Swinging the States

As I queue up to enter the double decker Amtrak train, I look forward to a little respite from the searing Texas heat, The familiar chill on all our Air conditioned carriages is an essential part of travel in the southern states be it via car or train – If you have sinus problems bad luck ! I’ve enjoyed Texas, it’s been a sharp contrast to the mild chaos and edgy bohemian charm of New Orleans. I’ve only found generous hospitality and a good serving of southern charm from all the locals I’ve encountered. The trip to Chicago takes around 13 hours passing through Arkansas and Missouri. It’s a quiet leg, I have no one sitting next to me and consider falling asleep on the 2 seats – but can’t seem to get comfortable so move into the viewing lounge where I find a row of three seats begging to be used as a makeshift bed, they seem to turn up the air conditioning to dissuade you from staying too long on these carriages but it doesn’t stop me from trying, I grab 4 or 5 hours before the sun comes up.

We enter Chicago Monday afternoon an hour late and get out in the bowels of Union station, this is the place they filmed the Untouchables with the push chair falling down the stairs scene. It’s a little confusing to find your way around, but my only concern is where to find a wifi spot. I call Scott Angelius and he gives me directions to Jason’s house where a whole bunch of Lindy teachers are hanging out. I barely put my bags down before Jenna is ushering us out of the flat and into her car to get downtown for a ‘Big City Swing’ social dance. The venue is owned by Julee Mertz and has a lovely dance floor, I feel just a wee bit intimidated as the first group that turn up are pretty much all long term Swing teachers ! So I revert to safety dance and grab someone for a Balboa shuffle Towards the end of the night as I’m settled in the corner browsing the net on my laptop searching for a motel room, a lady called Tessa notices my sad state of homelessness and offers her sofa for my stay. Tessa has been swinging and Blues dancing since the late 90’s and her place is a few blocks from Montrose on the rail system and is a great base for me to explore the City from.

Tuesday I jump on the L train and head into the center of Chicago. I love the elevated rail netwrok in this city, it makes so much sense and it’s fantastic to look out over the sprawling neighbourhoods as you trundle along heading out into the suburbs. The central loop takes you anywhere within the core of the city. I get off on the East side of the loop and head straight for the nearest clothes shop for a hoody, as I am totally unprepared for the sudden drop in temperature compared to Texas. It must be around 55 Degrees and fairly windy too. I walk just south of Millennium park to find the Art Institute of Chicago, which holds some of my favourite paintings – see pics below. I’m back on the train before 4 to make the half hour trip back to Tessa’s so we can go for a meal with some of her family members, running a little late we jump in a cab back to Big City Swing for the first of 2 workshops with Scott Angelius partnered on this occasion with the amazing Julee Mertz. We have a nice lesson and decide when it’s finished to take a couple of the folks from class to a bar where a live band played some extremely fast music.

Wednesday I was up for a 10:00am lesson with Julee Mertz working on connection and some of the material from the workshop the night before. Scott finishes up some preparation for the next workshop while I take the 103 floor elevator up the Sears Tower to walk around the SkyDeck and take some cool snaps. When I get back we both head for the Ferry tour that runs along the river and into Lake Michigan. Tessa and I squeeze in a quick private lesson with Scott before the second workshop which I found full of great moves and some nice compression / leverage techniques. After an hour of practice time at Big City Swing Tessa and I head to a nearby pool hall for a few games and some swing malarkey to the Juke box tunes.

Thursday I’m up and packed ready to make my early afternoon train to Denver. Tessa and I make our way past sears tower to reach Union station, after walking down the stairs to the spacious lobby we manage to get some swing footage to remind me of my Chicago experience. New York was my favourite city so far but I have to say Chicago has taken top spot, I guess I’m a big city kid. I love the buzz but unlike New York this place seemed clean and had a beautiful sprawling suburbia.

Chelle was waiting in her new Mini cooper at the Dallas station, it was nice to see a familiar face. I spent a relaxing evening going for a meal with Chelle and her sister at a local Mexican restaurant. I get in contact with a guy called Tim Allman who is attending the Dallas Regionals over the weekend and was after a room share at the Hyatt where the event is being held. It saves me some cash as the hotel is pretty expensive and it’s very convenient to be able to come straight off the dance floor and fall into bed.

