PART TWO.... Atlanta in the rear view mirror: Or Atlanta- Can’t see the forest for the trees…. We left Atlanta after filling up on gas at $0.84 a gallon. We’re on US 85 north. Looking back in the rear view mirror, all one can see of Atlanta is the freeway going into a dense forest of trees. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (except for asking directions) in Atlanta but it is definitely time to leave. We’re headed to Dewey Rose, Georgia where Master has friends (a cute salt and pepper couple) who own a resort called ,The River’s Edge. Driving through the beautiful Georgia country side, Atlanta is just a memory now, looking forward to the next adventure. Turning off US 85, exit 58, we enter the town of Livonia, Georgia. The sun beginning to sink over the forests to the west and the sky over the eastern horizon is full of large, white, blue-gray cumulous clouds. Driving though these towns, one really gets the feeling of the south. Big tall two story houses with columns and wide covered porches. A variety of rocking chairs prominately displayed. Oh yes, and huge sprawling lawns. After finding the town of Bowman and the flashing four way light we turn left and head down the road about 5 miles. Master has been here before but is not sure of the exact address. "It has a green mailbox out in front." Sir says, assuredly. We come to a house and Master turns into the drive way. It has a blue mailbox, but it IS the house. It’s almost dark, we go in and Terry (the pepper of the two) is behind the desk. He and Sir hug and exchange "hello’s". boi has to pee of course and requests permission to go to the bathroom. After a short while Ted comes in from fixing something and Sir exchanges "hello’s with him, introducing boi when they finish. Sir is still in the computer, but boi has to fill out a membership form. After all the greetings are over Terry decides to put us up in the "cabin" as guests of the resort. Thank You Spirit. We are blessed again. We drive off into the dark, through a narrow tree line gravel road to our cabin, which turns out to be a 3 bedroom house, complete with large living room, full kitchen and a large wooden deck in the back overlooking the river’s edge Monday July 7th The next morning we awoke to partly cloudy skies hidden by what seemed like a thousand trees. This place is really beautiful, hidden, secret. Sir and boi decide to take a walk along the river after breakfast. Sir ordered boi to wear a pair of 501’s and a light blue western shirt. boi obeys as always, thinking about what’s to come. We go out the front door of the cabin and are greeted by a nude camper who just finished showering in the "out house" to the left. We walk down along the river exploring the beauty that’s around us. It’s very quiet here now. It’s just after the 4th of July weekend. Our hosts said they had over 500 people during the holiday. Sir has something on his mind and orders boi to stay along the river and He will return. Sir returns with the video camera, the 35mm and a mat to sit them on. Sir picks up the video camera, starts recording and shouts. "boi get over there (pointing to the edge of the river), get on all fours." boi complies, getting on all fours. The river’s edge is wet and sandy, there are areas of soft brown mud. boi’s hands sink into the muddy wetness, his knees making deep impressions in the rocky sand. There was a mud pit somewhere on the property, but no one knew where it was. Sir had decided to make His own. "Four position," Sir shouts out as boi tries to remember the set of positions he’s been trained. boi remembers the position, but he is nervous about getting the muddy water in his mouth, afraid of all the implications of bacterial infection. he falters a bit and then lands on his belly in the wetness trying to lift his hands and feet, arching his back. The feet go up, but the hands are sticking in the mud as he tries to retain the position. Sir moves up and down "stroking" boi’s body with the video camera. He disappears out of boi’s vision for a moment and the next thing boi feels is Sir rolling him over into the shallow water. "Stay there!" He shouts as He goes to retrieve the camera. Sir is in position now and orders boi on command to roll out of the water and on to the bank. Once there, boi has become accustom to the wet sticky mud and grainy sand. Sir orders boi to sit up and perform, "First Mind". boi began to scoot his ass back and forth, making a deep depression in the sandy mud. After making a nice size "bowl", boi sat up on his knees and began digging with his hands, scooping away and mud. The sand was a course tan color with pieces of quarts and mica. While digging and scooping, boi discover large soft clumps of black clay. He mashed them between his fingers to expose it’s inner workings. It felt soft and velvety. Smooth, like ancient Egyptian beauty cream. he picked up a large piece of it and began to smear it on his face, all the while Sir is intently filming and feeling the build up of power that was happening. By the time we finished, boi was completely cover from head to toe with wet powdery sand and mud. Satisfied (for the moment), Sir decided to finish our walk. We walked along a dirt road just big enough for one vehicle through long deserted holiday campsites. The road eventually lead back up