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Sunshine State: A Mixed Review of Experiences in Florida

Many Trips There, and What They’ve Been For

Like the mythical “Florida Man” (or Woman) my many trips to the sunshine state over the years varied wildly, with mostly memorable experiences in Florida.

To the best of my recollection, the first time I was there was in bicentennial year 1976. I was 21, and it was a family trip. We went to Destin, a beach location on the panhandle, warm water and blindingly white sand beaches.

Because I was with my parents and younger siblings and also car-less, I did not partake in many “extracurriculars.” Still, I enjoyed myself and loved the location. We also toured a nearby plantation. I remember that as being one of the hottest experiences (meaning the temperature was just uncomfortably, overwhelmingly hot) of my life.

Later Trips

A couple of summers later, I bought a Greyhound Bus Pass to tour the United States and ended up in Key West. This became one of the most consequential trips of my life and probably my best experience in Florida. After this trip I decided that if there was any problem with my being gay it was your problem, not mine. A sea change in my thinking – but for the sex part, see below.

During my later career in public relations, I visited the state because conventions were there (usually in Orlando), which is a little different from a vacation but still had moments of fun. Most recently, I’ve had a visit with an old friend who relocated to Miami and went to visit – this time on an Amtrak Pass, once again touring the United States.

It’s a Big State with a Lot of Variety

Florida is way bigger than it looks on the map, or at least that’s the impression I got when driving through it.

It’s got the conservative north, where Tallahassee and Gainesville are, as well as the aforementioned Gulf Coast white sand beaches. Then there’s Orlando, with all things Disney and the iconic gay Parliament House (see below, now sadly closed/gone).

Then there’s Southeast Florida, where urban, exciting Miami is located, also gay Fort Lauderdale and a zillion other beach towns (including one where an unpleasant, disgraced ex-president lives in shame).

There’s the Florida Keys, an attraction all their own, the location of everything from Flipper to Bloodline, as well as the popular gay destination of Key West (arguably more popular in the past than now).

And let’s not forget the Gulf Coast south of the panhandle, where Tampa, Ft. Myers, Sanibel, etc. are located. (On my Wanderslut 1996 Road Trip, I visited the panhandle, Sanibel, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Read about it here.)

Good Sex to be had in Florida

I figure that’s what you’re really interested in.

My sex experiences in Florida ranged from life-changing to meh. So yes, it is a state of contrasts.

Life-changing is what I’d describe a trip to Key West in 1979, where I had been on a bus touring America with stops here and there, until one day I decided “fuck this. I want sex, drugs and rock and roll and I definitely want to get off this bus!” I looked at a map and decided: Ok, Key West.

Key West

It was already a gay destination in 1979 and had been. I took the bus there. I stayed at the Island House, which is still there, still a gay resort as I write this, 42 years later .

In the week or so I spent there, I fucked many men, took a few drugs and danced to a fair amount of rock ‘n roll (and disco, baby). It was fun in the way any horny 24-year-old would have fun. But what made it life-changing was the acceptance and peace I got for the way I was, for the way I was born, in a way which had eluded me up to that point. After that trip, I never regretted being gay or wished I was straight ever again.

Parliament House

I’m also happy that years later as a professional on a business trip, I booked an extra day or two after a convention to stay at the Parliament House in Orlando, which was a legendary gay resort that featured restaurants and nightclubs and discos in addition to the rooms and pools. Sad to say, it’s closed now, and rather recently. But I was happy to partake in the tropical sleazy atmosphere of what was kind of a non-stop orgy. (Even though I was way past 24.)

Vintage photos from Parliament House

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Finally, in the “meh” category, I struck out on numerous occasions to hook up in the unforgiving city of Miami. The sexual stars have just never aligned for me there. You can read about some of that, too, in Wanderslut 1996: A Gay Road Trip Across America.

Train Trip Diary: Philadelphia and New York

I chose Philadelphia (May 5-6) as the stop because of all the large cities in the U.S., Philly is one that I’d never been to. Still, it was a very short trip, basically one day sightseeing in the rain since I spent the second day on a day trip to New York, and only slept in Philadelphia before leaving the following morning.

The AirBnB was on N. 3^rd Street in Old City Philadelphia, just a couple of blocks, literally, from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

After settling into the lovely studio apartment (huge, btw: bigger than my entire apartment here square footage-wise; plus there was a lovely deck for use in back, which I could not use because it was pouring rain!) (see photo below)I had to decide on just a couple of things to do since I had merely one day to see the sights.

My choices were Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, The Philadelphia Art Museum, and the scary Eastern State Penitentiary (the exterior of that building only). I also walked to the Delaware River and out onto the Race Street Pier. This pier might also have been cruisy, or maybe I was just reading that into something that wasn’t there. There were a couple of guys I thought might be cruising there, but did not pay much attention to it as I was out of my element and certainly not ready to act on anything there (most certainly not!). It was a working dock area previously, now restaurants and lofts, art spaces, things like that, reminded me of the Embarcadero in SF, and it also has a massive, very impressive bridge (the Benjamin Franklin Bridge) over the river right there (to Camden, NJ).

