Behind bars

I feel safer behind bars, I'll have time to write my memoirs

I feel safer behind bars

Sunday was a quiet day following the Halloween celebrations of the previous night. It started off with a gorgeous home-made breakfast and some strong coffee. Afterwards Ken and Larry took the dogs out for a walk. I tagged along as it was a nice sunny day. We made our way down through The Castro and to Delores Park. Given the lovely weather the place was packed with people sitting out in the sun, the vast majority of them gay. We found a free patch of grass down one end of the park and made ourselves comfortable. I even braved taking my t-shirt off to get a bit of sun to try and reduce my fairly obvious tan lines. The view was very nice with lots of well maintained men to look at. During our time sunbathing we were offered magic mushrooms and marijuana truffles. We declined both. We were saving ourselves for some amazing ice cream from the Bi-Rite Creamery. When we got there the queue was right round the corner and down the block. It was definitely worth it though. The length of the queue gave me plenty of time to look through the menu. There were a lot of great sounding flavours to chose from. In the end I opted for the salted caramel and the brown sugar with ginger caramel crunch. Amazing. The rest of the day was very relaxed. We watched a bit of TV and then got dinner in from Super Duper Burger. After a G&T post dinner I was ready for an early night. I had an early start the following morning so I figured it was for the best.

My final day in San Francisco I was sightseeing on my own. I had booked myself on to the first ferry over to Alcatraz. I was down there early but there was still quite a queue. I managed to get a seat upstairs on the boat across though, the benefit of being a solo traveller meaning I can squeeze in any spare seat going. Once off the boat we had to listen to an information briefing down on the dock. I stood at the far side from the boat, nearest the route up to the buildings atop Alcatraz Island. As soon as the briefing finished I set off, hoping to beat the crowds. I power-minced up the zig zag road to the building where the self guided tour started. I was first in line to collect my headphones and set off on the tour. It was well worth the effort – I managed to get a good five minutes head start on the crowds which meant I managed to get some photos of the place looking particularly empty.

Having done the guided tour of the main cellblock I had a bit of a wander round on my own before getting the ferry back over. The crossing was great. There was a low fog across the bay, sitting neatly under the Golden Gate Bridge. The red towers of the Bridge rose from the fog and made for some great photos. Once back on dry land I headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the seals. There were a few of them already lazing in the sun. I watched them for a while before walking back up through the city to Ken & Larry’s. Once home I checked my emails to see if there was anything from the possible leads I had on my next destination, which I had yet to book. A few friends had put out messages to people in Phoenix, Salt Lake City & Denver to see if they could find me a host. None of the leads looked like they were heading anywhere. I did however have a message from a guy in LA, Josh, who I had several mutual friends with (he was also the ex-boyfriend of Ray, my Number 2 gay). We had chatted a few times over the past few months about my trip and he said he was looking forward to meeting me when I got to LA in a few days time. I figured there was some truth in the saying "don't ask, don't get" so I sent him a message asking if he was free to host from the following day as I had not been successful in filling in my gap. He was up for it so I booked a flight to LA there and then.

I'll have time to write my memoirs

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch up on my writing until Ken & Larry came home from work. I let them know that I had sorted out where I was headed next. They had been very relaxed about my lack of onward travel plans and had told me that I was more than welcome to stay for as long as I needed. It was a nice evening so we took the dogs for a walk. As we walked through The Castro we got stopped by a charity worker trying to get people to sign up to regular giving. Larry told me that it was a relatively new phenomenon. I told him that they had been around in London for quite a while. I told him that they were called “chuggers”, a shortened version of “charity mugger”. He said he had not heard that phrase before but would try and remember and use it to impress his American friends, telling them he had been learning new English words from an English person.

After the dog walking we picked up another Zipcar and headed back up to Twin Peaks to get some photos of San Francisco at night. It was a little chilly up the top but I got some great photos of the city all lit up. Our drive home took us past Nick’s house which was done up spectacularly for Halloween. Body parts hung from trees, cobwebs festooned the front yard and there was even a smoke machine pumping out swirls of white mist to complete the scary image. We stopped and took some photos and got some candy from Nick. I think it must have been the first time in nearly two decades that I had been trick or treating.

For our final evening we headed back to The Castro for dinner and a drink. Despite the fact that it was Monday night and people had been partying all weekend there were still plenty of people in costumes as it was Halloween itself. We had dinner at Bisou, getting three seats along the window so we could look out at Market Street and judge people and their costumes. It was a great way to pass time over dinner. Afterwards we headed back up home so I could pack my case and get an early night ahead of my flight to LA the following morning.

“I feel safer behind bars, I'll have time to write my memoirs” 
Lyrics from Don’t release me from the musical Bombay Dreams