and around to the swimming pool and Jacuzzi area, which sat on at least two acres of meticulously manicure lawns surrounded by thick forests. The pool was surrounded by a huge deck with ample lounge chairs and tables. In the Southeastern corner of the pool was a gazebo type structure with a large cast iron birdcage. A thought had come into boi’s mind which he would share with Master later after dinner. [Note from the Master: Just read this part…. It turned me on so much, this Master jumped up and ran into the shower with the boy…. Guess there’s room for another side of this story - ‘The Master’s View’ promised here soon.] After getting cleaned up, Sir decided to go into town to get groceries for dinner and breakfast the next morning. We got in the truck and drove to the nearest town, Elberton, Georgia. It was a big little town with two shopping centers an upscale supermarket and a bargain one. But before going shopping it was decided, at boi’s request, to get a small bite to eat. We went to Dairy Queen. A few days earlier Sir had purchase boi a three inch stainless steel spike in Atlanta for his septum piercing. boi wore it proudly into town, first stopping of at the auto parts store to get a fuse and then to Dairy Queen. We walked in and checked out the menu. Sir decided we would get lemon peppered fish strips and milk shakes. After placing our order one of the young employees came over and asked boi about his spike. "Does it hurt? Why did you do it?" By this time the entire staff at Dairy Queen was huddled around staring at boi’s nose. After Dairy Queen, we went to local supermarket. We bought pork chops, rice and green beans for dinner and eggs and steaks for breakfast and steak sandwiches for the road. Dinner was great! We ate on the deck outside in the back, facing the river. Beautiful, balmy evening weather. boi remembered the thought he had in his mind and gave it to Master. "Sir," boi says, "boi saw himself in the birdcage when we were up at the pool earlier, Sir." And before you knew it, we were on the way to the pool with the video equipment and camera. The pool area was deserted and softly lit. Sir parked the truck near it on the lawn and got out the equipment. boi followed dressed only in his collar and his three inch stainless steel septum spike. It took Sir a few minutes to set up the lighting and camera. boi climbed into the cage on Sir’s orders and sat cross legged with one knee up watching Sir fiddle with the camera. Something happen inside boi when Sir turned and began filming. He did not have to direct boi to do anything. boi, once inside the cage had become a wild animal, a cheetah or some such animal. It began to look at the creature outside of the cage and wonder what It was, why It had captured it. The bars of he cage became distant and close at the same time. So the same with the Creature looking in at the animal It had captured. The beast inside the cage became angry and defensive at haven been captured. it began to sniff and snarl, hiding it’s eyes behind the strange long objects that held it captive, as if to hide it’s entire being from the One outside Tuesday, July 8th. The ride up from Dewy Rose, Georgia to Charlotte was pleasant…. Nice rolling hills through the back roads of South Carolina. We drove through a small rain squall - just enough to clean things up water the grass. We haven’t seen a lot of tobacco growing but did see some sugar cane. Most of the time we eat in the car when we are diving long distances. Today we’re headed for a bar-b-q at the opening of the National Association of Black and White Men Together Convention. Yep, we find the Adams-Mark Hotel just in time to eat and enjoy the pool party afterwards. We meet and greet old and new friends and take a run outside of town to check out a campground for the night. Our room won’t be available until noon the next day and our workshop isn’t until Thursday morning so there’s time to relax - a little bit. When we return to the hotel, we are hosted to the local ‘leather’ bar, The Brass Rail where we play pool on the patio with a friend from Virginia. Not many folks there on a Tuesday night, though. Still, we get the flavor. Wednesday, July 9th, 1997 The hotel is great. We have a view of the skyline from our 16th floor suite. Really quite grand. We attend the Black and White caucus individually. We’re going to write a separate report on the convention experience to go along with this diary. Overall, it’s a fun experience. There are, of course, ‘lessons learned’. We decide to rest and catch up on this diary tonight. Charlotte seems more sophisticated than anywhere we’ve been in the south. Don’t know why exactly. Truth is, we meet great people everywhere. Stopped to talk with the parking attendant who opened the conversation with, "you didn’t bring me back anything…" (We must have been eating something from the mall.) Everyone, everywhere wants know if boy rodtney’s septum piercing hurts. He tells them no and the conversations follow. …. But no one asks about his collar. They all seem to just ‘know’ Saturday; July 12th, 1997 - The next phase: Mid-Atlantic/Eastern Seaboard. Actually we’re deep into it already. On Thursday night we decided to leave out the next morning. It took us hours to pack and say good-bye’s. Our newest and dear friend Rev. bobby came by