wednesday were limited meaning everyone went to the same place. The evening was rounded off with a late night swim to cool down.

I'm laughing at clouds
The next day was more of the same – swimming, writing and sunbathing. S&L were off to the beach and asked me if I wanted to join them. It was already getting too hot for me and it was only mid morning so I declined the offer. The afternoon brought a brief but welcome thunderstorm that cooled the temperature a few degrees. After the rain had stopped I decided to go for an early evening swim. S&L were back from the beach and were having a drink beside the pool. They made me a drink too. There were a couple of other guys around the pool. Louis got stuck chatting to one young guy who was apparently in town from one of the flyover states to audition as a go-go boy for one of the bars. I’m not sure how well his audition went but having seen him in the pool in just trunks I wasn’t sure he would get very far.

S&L were discussing their evening plans, deciding whether they wanted to go out drinking and if so, which of the local gay bars they wanted to frequent. Again they asked me about my plans. I told them that I would be having a quiet night as I needed to pack as I was off to Miami early in the morning. They said in that case they would stay in and we could have a few drinks and Shane would grill. Having got a plan for the evening we headed to the Publix for some supplies. S&L spent most of the shopping trip arguing over what went into the trolley. It was the kind of bickering that you can only do with a good friend you have known for years. We eventually made it back with food and wine for the evening. Shane cooked, we chatted, drank wine and listened to some of my music for a while. I got to play the British playlist I had made in West Virginia for more than four songs.

The combination of food, wine and heat of the day made me very sleepy. I headed to bed without packing, setting an early alarm for myself so I could do it in the morning before Tim, my next gay, came to collect me.

“What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again, I'm laughing at clouds” 
Lyrics from Singin’ in the Rain from the musical Singin’ in the Rain