Swinging the States

My flight gets into Portland airport at 5:00pm, I jump straight on the Max light rail service heading down town which only takes 15 minutes. Portland is a fairly small city with a great transportation network. I settle in a coffee shop to check my email and find a place to sleep. I pick a motel close by as both youth hostels are full. There is a blue’s night on but it’s in a smoky bar so I decide to watch ‘Get Smart’ at a local cinema.

Tuesday I relax for most of the afternoon in a great Pizza restaurant which serves delicious slices and salads. I catch up on some emails and wait for my next motel to let me check in so I could dump my bags. I made it to Washington Park and walk around the Japanese gardens which had a beautiful vantage point to view the City with snow capped mountains looming high in the background. For the evening I headed to Lenora’s room for some Blues. I take both lessons as it gives me a chance to meet some of the locals. Lenora’s is a fairly new venue for the organisers and is apparently a lot roomier than the last.

Wednesday I drag my bags into a nearby Starbucks and just mellow watching Portland life pass me by. I have a lot of time to waste and not a lot of options with both my bags shackling me to the local area. As evening falls I take a cab over the river to the East side of town to split the evening between 2 venues, Lenora’s is doing Lindy and ‘Paradise’ on Belmont St is having a west coast swing night. The westie night is fun and I meet someone who’s spending all 4 weeks at Herrang this summer. I hadn’t organised a motel so just jumped in a cab and told the guy to take me anywhere cheap, that turned out to be motel with a police car in the parking lot booking someone for driving a stolen car. The bed was fine even though I couldn’t tell if the door was locked, and building work started across the street at the crack of dawn.

Thursday I returned to down town so I could chill in my favourite coffee house. I contact Alana who I met on Tuesday at Lenora’s and take her up on an offer to host me for a few days, as my original host came down with food poisoning. I head over to Portland Lindy Society PPAA for a Lindy social with a live band, I get some great Balboa dances. Alana drives us back to her house in Vancouver crossing the state line from Oregon into Washington.

Friday I get a chance to sleep in late without the hassle of a Motel check out deadline ! I go for a walk on Main street in Vancouver and find some cool shops, and a great cafe selling nutella crepes. Alana and I drive back into Portland to dance at Lenora’s room, which is playing lot’s of fast music. We return home and I get chatting to Alana’s flatmate Hugo who is a fellow biker, he offers me his Honda motocross to see the beautiful sights East of Vancouver.

Saturday I grab the gear Hugo has left out for me including gloves & jacket, then head off on I14 following a stunning gorge as it traces along the state line heading East. I adore exploring by motorbike, there is something so refreshing about not having anything obscuring your views and feeling part of the scenery rather than everything being trapped in the frame of a car window. Along the route I met an American riding with his Japanese girlfriend, I help him take some photo’s and we decide to ride the rest of the route together. We take a small detour to visit a gorgeous waterfall which is apparently 2nd or 3rd highest in America. On my return I find Alana’s house party for her birthday is in full swing, after some fireworks in the street we all head to a late night blues party around someone’s pad, which runs till 6am. The sun is rising fast as we return home for sleep. I have a train to Seattle booked for 12:30 on Sunday.

Thursday’s drive to San Diego went without a hitch, with very little traffic apart from a small patch as I passed through LA but that has to be expected. I’m annoyed I didn’t allow myself more time to stop at the Balboa Peninsula and check the Pavilion where they host the Balboa Rendezvous each year. I reach San Diego around 3pm, the city is set in and around some beautiful scenery with mountains all around. Joel and Alison Plys are a such a nice couple, and I had the pleasure of both their trained eyes for some balboa lessons. I find out my ‘come around’ is all over the show, and I’m doing too much work running around the follow. Bad habits have set in and it’s going to be hard work re-training muscle memory. Before I leave Joel gives me a list of events over the next few days for me to check out. I book into my Super8 motel which has become a favourite choice for last minute accommodation as I cross America, they tend to be cheap and clean, but not cheap enough to attract the hookers. After throwing my bags down I drive across town towards the Sea to find a night of Lindy at La Jolla - YMCA Firehouse. There are a bunch of people practising a Balboa routine upstairs but I can’t join in because they are on week 6 I meet and dance with a San Diego local Cassandra Suthard who it turns out is best friends with a girl I have danced with in three States on this trip Andrea Kugelman from Florida. Cassandra is kind enough to offer a sofa for the next few days.

Friday I visited the Midway, an aircraft carrier that is permanently docked on the sea front and now used as a naval museum. Cassandra works on the Midway so I’m lucky to get a free tour, I love naval history, ever since my grandfather reeled off tales from D-Day landings I’ve been fascinated. For the evening we hit Ciao Bella in La Mesa. It’s a small restaurant but has enough space for 8 or so couples on the dance floor, it’s an intimate venue with a nice atmosphere, I was fortunate that a lot of the old school lindy hoppers had turned up for a leaving party. I met some fantastic Balboa follows and generally had a great night.