Friday I wake up late, catching up on lost sleep – a running theme of late I really want to check out Down town Dallas so I can visit Deeley Plaza where Kennedy was shot, as a kid I was fascinated with the whole conspiracy theory. Tim is giving me a lift to Fort Worth airport where the Hyatt is located on his way up from Austin, he makes a detour through Dallas to pick me up 3 streets away from the Grassy knoll, where the Zapruda film was shot. I get half an hour to walk around the streets the fateful last journey moved through. Tim arrives and tells me he was actually a witness to the event in 1963 ! as a student he had skipped school to wave as the president drove past, Kennedy had turned and waved back at his group and soon after Tim heard the pop pop pop of gunfire from the shooter/shooters ? We arrive at the Hyatt next to Fort Worth airport and get a lovely room for just $47 each. The event starts at 7:00pm, I meet up with some of the people I found at Melody club in Houston and swing the night away. Lea and I are the last off the dance floor at 4am. People just don’t have the stamina these days !

Saturday morning I find out I’ve been entered in 2 competitions by my Houston friends ‘ Novice Strictly Finals’ and ‘Female Pro/Am Novice Strictly’ for those unfamiliar with the terminology Female Pro/Am simply means I dance with a professional follow but I’m the only one being judged. I’ve never competed at a dance event before and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was under the impression there would be a fair number of couples on the floor when I danced in front of the judges, but when I found out the Novice strictly is a spotlight with just one couple per song and the Pro/Am was only 2 couples ! Well let’s just say I could of done with a stiff drink or 4. I met Terry Roseborough early afternoon for a lesson on connection, Terry has been one of my favourite west coast dancers since I started looking at clips on Youtube. He’s a real character and it was a joy to watch him out on the floor. Julie from Houston made the drive up to join me for the Saturday social and to watch the tail end of the competitions. As soon a suitable Balboa song came up we were out there shuffling our retro style I don’t think many westie’s do Balboa and in hindsight we could have entered one of the competitions using it to baffle the judges. I ended up placing 2nd in Pro/Am with Heather Smith and 4th place with Nancy Switzer. I’m now the proud owner of 2 heavy glass trophies that I need to get back home ! I was so chuffed to get any placement, I’m glad I went through with it because I won’t be so damn nervous next time I compete.

Sunday I got up fairy early for another lesson with Terry on timing issues and Whip variations. I said my goodbyes to the lovely people I met in Texas then headed to back to Dallas with Julie to grab some food and catch my next train to Chicago due to leave at 3:40pm.

Thursday was going to be a wasted day for me, since Amtrak informed me the train I needed only runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I booked another night at India House. The only swing related event I found was at the Botanical Gardens in the City Park but it was likely to be a tame affair with little or no swing dancing. Then the Sherry family came to the rescue. Tracey the mother of Jenna, who I danced with at the Rock and Bowl, made a call out to a few local lindy hoppers. and we arranged to meet at the Palm Court Cafe on Decatur St, where the New Orleans Joy Makers played 2 sets. I had some great Balboa dances before we all moved to a bar on Frenchman Street called The spotted Cat, to catch the band Vavavroom who played some perfect Bal songs. The Sherry family are wonderful, it seems every one in their house swing dances! they certainly made my last night in New Orleans a memorable one.

Friday morning I made my way to the Amtrak station for an 11:50am departure to Houston. It takes around 9 hours with 5 stops along the way. I’m lucky to have a couple of friendly northern girls Hannah and Emma sitting with me for this leg. I actually used the dining car for the first time, and ordered some cooked food which was surprisingly tasty and only $7 or $8 for a full meal, usually I’ve just had microwave pizza and snacks. Time seems to fly by with good company and a few neck twinging naps in the reclining seats. Soon as I arrive I make my way to Radu’s flat who I’ve never met before, but is a friend of someone I know in the UK. He kindly offered an inflatable bed to use until Monday. Radu is away on business, and it turns out that I never get to meet him. Soon as I put my bags down in the apartment I start up my laptop to find the address of Melody Club, which runs a West Coast Swing night on Friday. I jump in a cab and end up paying $35 for a 10 mile ride north of the city ! I only get an hour and a half of dancing with the few die hards that stay till the end, but I get some very useful information for a West Coast event in Dallas the weekend I am due to pass through.