with a name and address of his best friend in Alexandria, Virginia where we are now. He said we had a place to stay - and what a wonderful place it is - deep in the woods - a brick townhouse. It’s the home of Clarence and who are part of B.W.M.T./D.C. Ross has been siting outside talking with Clarence; looking at pictures, drinking coffee and eating watermelon. It’s about 80 degrees with a nice breeze. Plans are to do a bit of sight seeing today; the usual things in D.C. and then maybe a boat ride on the Potomac. Last night we went out to meet Brian Baker a.k.a. boi Esq. At his job on ‘P’ Street - 12" Dance Records. When he got off at eleven, we walked down the street to Mr. P’s club which he said had gone somewhat Leather. It was nice - two floors and a patio but not a big crowd. We had one drink, talked to a few people and left to go to Brian’s house on French Street After the tour of the house, back yard and basement where Brian has his 1,200 album collection, we head out to the D.C. Eagle not far away. It’s a big three story brick building sitting pretty much all by itself. The ground floor is pretty much a long normal type bar, not too bright with rock music. The second floor is a little mellower with a room in the back for club events. The top floor has a dance floor and places to sit down. At the very back are open windows looking down on the outside patio in back where the serious stuff was going on. We’re introduced to a number of friends of Brian and we take in the men sights which are varied and quite ‘colorful’. We also get the latest New York City leather news from a fellow named Bob who goes up by train a couple of times a week it seems. It seems there’s a new, and one an only, Hotel near the Village, the Chelsea Savoy with rooms at $125. which is half of anything else around. From there one can walk everywhere which is appealing - if not a bit scary to us at this point. At about 2:30 the Eagle closes and we head home. It’s been a very long day, having driven all the way up from Charlotte - actually the campground where we slept just across the state line in South Carolina. We enjoy the variations of one night in a hotel, the next camping and the next with friends. It works out just fine. On the way up we had lunch in Greensboro, N.C. where we ate chili served by the cutest gay Black boy who it turns out was a local entertainment celebrity. The drive up into Virginia was kind of monotonous - solid trees, mostly pine. The median strips were freshly mowed and punctuated by beds of bright red and yellow day …….. . It was just beautiful but unchanging save a few little glimpses of water here and there NOTE: Sunday, July 13th & Monday, June 14th were omitted. We were so enthrall’d with New York that it seems we forgot to make our entries. It is being added at home a few weeks later Sunday, July 13th, 1997 We plann’d tto leave out early; but of course we don’t. It’s so nice here. Dad run’s out for coffee and rolls and juice while boi packs. Then we get to talking with our host Clarence and his lover Kevin. So it’s mid-morng before we’re traveling up the beltway past D.C. towards New Jersey and Manhattan. Excitement and a little fear builds. It’s hot. Very hot. Toll roads. Hate them. Every few minutes it’s a bridge or a toll booth. We keep the receipts to see how much it costs to go through the area. Someone told us to gas up before we enter the city - no gas stations and costly. So we pull off just as the World Trade Center comes into view. We’re in The Big Apple! Pretty soon we find the signs to the Washington Bridge over the Hudson from New Jersey into the Upper East Side. $4.00 and boom. We’re smack dab in Harlem - 125th and Lenox. We decide to drop down to Central Park and find a phone to call our hosts Al and jimmy in Brooklyn. (Al had been a house guest last year in Pasadena.) Bingo. It works.. After getting directions we get our first tour of Manhattan as we head down to the Williamsburg Bridge. There are three bridges across the East River in a row: ‘B.M.W.’ (Brookly, Manhattan and the Williamsburg which we take). We’re driving under the elevated and before long we find our way. Al has lived in his place for 16 years and he’s in the midst of redecorating. He’s just out of hospital where he had a collapsed lung. But he’s ok now and we’re welcomed with big brown hugs. Life is good. We discuss wheher we should store the car for three days and ride public transportation. Finally we decide it’s ok to park in front. The neighbors will watch too. As soon as we bring in the valuables; video camera, computer and all, we all head out for some dinner n the Village. Leonard and Michelle will meet us. They are old friends too who recenty got married. (Leonard is Jewish; Michelle is Black. Both are natives: Bronx and Queens. Graduates of magnet type schools.) Anyway four of us squeeze into the cab of the S-10. This is a mid-sized pick-em-up truck with a standard cab so it’s ‘friendly’. We give no thoughts to not having four seat belts. "Kids". Dinner is Italian. Nice. Very nice. It’s homecoming - a reunion of sorts; and a chance to bond and build deeper friendships. Just a lovely way to ‘arrive’ in the big city. On the way out he door we decide to go to to a nearby woman’s bar for drinks and some more conversation. Real nice atmosphere; women