7/3/97
The Glory of Byzantium
Dear Leila, Despite the fact that Lamar and I have no money and no place to stay in New York, we still managed to see this exhibit at The Met. It was 80 degrees so we wore t-shirts, cut-offs and sandles. As we were walking through the park to the museum, it started raining. Lovely. So we trudged through Central Park mud and scum, dragged our haggard San Francisco asses up the Met stairs, and the security guard told us not to drip on the exhibits.
The stuff was fascinating. Lots of old books and scrolls with incredible illuminations. (is that what they're called?) We also saw the Cartier exhibit. Anyway, we're stuck in New York because Lamar left the car in Charlottesville, Virginia, But we'll figure some thing out. Take care.
Love, Aaron Jason
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7/4/97
The Carlton Arms Hotel
Dear Leila,
Well, we finally got a place to stay. The beautiful Carlton Arms which we nicknamed "The San Berdoo." Lamar's been doing his Karen Black. Every room is painted by a different artist, and the Costa Rican toilet paper is memorable indeed. We didn't drink at the Algonquin, but did have a beer in a Chelsea bar with a drag queen named Honey Dijon.
We booked a Greyhound to get us to the Country Squire in Charlottesville, VA. Port Authority was a packed madhouse, and the 3 trasfers a refugee scramble. Lamar said he felt like a Polish Jew trying to escape Nazi Europe. I think it's from all the knishes he's been eating (to which he's now addicted).
We had to stand for part of the busride, although a nice lesbian offered us her lap. We politely declined. Charlotesville is beautiful--but after finding out seeing Monticello costs $10, we pulled out nickels, gazed ath the backs, and now we're on our way home.
Love, AJ
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7/5/97
Mary Todd Lincoln House
Leila,
We drove through Virginia, West Virginia, and Appalachia. I can't tell you how happy I am that Sara got out. We did like W. Va, and had a drink at a subterranean gay bar in Huntinton that used to be an illegal club.
We spent the 4th in Lexington, Kentucky, where we happened upon the Miss Lexington Drag Beauty Contest. We drank with last year's Miss Lex., Tommy Dietrich. The son of famous horse breeders offered us a place to stay where he made fried chicken and cornbread, and offered us pot. His house was covered with photos of his prize winning giant poodles, and Lamar was particularly disturbed by a mutan black poodle that kept staring at us.
We love Kentucky, but everyone keeps asking us, "What are you doing in Kentucky?" The Wild Turkey distillery was closed when we got there, how sad. :-( But we're definitely coming back to KY one day soon.
Love, AJ
PS--we saw M.T.Lincoln's house. We couldn't afford the $5 tour, so we looked around, stole this post card, and ran.
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7/6/97
The Ozarks
Leila, What is up with the Wal-Mart Empire? They're everywhere!! Thank goodness for them, though. We're able to buy "Little Debbi" snack cakes for .88 cents. We have zero cash. We're only making it across country on a credit card Lamar's roommate loaned him. I hate Indiana and Illinois.
"Why are there even states?" I kept asking. "Because, we have to grow the corn for New York and California somewhere." Lamar said.
As you know, with the help of our AAA maps and the "Ferrari For Men" guide, we map out all the gay bars in the cities. But we got to Saint Louis and kept on going. "St Louis is hidious," Lamar said.
Bought this post card and yet another shot glass for my bar, in "Ozarkland." Don't ask. My collection is really coming along. We're headed for Kansas City. I hope it's as good as the song says. Today I dubbed the Country Squire the "Country Squalor" because it's crammed with clothes and make-up and "Little Debbi" wrappers.
Love, AJ
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7/7/97
Seward County Museum
Leila, Kansas City was haggard. We got lost, finally found the bars, and everyone was rude. Not enen the one drag queen there talked to us.
As we walked out I yelled, "We're from California, you all are stuck in Kansas City! You can drop the attitude!"
Had "really" good barbaque downtown. Bought some sauce.
We decided Missouri is the "show-me-the-way-out" state. Kansas is nice, not as flat as we hoped. We had a drink in a Wichita gay bar with a swimming pool. All were very nice and bought us shots. Visited a dragqueen preparing for a show, but we left before the show began. Off to OK.
Love, AJ
PS-Drove through Towanda, Kansas. Took pictures. We'll have to tell Teresa Bonham.
PPS-Stayed at a Howard Johnsons in KC and caught part of "Deliverance" on TV. How appropriate.
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7/8/97
San Miguel Mission
Leila, OKies do the strangest things with trucks. Trucks on roofs, trucks perpendicular to the ground, trucks on signs. Fields are ablaze everywhere. OK City wasn't bad. Had a few drinks (of course) and managed to hit a really good drag show. We seem to find the drag queens everywhere we go. Funny.
We had these two old trolls convinced that I was "putter" and Lamar was "Binks" and that we were from Corpus Cristi--Just like in "The Legend of Billie Jean." God, OKies will believe anything. Bought a shirt at the Salvation Army then drove through the Texas Panhandle. I "hate" Texas. Thak God for New Mexico and "terrain."
Our "Little Debbis" ran out today--At least we won't be constipated. We ate sopaipillas--Lamar is addicted!
It's dark out, but I see pueblos "everywhere!" We're headed up to Taos tonight. I hope we make it--Lamar is driving and he's a touch light-headed from the thin air and altitude.
