Meeting James

Time to write something about James. So how did I meet James, who is he and what is he?
I met him at the first pool party in my live. The bear community in Phoenix has a circuit of pool parties, and I understood that Tommy's party is traditionally the first of the season. Tommy is a very sweet Southern gentleman, who had no problems with the fact that Kirk, Harry and Brian brought me to the party.
Since we brought also two different kinds of cocktails and garden chairs, we were the first to arrive. There was a lot of delicious food and drinks at the party and Tommy had that wonderful house with a lovely garden and a pool.
Tommy knows a lot of interesting people. I was talking to a couple of guys, that either I introduced myself to or was introduced to by Kirk: “Meet my friend Jörg from The Netherlands, Amsterdam, you know...” Mostly the other would say then: “Nice to meet you Jerk ... oh I love Scandinavia.” (From former visits I learned from Kirk that it was useless to tell them that I do not live in Amsterdam. “The Netherlands, wherever that might be is Amsterdam”.) Of course many guys have been to Amsterdam or were at least curious about that strange country where everything goes... So starting some chitchat is very easy after that information. I was really having a good time. When I wanted some rest at some point I was just floating in the pool and observed the crowd.
At some point we were in the phase of handing out jello-shots and jumping in the pool to annoy anybody who was in the pool with a big splash. At some point James came jumping into the pool and he came over to Kirk and me. I thought that he was a hot guy, but that he was with a lover, a guy who came over to talk to him. Well, anyway we ended up chatting with each other in a corner of the pool. Kirk had made his way back to the hot tub by then and finally it was only James and me. He told me that he would love to live some time in Europe and that he had thought about going to Belgium with his company. But most important of course was that we had a click right there and then.
We ended up spending the evening and the night together after he had promised to bring me back to Kirk's house the next morning. And he did. :-)
I was supposed to see him again if he was able to make it workwise the next evening at Charlie's (a famous gay bar with an outside patio in Phoenix). Needless to say that he showed up and that we spent an other evening and night together.
The next day I was supposed to leave Phoenix and visit the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. Before I could hit the highway he told me that he had called in sick from work and how I would feel about going together and come back to Phoenix in the evening. So that's exactly what we did. Traveling together was most enjoyable, since we could make fun about all the agencies selling Mexican insurances as we came close to the border. Or what to think about our preparation for the park? James had read in the guidebook I had bought at Borders, that we could take the big loop, and that it would bring us to Quitobaquito Spring, a historic natural water hole that attracts more then 260 species of birds. We decided to see them all and count them. So how big was our disappointment when the Park Ranger (a hispanic boy of hardly 18 y.o.) told us that the big loop was closed because of “border issues”. So when James asked him what that would be, he kept repeating the those words: “Border issues, you know.” He recommended the small loop combined with a hike. And his solution for my disappointment for not seeing the lake was, that they had a pond (25 liters at the most) outside the Visitor Center. James' answer to this was only: “But will we be able to see more then 260 species of bird there as well?”. Well we had a great time in the park anyway. We were hiking to a hill and it was very nice out there. No snakes, no scorpions and no gila monsters.
The next day James told me that he still was not feeling very well and suggested that we'd go to Jerome, an old mining town in the North of the state. Of course that was only postponing the day of our goodbye. On Wednesday morning I left Phoenix to start my big tour.

Learn Dutch Fast

In an attempt to learn Dutch, James came across this very funny video about learning Dutch curse words. Don't get tricked by the honorable lady with her pearl necklace, the windmill in the background and the duck you can hear. She is saying the most horrible things.

Have fun!

Hairspray

Ok, I was bad in blogging the last few weeks, but I'll catch up with some stuff today:

The moment I arrived back from the US my neighbor Yoke was busy in front of her house and before I could enter my house I already heard the latest news. So I learned that night before my other neighbors had become grandparents. Their daughter gave birth to a healthy daughter names Aimee.

The day after my vacation I was found at work already. It was a short week only, since Monday May 5 (the day I came back) was a public holiday and the next Monday (Whit Monday would be a holiday as well). On the weekend of Pentecost I went to visit my friends Guido and Jelle in Amsterdam. I saw the musical Hairspray (the remake) with them and we felt like we were the only gay men who hadn't seen this movie. Guido had baked muffins and cake for our enjoyment during the movie (if that had been necessary). Anyway they were picture perfect, Bree couldn't have made them better.