snuggling here and there, a fireplace and a big fan to keep us cool. We lose ourselves in the moment Eventually we leave to walk the village and see some sights at night. We stop in a leather shop which has a spiral staircase to the basement. Hummm, a nice selection of floggers and redwood paddles. And there’s Fetters Iron restraints on a maniquin. Let’s try them on the boy. Let’s flog the boy after dinner. The clerk is busy bringing more and more equipment to try out. After all it’s Sunday night. We all need a little ‘stimulation’. Impromtu scenes are so much fun. My, my; welcome to Christopher Street! Next we decide to walk down to the waterfront and visit the ‘Voguers’. It’s pretty mild really, and we walk out on the warf to view the water and the skyline along the Hudson. All very romantic and exciting at the same time. This is how we like it. It’s enough for one day. Time for rest and the new day. Shortly after we arrived we all went into Washington to eat dinner at Mr. Henry’s near the Nation’s Capital. It was mostly ‘family’ and we got a table outside from four women who were leaving. One of them show’d us here 50th birthday party pictures of the four of them - all dressed in tuxedos. Then just as we sat down the same women came back and said she was going to tell us a lesbian joke and she leaned up real close and said, "You know why a lesbian can’t lose weight and wear make-up at the same time?" It’s because she can’t do Jenny Craig while Mary Kay is sitting on her face." Well! (Jenny Craig is famous for her weight loss program and Mary K is a cosmetics line.) Monday, July 14th, 1997 New York, New York: In-creed-a-bull. It’s noon and 95 degrees. We’re in Brooklyn with no air conditioning - just a fan so we’re into the full flavor of summer in the Big Apple. Goin’ out for an express boat ride around Manhattan in about an hour and then to an SM activists meeting from 7 to 9pm. Hooking up with Leonard and Michelle; David Stein, and ‘The Real Don Perry’ for dinner and some raw street theater later on. We’re driving everywhere too! Leonard & Michelle publish a bi-monthly calendar of events for the city which will soon be accessable from LeatherWeb. David Stein writes about the Master/slave exerience and is the guest editor of the upcomming International Leathermaster magazine issue on Masters & slaves (where we will be featured, thank you.). We’ll get to Don Perry in a bit. Our first day onto the island in the day time. It takes about 20 minutes to cross the bridge and another half hour to make a mad dash across to 42nd and Riverside. They said there was parking. They didn’t say it cost $10.00 We pay. Dad parks while boi gets the tickets and some film. (We’ve not chanced the video.) Just in time; we launch into the Hudson for a joyful ride around the island in the middle of a very hot summer day. It’s great actually. We recommend this tour to learn about what’s what and where’s where in a reaxed atmosphere. We’re gettng eyed by the Europeans who are not afraid to stare. We’re arm in arm at the bow of the boat. Dad loves to watch the boats; the Pioneer scooner is sailing out. The hydro foil ‘Fast Ferry’s, and the Staton Island Ferry all give us a good show. On the way back around the tip of Manhattan we head out to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Ya gotta do this once in your life at least. There’s a night trip too and many dinner cruises. Next time that’ll be fun too We get back about five and our dinner isn’t ‘til seven so we decide to walk up 43rd street to Time Square and see if we can get tickets to see "Bring On The Noise; Bring On The Funk". Well, here we are. It’s not New Years, but it’s all new to us. Just like any other tourist we just stop and stand and stare. This is it. The heart of the city perhaps. No tickets. We’ll see in in San Francisco later. We walk down to 42nd street and the Theater District to see The Great White Way. Yep, it’s all real in our lives now (Ross hadn’t been here since ’72 and rodtney, never.). The walk back to the car is just as interesting watching people sitting on their steps trying to stay cool; reading and eating outside. Driving down Broadway we hit rush hour. There’s a roller blader in front of us. He bounces of the front fender of a cab and goes down. He’s up immediately and beats the light ahead of the cab going about twice as fast as any of the cars; weaving, bobbing, dodging and flying down the center of the street. We only have to cruise the block once to find parking. Around the corner off 19th street we find a little restaurant and head to the back where we find twenty people, including ourselves and those we’ve invited (David Stein, Don Perry and Stacy, (Ms. N.L.A. Leather). It’s the monthly meeting of a lose knit group of New York City SM acvists - those who actually do the work and make things happen here. The agenda is set. Everyone speaks. Decisions are made. And it’s over. Impressive. There’s nothing quite like this anywhere in the country that we know of. Listen up and learn from these folks. Leonard & Michelle, Don Perry and us will all go to dinner - Mexican this time. It’s not L.A., but it’s good. But they don’t know what a Tostada is. Strange? We have great conversation of course. David says we’re living a (Master/slave) metaphor - hummmm, can we