Saturday gave me an opportunity to check out down town Houston, which was practically empty, as I’m becoming accustomed to with US cities - except New York, which is buzzing 24/7. In the evening I took the short ride to Taft coffee house for a Lindy Class and social dance. I meet Julie Wood who is one of the teachers, she spotted my shoes and decided I was worth trying out. Top tip if you want more dances wear some worn out white shoes

Sunday I felt a little tied down to my flat complex, as I’m not really within walking distance of anywhere interesting and the cabs can get expensive. But Julie from the night before kindly offered a lift to the Lindy class at Melody Club. We arrived early at around 4:30 as Julie had a practice session for the Houston performance team Hepcats. I watched another West coast lesson that was going on and tried to remember the moves. The Lindy lesson by a chap called Ryan was excellent, working on some Charleston steps.

Monday I was due to meet Mario Rabau for a Westie lesson but he couldn’t make it. Lucky for me Julie was free for the day and we chilled out having lunch at a classic looking Diner then practiced Lindy Balboa and some Tango at a local park. It was sedate as the temperature must have been in the 90’s. After Dinner at a pizza restaurant we made our way to the Amtrak station for my train to Austin at 9:30pm. I had a great time in Houston with Julie, she shares a familiar passion for swing and her enthusiasm is inspiring.

The trip to Austin is a 2 part route with the first train ending at San Antonio with a 5 hour wait until the next train to Austin at 7am. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep, 2 or 3 hours max.I arrive in Austin at around 9:30.

Tuesday I book myself into a Super8 motel and get in touch with Bill Borgida who is an amazing Lindy and Blues teacher. I have a lesson at his house and we go over some swingout & Lindy circle moves, I find out I’m not pulsing clearly and bending too much into my knees absorbing all the essence of swing dancing and not feeling the steps working into the floor. My frame is way too stiff and me arms are tense. Standing up a little and locking the frame in from the latts rather than arm muscles loosens me up, we go over some weight transfer exercises which creates better definition in movement allowing more clairty in the lead. It’s fantastic in principle but I still fall into bad habits and need to work on this a lot. In the evening I pop down to Lamberts on 2nd street near the river and see a live Jazz band, I meet up with a friend of Bill’s - Gerald Kaiser, I was hoping that a few lindy folk may be chilling there but no one turned up until I was about to leave for an evening class. The ‘FOTF’ organisation run a fantastic Lindy class, Bill Borgida teaches there, the venue is large with a lovely floor. The temperature was up to 101 in Austin and humid to boot !

Wednesday I meet Laura Glaess for a Lindy Lesson at her apartment, she is an amazing dancer and we simply work on connection, it seems I’m doing too much of the moving around and not leading the follow with enough umph, my swing out is messed up and I keep disconnecting my shoulder frame and lead with my arms. Bad Ross. In the afternoon I drop by Gerry’s House who was kind enough to offer a bed for the night. I jump on a bus and head back to Bill’s place for a final lesson on connection again and find all manner of disconnection issues on my frame plus bad habits with smoothed out pulsing and stiff arms creeping back after the lesson I pop over to the Lindy Project for a group class with Scott Angelius and Laura Glaess amongst others. I have 2 classes the first one on some Charleston steps and the second on Blues. It just so happens that Scott is flying up to Chicago next week and will be teaching with Julie Mertz who I wanted to get in touch with anyway, so I’ll try and meet up with Scott and make it to his workshop. I get back to Gerry’s and realise I haven’t had dinner so I go for a stroll at 1am to find a 24 hour cafe.

Thursday I make it to the station for a 9:31am train to Dallas which should arrive at 3:20pm where I hope to meet an old friend Chelle who I knew from London when she was working over there as an au pair years ago.

New Orleans lost alot of it’s residents, but it plugs on regardless. I pull into the station with the stadium so familiar from all the Katrina news reports looming to my left. I walk 5 or 6 blocks from the train station to jump on a street car which runs up Canal street, it takes me right to the hostel ‘India house’ which is truly wonderful, with a very bohemian atmosphere. and at only $17 per night it’s a bargain. I’m sharing with 7 or 8 others and thank God no major snoring outbursts.

For the first 2 days in New Orleans I struggle to find any swing evenings/classes, seems there’s so much live music around that the scene gets a little disjointed. but I have time in the day to explore the French Quarter and ride the street cars into down town. on Wednesday evening I make my way to The ‘Rock and Bowl’ because I turn up early, I’m kinda forced into taking a beginner East coast lesson ehkk not my thing, I’m told off for not rock stepping  lol.  then the band rocks up and we get going with a social till 12:30. It starts a little slow but warms up by 10:00 and a younger crowd turns up, I enjoyed some great dancers and got some wonderful contacts including another student Jenna who will be going to study in London, so I hope to be introducing some Americans to our wonderful scene back home in the near future. I’m told to have a dance with a nice French lady, and only afterwards find out it’s Natalie Gomez !! who’s won God knows how many international competitions.

