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Leaving Jacksonville, I headed down the coast highway toward St. Augustine, the earliest permanent European settlement in the New World. Along the way, I got occasional glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean as I passed by beach houses between the ocean and the road. As you can see from the accompanying picture, about the only thing left of the original Spanish settlement are some of the fort battlements. St. Augustine itself seemed to be one of those towns that caters a lot to the tourist trade, with lots of restaurants and shops near the old fort. On my way out of town, I stopped at Target (having studiously avoided all opportunities to visit Wal-Mart) and bought some socks. (I tell you: it doesn’t get any more exciting than this!) |
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I then cut across central Florida. The arguably shortest route would have been to drive through Orlando, but since one of the goals of my trip was to see the Southeast and I knew I would be in Orlando in another day or so, I took a slightly more northern route, toward Gainesville. Missing Gainesville, I then traveled down the west side of the state, through Ocala, and into Tampa just at rush hour (and just a little before sunset). Traffic was a little bit slow, but not too bad. (Kind of reminded me of home.) |
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Crossing the bridge into St. Petersburg, I made my way down toward the south end of the city, to the Suncoast Resort. I first read about the place in Mr. Marcus’ column in the Bay Area Reporter; it is apparently co-owned by one of the founders of the Baltimore Eagle. (I have to confess: back in May, I stayed at the Parliament House in Orlando for a couple nights. The Parliament House also bills itself as something of a “gay resort”, but it’s actually closer to an outdoor bathhouse, in my opinion, with people cruising the walkways and guys leaving their doors cracked open. I was somewhat afraid Suncoast might be similar, but it wasn't, not in November, anyway.) I don’t know if it was just bad luck or some form of incompetence, but it took them three tries to give me a room key and room number that matched. Ridiculous. This being November, the resort was anything but full, so I can’t really judge what sort of a place it is during the height of the tourist season. The complex houses a dozen or more shops — only a couple of them open at 6:00 on a Thursday, alas — and several bars (including the Suncoast Eagle leather bar). When I poked my head into the leather bar, probably around 8:00, it was deserted, and I have no idea if there was a good crowd there on a Thursday night or not (although I suspect not, given what I found at the Tampa Eagle). |
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Heading over to Tampa, I struggled to find the Tampa Eagle. I had an address and one of those 3" x 3" maps that you find as insets on full-state maps. Fortunately, the Eagle is located on one of the major streets in Tampa, so finding the street itself was little problem; unfortunately, the street ended several blocks before where the Eagle should have been. I eventually found that by going several blocks west, I could get around the freeway section that chopped off the street, and found a couple more blocks of the street tucked away, closer to the bay. The Tampa Eagle has a big spacious interior, a well-lit, reasonably large leather shop (where I bought a Tampa Eagle t-shirt, with its nice industrial-style logo), and an outdoor patio the size of the indoor section of the bar. This outdoor patio has a covered bar, a covered deck, and even a raised central dance floor (which was currently occupied by a St. Andrew’s Cross [not in use]), plus a lot of landscaping. In all, a very nice space. Unfortunately, the place wasn’t especially populated on this Thursday night — perhaps a dozen people — although I did get to talk with two or three local, including a couple and a bear cub named Tony. |
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