After the movie I went to the Netherbears, which was quite interesting, to say the least. I met Leo, Hans, Niek, Gert and some others there, but I went home early since I wasn't feeling very well.

On Tuesday I had dinner with Leo in Deventer (Turkish).

On Thursday I was heading for Berlin. When Pino was moving to Berlin He couldn't take everything with him. So he brought one box of stuff to Zwolle and I was getting an other one at his former house before I went to the US. Now was the time to bring the content of the two boxes to Berlin. After a 5 hour train ride in a much too hot train coupe I finally made it to Berlin Hauptbahnhof where Pino was waiting for me. He took over his stuff and I was very grateful for that. The weekend in Berlin was quiet but very nice. (A picture will follow).

Today after a same 5 hour train ride I arrived back in Zwolle right in time for an other 3 hours work.

Leo as Queen Beatrix and Miss Rose Murphy as Princess Maxima (Queensday 2008, Enschede)

Do all good things end?

How could I ever have known that I really would come back from Phoenix raised as a Phoenix from the ashes. If you ever find yourself in a situation that you need some time for yourself go to the Arizona deserts when they are in blossom and enjoy everything you find out there.

Okay I'm on my way back to Amsterdam while I write this. At the last entry of my blog I was in Austin, TX. I went from there to Dallas. And before you ask, I missed the South Fork Ranch and Sue Ellen. I made it to downtown instead and saw the spot where JFK was shot.

In the evening I had an appointment with Tom, a friend of Rick and Derek from Butte, MT. Tom lives with his cute dog in a wonderful former warehouse close to downtown. Tom is a smart, good looking guy with brains and humor. We had an entertaining evening together.

Trough Fort Worth and Abilene I went westbound on I-20/30 to Grand Spring, TX where I left the Interstate. Heading North/West I reentered New Mexico and went to Carlsbad. Of course there is absolutely no resemblance between Carlsbad, NM and the original Karlsbad in the Czech Republic.

Near Carlsbad are the Carlsbad Caverns in a National Park. The caverns are famous for two things: bats and the cave with stalagmites and stalactites. The caverns are part of the Guadalupe Mountain Range, actually a prehistoric reef made of limestone. Since limestone can be solved easily in an acidic environment, that's exactly what happened and how the cavities in the mountains were formed. Carlsbad Caverns has two entrances a natural one that the bats use and that's how the caverns were discovered and one via the visitor center through an elevator that brings visitors in 87 seconds 230 meters below the surface of the earth. Down there is an unearthly atmosphere. The most beautiful shaped rocks and stalactites/stalagmites can be found there. The lightning in there was installed by a Broadway lightning specialist and makes everything even more dramatic.

Of course I took the natural entrance through the bat cave as well. Just before you enter the cave there is built an amphitheater where visitors can see the bats fly out of the cave when the evening falls. Millions of bats will come out of the cave at the same time. It takes them more then 20 minutes until they are all out of there. You can imagine that entrance stinks of all the bat guano there. Once I was beyond the point where the bats are the trail brought me downwards into the cave very quickly. After about one hour a reached the elevator and made made my way up to the warm sun light again.

The next stop was the Guadalupe Mountains NP back in Texas (“The proud home of our president George W. Bush”). I took a desert hike here for 3 hours along a party dried out river. It was a wonderful hike. I saw cacti, birds, lizards and even a small snake.

The last day of my tour I was taking the scenic route back to Phoenix. I wanted to visit the cliff dwellings at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, but when I was nearly there I found myself caught in a big bicycle race: The Tour of the Gila. It seemed that I was driving right behind the first three cyclists of the tour and I some point they took me out of the tour. I had to wait for three hours to continue my way or I had to turn around and go back to the main road. There was no other way to reach the National Park. Since I did not have the time to wait for three hours I turned around, continued my way and visited a ghost town instead. The drive through the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona was spectacular to say the least. I went trough woods, followed little streams crossed big canyons and had great views along the winding roads. I enjoyed the ride very much.

Back in Phoenix I stayed at James' place. Together we went to the state capitol and the botanical gardens. And on Saturday we had lunch with Kirk, Brian and Harry at “Los Dos Molinos”. It was Mexican food with lots of Margaritas as you can guess by the name.

On Sunday James brought me to the airport (called Sky Harbor in Phoenix) and here I am Flying home to Amsterdam.