Love, AJ
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7/9/97
Clown of the West
Leila, besides the Wild Turkey distillery being closed, the biggest disappointment of this trip is, so far, Taos. We drove in at night while listening to Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos, and "ahhed" at the slivermoon. But then we saw McDonnald's and Wendys and a Dunkin Donuts and a Ramada Inn. "This is just a trashy desert town," said Lamar (and he should know, he's from Death Valley).
Checked into a hotel that had both a Bible "and" a condom in the night stand. Swam in the pool the next morning, then drove around. Tourists, tourists, tourists. Taos is not the quaint Bohemia I imagined. traffic. Gratuitous exploitation of Indian Culture. I didn't even buy a shot glass because they were $5.00 (though gold plated).
We saw the Pueblo, but couldn't afford to park so we took pictures and left. D. H. Lawrence's bones were too far away, and I tried looking up Natalie "Dyke-Zen-Jew" Goldberg, but she wasn't listed.
On the way back to Santa Fe we dipped our feet in the Rio Grande, had our picture take by a photographer from Sacramento, and flirted with gay rednecks while driving. We bought sopaipillas for the road, and now we're off to Phoenix.
Love, AJ
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7/10/97
Monument Valley
Leila, we left New Mexico, off to Arizona. Lamar's eating the sopaipillas, so I don't have to hear about --------- for now. The best part about New Mexico was the light--we never looked better. Driving into Arizona was beautiful--the sun was setting, the sky colorful; we listened to Mama Cass and Diana Ross, and bonded over the fact that we've been together nonstop for 2 weeks and haven't grown sick of each other.
The Arizona countrside reminds me of "Thelma and Louise," and Lamar and I have been quoting appropriately. Although Lamar says our trip is more like "the Sure Thing"--the one where Daphne Zuniga and John Cusack are stuck in Middle America with no money and her father's credit card and they're trying to get to California.
We arrived at Lamar's friends house in Phoenix--it was like an early Matt Dillon film. Apparently the house is the pot/mushroom center for Phoenix slackers. We all did everything, but thanks to my high tolerance passed down from my hippie mother, I remained thankfully sober.
There was a drag queen here who had earlier gone to an antique store to purchase a skin lampshade. While Lamar went off to party at a prosthetics lab with the boys, I stayed home with the drag queen--I gave her eyebrow advice, she showed me some moves.
Love, AJ
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7/10/97
Sedona
Leila, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Now that you are officially an old woman, I hope you start wearing more purple. Our day in Phoenix began with a duststorm that filled the sky with brown dirt, wind, and lightning and murk. Like "The Last Picture Show."
While Lamar gallavanted about with the phoenicians, I hid in the bedroom reading Armisted Maupin. I felt like that guy in "The Great Gatsby" who lived with Gatsby (no, not Nick) but the other guy left over from the party who played piano.
Lamar and I went grocery shopping for tostadas and he bought beer. "Beer?" I said. "They're young and poor and they like beer," he said.
Ironically, Lamar and I are the youngest, and with their drug trade, they are the richest.
On our last night, we went to a gar bar (ofcourse). While Lamar worked trade, 3 phoenicians talked to me. "You're "so" San Francisco," one said, "Look at your shirt and at all your rings. Very Frisco. "Very" Trendy."
"And you're obviously from here," I said, "with your premature wrinkles, leathery complexion, and skin cancer."
Two weeks of drag queens cross country has made me bitchier than usual. Lamar went home with some haggared thing, and I talked with Brandy, an ass-kickin', ball-breakin', trash-talkin' straight girl with a heart of gold plate. A cross between Joan Blondell and Sally Kirkland. We fought with some prissy queens in the bathroom --------------Phoenix can stay in the ashes.
Love, AJ
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7/11/97
Oak Creek Canyon
Leaving Phoenix (thank God), we drove through hilly terrain dotted with large cactuses (cacti?) like crucifixes. I was reminded of your "Martha" poem and the saguaros. We drove through Sedona which was beautiful, and stopped here at Slide Rock park where the rocks are so smooth from the river, you can swim and slide through the rapids. So of course we did...and stole yet another postcard.
We drove to the Grand Canyon...and promptly left the Grand Canyon. We finally got to Los Vegas at night.
As we descended into the valley from Hoover Dam, I sang that Joni Mitchell song, "Look out to the right the captain said, down there that's where we land, I saw a falling star burn up, on the Los Vegas sands..."
We had a drink at a tired, tired bar where the bartender was rude. Lamar scoured the phone book for a place to stay, and we finally decided on "The Stardust" because that was the hotel from "Showgirls."
Checked in, put on our "Veda" and "Fern" shirts we got from Oklahoma City, had our steak and lobster, and with the time slots you gave me on the phone, we're off to gamble.
Love, AJ
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7/11/97
Ancient Window
"I don't know how to say it but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want--I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead..."
--Sam Gamgu
"The Fellowship of the Ring"
JRR Tolkien
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7/11/97
The Stardust
Well, Leila, I guess when you're a screaming existentialist, the stars are less than kind. I broke even during one slot (which I suppose is winning in Vegas) and I lost during the other.
But we did have a fabulous buffet lunch, bought a silver Stardust shotglass, and I pretended to be Elizabeth Berkeley on the roof of the Country Squire in the parking lot. We were dead beat last night (the trip is wearing us down) so we gambled, had magaritas ($1.25) and decided to skip the gay bars.
We had a nice rest, bought some dirt cheap fashions at a thrift store in North Las Vegas; and it's off to Death Valley.
Take care, AJ
PS-Visited New York, New York.Disturbing indeed. It was far too clean so Lamar threw his gum on the ground and we ran.
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