Road Trips : Fresno : Trip Journal 97

18 February 1997

 

The first time I visited Fresno was sometime in early 1994. I left my house one afternoon -- ostensibly to do laundry -- and just kept on driving. After going almost 200 miles, and realizing that I probably would be washing no clothes that day, I decided to bed down in Fresno. I was dazzled by the array of cheap motels from the 50's. Later, I was less thrilled by the bars. However, I did end up going home with the only two boys I was attracted to as well as a bartender. Eventually, drama ensued, I felt uncomfortable, and I left to roam the streets of Fresno. I liked it, somehow.

Three years pass. I have a rental car all week so I can look for replacements for my "fire bomb". So why not make the trek back to Fresno, right? It is, after all, one of the strangest places I've ever spent time in, and it's a nice perspective break from the intensity which is Planet SOMA. Plus they have great thrift stores there. So off I headed on Saturday morning, this time carrying clean laundry. I'd really planned on making it an extended road trip, which would ultimately include Bakersfield on Sunday. This was not to be, as we'll dicuss later. I arrived about 3, and found my particular motel of choice, after realizing that most of the coolest ones looked as if most of their residents were in fact actual residents, as in long term. I began to re-familiarize myself with the environs. 

Then came the dinner and night life. I ate at Bob's Big Boy, just because I could. I was not impressed, although the staff was really nice and they had lots of Big Boy merchadise for sale. Then the nightlife: I made my way to the Red Lantern bar, where I'd met the two boys last time. And exactly like last time, there were very few patrons who set the 'nads racing, although I was impressed with one long-haired boy at the end of the bar. I made a side trip to the Express, hated it (again, just like last time), and came back to the Red Lantern, where I somehow made many friends in a very short period of time. ("New meat in town" syndome?) Long hair was still there along with another fiendishly cute boy. As things would go, they turned out to be a couple (five years) and yes (again) I went home with the only two boys in town I was attracted to. Gotta love Fresno.

Afterhours at the bar, combined with extremely fun sex until 7AM, followed by some uncomfortable moments (I was, it seems, their first three-way) took its toll on me. Bakersfield was cancelled and I kept the room for one more day, mainly to get some sleep. Of course,the thought of hooking up with the two boys again crossed my mind, but they didn't answer the phone all day. How can fags not have answering machines or voice mail? Also, I was determined not to have a complete repeat of my last visit and I wanted to see more of Fresno while not hungover or comatose.

Which I did. Fun town, nice Sierra backdrop on the east side, excellent thrift stores. Took many pictures. Went back to the Red Lantern for beer bust Sunday night, received a note from a nice man who wanted to "help me out of my boots", declined, went home and slept. Woke up early, ate at McDonalds', talked about sports with a farmer (that was intersting...), and experienced downtown Fresno and many more sites on the way home.