talk, David?. Good bye’s are said and ROSS & ross and ‘The Real Don Perry’ head out to see the LeatherFetish bar scene. Ross loves Don for his outrageousness! Don loves Public Sex and over the next few hours we’re treated to all the dark corners and not so dark street areas where men prowl, meet in cars and hang out in doorways all night. We visit the Eagle and a couple of other places not comiing to mind rightnow. Then we went over to the Spike where we meet the owner C.T., sitting on a bar stool. He buy’s us a beer and Don talks to him for awhile while we enjoy the newness of the bar. Not to busy but not empty either on a Monday night. Some of the same guys we’ve seen elsewhere. Late, late we walk back to our truck which is just fine. We drive Don to Queens and then take ourselves to Brooklyn back through Manhattan. The city is truly 24/7. We stop at a Deli for some good old Subs. It takes awhile to find safe parking near the apartment; but we do. They have alternate street cleaning so we have to get up at six and move to the other side of the street. Done. It is hot - hot - hot! We sweat in our sleep together. Tuesday, July 15th, 1997 Brooklyn/Manhattan; continued It’s hair day. That’s right…. Been waitin’ for 9-1/2 months to get the boy’s hair braided. First it had to grow. There are two things this slave cannot touch: It’s dick and it’s hair. Braiding is a very intimate - spiritual; experience and we’ve waited for the right person and the right moment. Our host Al is an old hand and a good friend - so the time is now. The ritual takes four hours. First The Master wakes the boy and coffee is served. Everyone begins to chatter and joke around. Boi must take a shower and wash the hair. Al gets the tools of the trade ready: combs, rubber bands, grease - things like that. Finally, boi is sitting on the floor leaning against the bed. Al is on the bed and Master is on the phone with STACY", Ms. NLA Leather. There’s music, of course. The boys are carrying on and the design begins. There are nine corn-rows across the top and eight continuing down the back to the neck. The bands are blue. boi has a full head of hair and it looks great. In fact it makes my dick hard when he turns around for inspection. This is a very magic moment. Can’t wait to hit the streets this afternoon. Our running list takes us first to the garment district on West 37th and 7th Avenue - the eleventh floor. The streets are so hot the asphalt is literally boiling up making huge waves in the pavement. Boi is dispatched and Master stays in the truck to watch things. He puts the hood up to keep the engine from boiling in the heat while the air conditioning is on. Soon boi comes down to get approval on the selection of leather fabric. We learned about this place way back in Denver at CJ’s Leather. What we’re after is perforated skin to be used as a veil the boy is making. This makes it see-through. This will become our version of a hood that can be worn in the streets similar to what Muslim women wear. So you might say we drove from San Francisco to the East coast to shop, yo! Anyway, task accomplished. Our next stop is a few blocks away at the Gauntlet. Boi has lost a barbell on his septum ring and the hole is closing up. We need to re stretch to 8 ga. And re-insert the ring with a new tip. No problem. Task accomplished. boi says this hurt more then the actual piercing four months ago. We stop to talk to the staff who are all interested in our travel stories. Next stop: Leonard and Michelle for pizza. They are walking distance from here on Broadway at 198th Street. It’s a commercial building on the North East corner. They are on the eighth floor. It turns out they actually own several floors. Inside it’s loft-like with nine foot windows and a loft bedroom over a fantastic bathroom which has a huge Jacuzzi tub for two in the center of the tiled room. There’s a window which lights both the loft and the bathroom and we can see the tops of the trees in the garden below. In the living area the windows look straight down Broadway across a park about a block away. Leonard has liived here twenty years and it’s the best arrangement we’ve found so far in the City. It’s the custom to never give up and apartment in New York. You simply sub-lease them when you fall in love or move. Leonard goes out to a community meeting and we stay in to baby sit Michelle who is Leonard’s lover and little girl. While we talk we are also learning to make chain mail. It’s tedious. It’s fun. We both get it. This is a skill we’ll perfect when we return West. Our conversation covers some of the history of New York and a lot about Leather and pop culture. Michelle is studying for her Ph.D. in Anthropology. We’re learning about East Coast Leather living. Leonard and Michelle also publish a bi-monthly calendar of All leatherfetish events in the area. We’re exchanging links on our web sites. (Go to LeatherWeb Calendar section and click on New York.) Leonard come back. We visit awhile and it’s time to head out. When we reach the car there’s a ticket. Both of us had felt "car" about an hour before and not acted our own ‘First Mind’. This is what happens. We had failed to notice that there’s no Standing after 11pm. It’s now after midnight. We’re so lucky that we didn’t get towed. It’s costs $250. To get your car back here.