I chat with a chap called Jody who is mad keen on Balboa as his shirt would suggest - see pic below. He told me a girl passed through New Orleans a few days before doing the same swing travel path as me, on Amtrak too ! I get her details so hopefully I can meet her somewhere out West and share some stories.

Wednesday I spent some time exploring the South beach shopping district, in the afternoon I lazed on the beach catching up on some much needed sleep.

Thursday morning I packed up my stuff and caught the local bus down town, then jumped on the mono-rail to Miami’s train station for an 11:30am Amtrak departure headed for Raleigh North Carolina. Unfortunately when I tried booking this route the night before they informed me the train was nearly fully booked and I’d have to pay an extra $35, instead I simply booked a shorter route stopping at Tampa Florida avoiding the surcharge. My plan was to try and convince the carriage attendant that it was serious pain in the ass having a stop over on the long stretch to Raleigh, luckily she agreed and I saved myself the cost of a motel room and a ridiculous $35 charge I spent most of the 22 hour trip in the dining car, it has the most comfortable seats and it’s certainly the most entertaining place to be on a train, with all the customers and staff chatting amongst each other. We had a crazy bum on our train who was consuming Budweiser’s at and alarming rate, he told me he was just out of a half way house in Florida, and proceeded to reel off his favourite bands from the 60’s when he found out I was British. We have to wait at a standstill somewhere in Northern Florida for an hour and a half as a freight train in front of us hit a truck on a crossing! It’s the only major delay I’ve experienced so far on Amtrak. Sleeping on the train is a tricky affair, if you have 2 seats to yourself you stand a good chance of catching a few hours, I managed 5 when the chap sitting next to me got off at a stop somewhere in South Carolina at 2am, so I spread out using 4 of the tiny pillows they hand out to smooth off the hard edges on my seat rests.

Arriving in Raleigh at 9:30am the first thing I do is take a photo of the town map posted at the station so I can orientate myself. Luckily I find a wifi spot at the station and call round a few motels for pricing. Super8 seems cheap at $55 pn. Tony the guy running super8’s front desk is very helpful, his son is studying in England, and he kindly offers to take me to the local Staples store in search of a prepaid cell phone card. After which he took me on a guided tour of Raleigh! Tony is an architect by trade and shared his enthusiasm for the historic properties and rebuilding/renovating program that is sweeping through Raleigh. Friday night I head to Loafers for a night of West coast swing. As we are in Carolina I get in a little Shag practice, and at the end of the night some Lindy. I meet Julie and Becky who are keen Lindy hoppers and Julie promises to let me now what else is going on over the weekend.

Saturday I take a walk around down town Raleigh which is like a ghost town on the weekend, I get in touch with Julie who tells me to meet at a bar called Irregardless on W Morgan st. they have a live band most nights. We have a few dances then head to the busy night club strip to find somewhere to party till everything shuts at 2am.

Sunday I wake up to heavy downpour’s, and watching the news it seems storms have been wreaking havoc across a lot of the Eastern states. I jump on the bus to pick up my tickets from the station for the Amtrak leg to New Orleans then get a lift with Julie to the ’CDC’s Elks’ Lodge swind dance’ for an afternoon of Salsa lessons before the main Lindy event in the evening. Becky, Julie and I grab some dinner at the Olive Garden before returning to swing the evening away with plenty of Lindy and a little west coast swing. The people I’ve met in Raleigh have been great fun and very friendly, I hope to return one day as I find north Carolina a really beautiful state. I only wish I had more time to explore some of the National Parks in the area. Julie is an absolute angel and drives me to Greensboro for my 12:22am connection to New Orleans. As I write this I’m trundling through Mississippi with 3 hours to go.

Thursday Kat and I played pool at a local bar and then drove to meet a chap named Forest for a lesson in Balboa. He focuses on the smallest details in a movement which I always prefer to the ‘let’s learn 5 new moves’ approach. It was a little late to absorb most of his thoughts and by 2:30am I was glazing over, luckily we got it recorded to tape for future reference.

Friday We went to UCF ‘University of Central Florida’ in Orlando for their weekly dance, which is on campus, meaning plenty of students come to try a little swing. It’s a young crowd and the DJ ran a music video night, some of the tracks are a little Rock and Roll for my liking, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Then we went to a local Salsa studio for late night blues dancing till 5 in the morning, I only started Blues a few days before I left for this trip, and I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I have. I chatted to an American guy called Glen who completed a similar trip to me, but it lasted a whole year ! So he had some good tips for travel on the road.