My dinner restaurant was the Race Street Café, recommended by Dan, the AirBnB owner. It was a bar with food, but very good food. Being a Friday, at the time I went there was also some after work cocktail hour thing going on, but it was OK for me since the food arrived quickly. I did feel a bit odd being by myself at this happy hour location. Anyway.

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Afterward, we all walked over to the new Whitney Museum and I toured it with Neil Greenberg, some of their Biennial Exhibit. We then walked the High Line but it was cold and windy down there, and Neil had to go home to take a nap before his performances later that night. I went uptown to Central Park and walked around and sat on a bench taking in the city (on Central Park West) for awhile. I walked back to Penn Station and took train back to Philly for the overnight.

Worthwhile to note that although Philly has a gayborhood, I did not get a chance to see it. I think it’s also part of the Center City area but I didn’t get over there. As opposed to my last trip like this at age 40 or so, when seeing it would have been the first priority. Now, not so much. Again, a time and energy thing. Maybe next time. As it was, I only got a rainy glimpse of the city and would have liked more.

Liberty Bell

Blogger at Independence Hall

Independence Hall

Good message for our times/Philadelphia

Rodin: St. John the Baptist

The AirBnB where I stayed/Philly

Celebration I came upon/Philly

Eastern State Penitentiary (can you say haunted)

Awesome frieze at Philadelphia 30th Street Station

View of old Philly from AirBnB window

Blogger (on right) with Neil Greenberg in NYC

View from new Whitney toward lower Manhattan

Another view from new Whitney

View from High Line uptown

Central Park West – where I love to sit on benches and watch NYC parade by.

Train Trip Diary: Miami and the Silver Meteor

When I left NOLA, I took a one-way Southwest flight to Ft. Lauderdale. I would’ve taken the train, the extension of the Amtrak Sunset Limited, but service post-Katrina still hasn’t resumed east of New Orleans. I know they’ve repaired the tracks and have made test runs; perhaps in 2018 service will return? (This was the only portion of this around-the-country trip not done on trains.)

My friend Paul Lamb picked me up at FLL. Since his two brothers from New Jersey were also arriving that afternoon, we went to lunch in the area, in the gayborhood part of Fort Lauderdale. I was there before, in the 90s, but at night so it was different. It didn’t really seem very gay during the day, it seemed yuppie-ish/boomer. As so many bland things do. Still, the food was good!

We then picked up Paul’s older brother (was it Joe?) who is the guardian of Tim, his brother of around 50, who has Down’s Syndrome. Joe typically drops Tim off with Paul for a week or so a couple times a year and then has a little Florida vacation while Paul cares for Tim. So we dropped Joe at his hotel and took Tim (and myself!) back to Paul’s home in Miami Shores, a close-in suburb just northwest of Miami Beach.

The first night, we had dinner there. He made it. Do I remember what it was? I don’t think I do. Whatever it was, it was edible and probably quite good. Both Paul and my friend John in Washington are good cooks.

The second day in Miami, I went for a walk around Miami Shores in the morning, to a Starbucks which was about two blocks away. I have pictures. There was a nice little park along the way (see below). It was a pleasant and quiet walk, nice neighborhood for that. Once back, we hung out and then went to the beach (Miami Beach) for awhile. We didn’t stay long, I went in the water briefly, the other two did not. It was a more subdued kind of beach experience. Paul was very attentive to his brother, constantly rubbing Tim with sunblock, and to my recollection, Tim seemed happy just to sit there, though they did walk along the beach and I have pictures of that, too.

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Little park in Miami Shores

Blogger’s feet and the Atlantic at Miami Beach

Part of Miami Beach

Paul and Tim Lamb

The Lamb Brothers, again

Amtrak Station at West Palm Beach

Don’t trust this man

The Silver Meteor – This is the train that went from Miami to Philadelphia (it actually goes all the way to Boston, I just got off in Philly). Most of the first day was through flat inland Florida, not terribly interesting, mostly flat land, farm land, some lakes, some ocean view but not even much of that. Once out of the Sunshine State, the train did stop in some interesting other places like Savannah and Charleston, but either the stations were not in the city center or it was already dark so there wasn’t much to see. Note – both for this trip and the previous one (The Crescent, which I took from NYC to NOLA a few years ago) the Carolinas portion of the trip was after dark – so still have not seen much of either of those two states from the train (though on my road trip back in ’96 I drove through both states and stayed overnight in each).

The Silver Meteor then goes through Virginia to D.C. First city I remember after dawn (it was a rainy day) was Richmond. Then it took a great (though stormy!) route along the Chesapeake Bay up to Washington, then into Maryland and Delaware (Baltimore and Wilmington) before heading into Philadelphia, where I arrived about 9:30 am.