Weekend of Peace and love, (Weekend at Hope Lodge)
For the last three years I have gone up to the top of Stevens pass to hang out with a bunch of friends in a web free, cell free space for the long weekend. Basically cook for each other, hang out, play board games, make play lists, compare music, talk about life, and shop at local small towns or hike on amazing trails and explore the area. Steven’s pass has a very rich and pretty recent history, with in the last hundred years. It was the first place in the Northwest the railroad went to find a quick way to link the railroads from the West coast to East coast. So several tries until they found a safe and effective way to do it. But lot of the old railroad left overs still remain. The ruins of the old cascade tunnel still remains partially at least. So this weekend I loaded up the car and a friend and headed up.
Friday morning as I’m opening up emails an old friend of mine decided to come out of the closet and was looking for a weekend with the gays. I thought quickly and called P-man to see if it would be alright. After it was OK ed I invited him up. P-man was very accommodating and said that would be fine.
Friday afternoon after a long day of work loaded up the car and took off. Traffic was not too bad until we hid the Monroe to Sultan stretch. It never fails every year that I go up this is the part that always backs up for miles and you are creeping at 10 mph for at least an hour. Frustrating. Since I wanted to hit the road right after I picked up JP we hadn’t eaten and my nerves were kind of raw so as soon as we got through Sultan the road cleared and Volla! The road is back to normal. We ate at Skykomish a little town at the base of Steven’s pass. After a great dinner drove up pretty fast because I didn’t want to try to find the little road to turn off in the dark and it was almost 8:00pm when we arrived. The turn off to the lodge is kind of marked but it comes up fast the traffic is usually going 60mph at that point. It is also a left turn and you run a great risk of some Semi coming up fast on your back. Not in a fun way either.
We spent the first evening together drinking and hanging out for a bit then watched To Wong Foo thanks for everything, Julie Newmar. Crawled into bed around 1:00 am. Saturday was spent hanging out. Perfect day to read, organize my itunes play lists and refresh all the old ones I had out there. A bunch of guys went on a hike I just stayed around with P-man and did nothing. My out of town friend showed up about 6:00 pm while we were hanging out in the hot tub. While P-man gave him the tour and introduced him to the group we got ready for dinner. Each meal for the lodge is done by a different guest. I did a lunch and Sunday brunch. I have lots of practice on that. We all pitch in on cleaning duty and it seems to work out just fine. Very communal. After we finished dinner on Saturday we sat down to another movie. After that was done we pulled out board games and chatted. I always bring up one of my favorites because it brings out the cattiness of gay men at their best and in a very fun way. We played Sweet Valley High.
Sunday I took JP, and my out of town friend to go in search of thrift shopping in the little towns around the pass. We came across a wonderful little Post office/ deli/ general store with Antiques combo just off the mountain. Found a Scrap book of fifties ads, patch and wooden Train whistle. Further on found a book of Poems by Tennyson. The book was marked to this poem that fell open :
The Vision of SinTennysonI had a vision when the night was late:A youth came riding toward a palace-gate.He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown,But that his heavy rider kept him down.And from the palace came a child of sin,And took him by the curls, and led him in,Where sat a company with heated eyes,Expecting when a fountain should arise:A sleepy light upon their brows and lips- As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse,Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes-Suffused them, sitting, lying, languid shapes,By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes.
Being that my newly come out friend had found it the poem read in a very interesting way. I’m sure it was meant to be read as Homoerotic but it certainly felt that way.
Came back up ate a lovely dinner hung out and watched more movies. Had a wonderful talk with my friend about coming out and what he is looking for and where he is in his life. Monday morning, packed up and came back. We got back about 4:00pm and went over to a friend’s house for a barbeque and wine. I left about 8:00 pm came home unpacked, did laundry and went to bed. What an amazing weekend!
For the last three years I have gone up to the top of Stevens pass to hang out with a bunch of friends in a web free, cell free space for the long weekend. Basically cook for each other, hang out, play board games, make play lists, compare music, talk about life, and shop at local small towns or hike on amazing trails and explore the area. Steven’s pass has a very rich and pretty recent history, with in the last hundred years. It was the first place in the Northwest the railroad went to find a quick way to link the railroads from the West coast to East coast. So several tries until they found a safe and effective way to do it. But lot of the old railroad left overs still remain. The ruins of the old cascade tunnel still remains partially at least. So this weekend I loaded up the car and a friend and headed up.
Friday morning as I’m opening up emails an old friend of mine decided to come out of the closet and was looking for a weekend with the gays. I thought quickly and called P-man to see if it would be alright. After it was OK ed I invited him up. P-man was very accommodating and said that would be fine.
Friday afternoon after a long day of work loaded up the car and took off. Traffic was not too bad until we hid the Monroe to Sultan stretch. It never fails every year that I go up this is the part that always backs up for miles and you are creeping at 10 mph for at least an hour. Frustrating. Since I wanted to hit the road right after I picked up JP we hadn’t eaten and my nerves were kind of raw so as soon as we got through Sultan the road cleared and Volla! The road is back to normal. We ate at Skykomish a little town at the base of Steven’s pass. After a great dinner drove up pretty fast because I didn’t want to try to find the little road to turn off in the dark and it was almost 8:00pm when we arrived. The turn off to the lodge is kind of marked but it comes up fast the traffic is usually going 60mph at that point. It is also a left turn and you run a great risk of some Semi coming up fast on your back. Not in a fun way either.
We spent the first evening together drinking and hanging out for a bit then watched To Wong Foo thanks for everything, Julie Newmar. Crawled into bed around 1:00 am. Saturday was spent hanging out. Perfect day to read, organize my itunes play lists and refresh all the old ones I had out there. A bunch of guys went on a hike I just stayed around with P-man and did nothing. My out of town friend showed up about 6:00 pm while we were hanging out in the hot tub. While P-man gave him the tour and introduced him to the group we got ready for dinner. Each meal for the lodge is done by a different guest. I did a lunch and Sunday brunch. I have lots of practice on that. We all pitch in on cleaning duty and it seems to work out just fine. Very communal. After we finished dinner on Saturday we sat down to another movie. After that was done we pulled out board games and chatted. I always bring up one of my favorites because it brings out the cattiness of gay men at their best and in a very fun way. We played Sweet Valley High.
Sunday I took JP, and my out of town friend to go in search of thrift shopping in the little towns around the pass. We came across a wonderful little Post office/ deli/ general store with Antiques combo just off the mountain. Found a Scrap book of fifties ads, patch and wooden Train whistle. Further on found a book of Poems by Tennyson. The book was marked to this poem that fell open :
The Vision of SinTennysonI had a vision when the night was late:A youth came riding toward a palace-gate.He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown,But that his heavy rider kept him down.And from the palace came a child of sin,And took him by the curls, and led him in,Where sat a company with heated eyes,Expecting when a fountain should arise:A sleepy light upon their brows and lips- As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse,Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes-Suffused them, sitting, lying, languid shapes,By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes.
Being that my newly come out friend had found it the poem read in a very interesting way. I’m sure it was meant to be read as Homoerotic but it certainly felt that way.
Came back up ate a lovely dinner hung out and watched more movies. Had a wonderful talk with my friend about coming out and what he is looking for and where he is in his life. Monday morning, packed up and came back. We got back about 4:00pm and went over to a friend’s house for a barbeque and wine. I left about 8:00 pm came home unpacked, did laundry and went to bed. What an amazing weekend!
posted by Sylvia O'Stayformore @ 11:49 AM
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