Saturday we went to Rollins College in Orlando (another on campus venue) not so many people but the same DJ as Friday night, and this time lot’s of good swing tunes.

Sunday I checked out Disney World with Kat and Hurley, who have a bit of a reputation for dancing to any live band that perform in the Park. We had a great time and Hurley who works at Disney is an encyclopaedia of information on the park and it’s history as well as a damn fine Lindy dancer.

Sunday evening I managed to make it back to Tampa for ‘Zenda Grotto’ thanks to Kyle who drove me back from Disney as he was passing through. It’s a lovely big dance floor with plenty of big fans to keep the Florida heat at bay. After the last song we headed to a late night Diner and refuelled before swinging in the parking lot

Monday I caught the Amtrak to Fort Lauderdale and checked into the Deauville Hostel, Just before leaving Lakeland, I had emailed Tamar, a Fort Lauderdale resident, who I danced with on Friday. Asking if there was any swing in Fort Lauderdale? she very efficiently got together a group of local swing dancers for a cool little dance at her apartment complex. We ended the night swinging in the middle of a 24 hour Diner upsetting the waitress but amusing the Sherrif and a few local police officers.

Tuesday I made my way to the local Greyhound stop in Fort Lauderdale to catch a bus to Miami, 3 hours later I’m in Down town, and it’s not somewhere I enjoyed walking around looking like the obvious tourist ! After riding the mono rail and catching 2 buses I finally reached Ohana Hostel 2 blocks West of South Beach, hidden by the side of a surf shop. Had a stroll on the beach, and went for a Pizza with an Australian chap from my room, sadly no swing that I can find in this town

 

 

Jim was kind enough to give me a lift to the Greyhound station for my bus to Charleston, I only have to wait an hour before it turns up. The air conditioning is blasting all the way, but it’s fairly comfortable, not that I’d want to do any long journey’s in one. We arrive in Charleston at a typical Greyhound station in a run down part of town. I jump in a cab and tell the driver Jonathan to take me to a cheap motel with no prostitutes My only regret is that I didn’t get to see down town Charleston, which is supposed to be beautiful.

I grabbed a measly 4 hours sleep before my early rise for the train to Orlando from Charleston station. Lisa Sampler was my companion for this leg, she’s a tile and ceramics representative heading for a conference in Orlando, I think Lisa hoped to get both seats to herself but the carriage attendant has other idea’s and makes sure we all stick to the numbers we’re given upon boarding. We all get little cards placed above our seats with final destination code scribbled on it, so if anyone falls asleep the staff will run along the isle reminding you it’s your stop coming up.

I’m pleased to find out that we are seated between a 2 year old toddler in front of us, another 2 year old to our right and a old lady with a very manly snore right behind us !

The trip lasted 8 hours and stopped twice in the state of Georgia, I fell asleep for a bit before sun rise, and spent some time with Lisa in the Dining carriage with a hot chocolate chatting about Travelling, property prices and life on the move. I think Lisa shared a little wanderlust spirit and felt the urge to carry on travelling rather than settle into a day job.

When I reach Orlando I need a connecting Bus to get me to Kat’s apartment in Lakeland, which is mid way between Tampa and Orlando. I get into Lakeland at about 2:30pm and just wait until the lovely Kathleen Merriman gets off work to pick me up. I’ve never met Kat but a friend mentioned my name when she was staying with her at Swing Diego, the offer of a couch to rest my head for a few days was made - emails exchanged, and here I am ! the fellow swingers hospitality never fails to impress me.

After settling in we head off to ‘Don Vicente De Ybor Historic Inn’ for some dancing at their Tuesday night social. The crowd is young and everyone is very friendly, I enjoyed teaching someone the Bal basics and dancing with a friend I first met in Washington Andrea Kugelman, who also lives in Lakeland. There was a funny older chap running around taking photo’s, which is lucky as I left my camera at the apartment. I feel rusty with any Lindy dances and I really look forward to some lessons.

Wednesday was pretty relaxing, I tried to finish my book and checked out the local shops, in the evening I was fortunate to grab Andrea for some Balboa practice by the pool on Kat’s complex. we took a ghetto blaster and a few swing cd’s and worked on pointers David Rehm had mentioned to me, some of the local kid’s came up and asked if we were dancing Salsa !!