Well good morning from beautiful P-town! Today's the third day of the Gay Real World: Provincetown, and things have been so good we're all already talking about next year. The weather's gorgeous, the town is beautiful and charming, the people are super friendly and the guys, well...can anybody say Gay Disney? When you have this many men in one place, how can there not be so much eye candy?
Here's a few notes from our big gay adventure so far:
The Trip
I don't think many of us thought much about the ride up to P-town beforehand. I know I didn't even look at the trip on a map until the night before. From where I live on Long Island, there are three ways you can get to New England: either take a ferry to Connecticut from Pt. Jefferson or Orient Point or drive around, which adds at least two hours (and a lot of miles!) to the trip. I opted to take the Orient ferry. I asked my friend Eric, one of the P-Town 'elders,' how long it would take from the ferry in New London to here and he said it would be about three and a half hours. As it turned out, it was just a wee bit longer than that.
Of course, what's anything for me without any sort of, ahem, trouble? Everything had been smooth for me that morning. I'd done most of my packing the night before and I woke up early enough to get to the ferry by 8:30, a half-hour before the ferry I had booked...or thought I'd booked. If I wasn't awake already at that time, I definitely was after the ferry worker told me I had booked the 9AM ferry alright, but from Connecticut to Long Island! And to top it off, I also added a passenger ticket to my purchase. Senility is definitely setting in...
So it was the dreaded standby for me, which turned out okay because they did get me on the next ferry at 9:30...but unfortunately I took my buddy Tim's spot because he was 4 minutes late for that one... Sorry buddy! Luckily my other housemates, Gary and Sal, were on board and the three of us traveled the rest of the way together.
So here's a couple of things I learned about traveling to Provincetown from the New York Metro area:
- Though it would seem straightforward and easy to get to the end of Cape Cod, it isn't. Most of the trip is a straight run, but there are a few odd turns and traffic circles to deal with smack in the middle of the trip to the Cape itself.
- Traffic...As with any other beach destination, there is always bound to be traffic, and in a place like Cape Cod, where there are so many beaches to go to, the traffic here, in spots, was slow-moving and a little crazy, to say the least. Thus the long ride.
Be warned!
Crazy P-town
P-town is an amazingly beautiful place! As we got closer to the town on that drive along the cape, there's a spot that Eric had told us about where you can see this majestic tower in the middle of town (Our house is actually right near that tower.). It was a beautiful site that got the excitement juices flowing. Within minutes, we were smack dab in the middle of crazy downtown P-town.
We were all given specific instructions on how to "do" the rental house...to unload our cars, we were supposed to park on the 'no parking, no standing' street, where we had to put an "unloading" sign in the window to avoid getting a ticket. We were allowed to stop for 15 minutes to unload. Easy, right?
Wrong!
Let me tell you, Provincetown is one busy summer place, and small, too! The streets during a typical afternoon are teeming with day trippers and renters and cops and drag queens on bikes. As we pulled up to the street where we were supposed to unload from, I was literally afraid to stop. People were everywhere, in the street, on the sidewalk and everywhere in between. Poor Gary was following my confused self as we circled the block a few times before we finally just bit the bullet and parked.
The House
The Gay Real World house is pretty cool. The decor is very artsy and there's no question a gay decorator did it. The space is nice, especially the (party) deck outside. The beds are all canopy and they're set up almost like a compartment on a train, and a nice one at that! I'm bunking with Steve and Tim and it's almost like I'm in my own room. Oh, and the beds are divinely comfortable!
First Night
From the moment we all got here, everyone was comfortable and happy and ready to have a good time. The drinks started to be poured and before you knew it, it was time for "Tea." Now this is where Eric and his partner Rick, and Steve and his partner Jim are great to have along with us. They're the "Elders," the ones who've been here before and have developed their own routines that we're all looking to follow.
The big thing here is "Tea," which is a daily four o'clock tea dance at a place called the Boat Slip. Virtually every gay man in town is there, and they're all drinking the dreaded Planter's Punch. If I ever thought that the Ice Palace on a holiday weekend was crowded, well, imagine that about 100 times magnified. All I can say is wow!
to be continued...
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