Saturday Cassandra and I went to a local beach to chill and dance in the sand. Then we headed for an afternoon of Lindy lessons at a workshop called ‘Swing out Saturday’ at the Pacific beach women’s club. After the lessons we popped down to Pacific beach to watch the sun set which was stunning. We continued the evening dancing Lindy back at the club. I met Shawn Lesniak a great swing dancer and acrobat who taught me a few moves and showed off his crazy flag pose see pic below. To finish the night we went to a bar called Reds with live music, one of our fellow swingers Carl is a singer and he often get’s on the mic at this club.

Sunday I stroll around down town San Diego with Cassandra, then we drive to Balboa Park so I could get a hoodie with Balboa on it We have lunch in the Italian district then jump in the car to make a short drive up mount Soledad to catch another sunset. The view over the city is breath taking. Ciao Bella has another Lindy night with fewer people than Friday, so it’s more of a practice night with people working on moves and studying clips on laptops. I meet Nate who is the local Balboa teacher, he’s working on some crazy moves. As soon as I return to Cassandra’s apartment I try and book my next Amtrak leg to Portland and find everything sold out for the next week ! I’m forced to buy a one way plane ticket for $261 flying out at 1:30pm Monday.

The drive down to San Luis Obispo is gorgeous on highway 101, but not as stunning as highway 1 along the coast, I planned to make that trip later in the week. Getting used to driving on the other side of the street didn’t seem so much of a big deal, but my Tom Tom probably saved me from entering highways on the wrong side a few times I arrive at the Madonna Inn at around 8:00pm. It’s themed Pink, but that aside it’s a great place with free entry and dancing till 11:30. I meet a few of the tired Blues shout travellers who were passing by on their way home in LA. San Loius is a really nice little town with a great swing scene full of students who are more than happy to work with each other to improve their dancing. I stayed the night on a comfy sofa at a friend of Cailin’s.

Tuesday I drove back up to Redwood City in San Mateo - not far south from San Francisco. I wanted to check out Carla Heiney’s class at Swing Central. I had fun in the lesson and recognised more people from Blues Shout. After the social I drove up to Barry’s house to stay one more night, it took me half an hour driving around the streets of San Fran trying to find a parking spot. And I still got a fine for $40 in the morning for upsetting the street cleaners!

Wednesday I drove south to Santa Barbara, which is such a nice place but very expensive. I head to Sylvia Sykes evening class on E Carrillo St. The class is fairly small but covers west coast swing as well as Lindy, so I’m a happy man. I meet Emily Falcon who is a local nurse that has recently taken up west coast and has also danced Lindy for years. She is kind enough to offer a blow up bed for the night.

Thursday morning I get turfed out at 6:30am because Emily has to get to the hospital for work. In a slight daze I head to the local Starbucks to organise myself. I set off for LA to meet up with my good friend from years ago Chris Lytle. He lives in Hollywood now and plays Bass guitar in various venue’s around town. Before I meet Chris I attend Lindy Groove at the Grand Ballroom of the historic Pasadena Masonic Temple. It’s an impressive building and has a great floor with a big turnout of dancers. When I’m too tired to continue I contact Chris so we can go for a late night snack at a diner near his apartment. We catch up on old times and I find out what it’s like to live in crazy Hollywood.

Friday Chris and I have some tasty Waffles for breakfast and then I go for a little drive, checking out the Hollywood sign and getting lost in the tiny winding roads up the hill. I meet up with Steve Garrett for a private lesson in Balboa, he has amazing footwork. And since he trained with all the old legends of Balboa he has some interesting tales to tell. I finish the night at Memories in LA for a social Lindy night. Then decide to drive through the night to Las Vegas ! I nearly fall asleep at the wheel so have to pull into a petrol stop and kick back the seat for 2 hours rest before heading off through the Mohave dessert, I’m glad I did because the sun was rising over the mountains and I would have missed out on some incredible scenery for the 250 miles to Vegas.

Saturday morning I roll into the strip with the bizarre Casino’s towering above me either side of the road. Disney colours, Garish designs and countless billboards advertising soft porn cabaret shows abound. I check into a Motel6 and promptly fall asleep for 4 hours before heading to some of the grandest casino’s in town. I lose $100 on roulette and slot machines then decide it’s time to give up the gambling as the buzz soon wears off. I take a ride on the roller coaster at New York New York casino which is pretty impressive as it twists around the Hotel itself. It reaches 105 degrees in the shade and I’m not one for enjoying the oven like heat, and I can’t say Vegas really appeals to me, I couldn’t find any swing, but found out later there was actually a night I could have gone to

Sunday I drove back to LA so visit the Derby club which was featured in one of my favourite films Swingers. They still have swing lessons and dancing there, but I didn’t find many lindy hoppers, primarily East coast stuff, but it was fun to be there. I ended up sleeping the night in the car as I didn’t really have time to organise anything and wasn’t in the mood to waste money for 7 hours in a motel bed.

Monday I went for another lesson with Steve Garret, then I headed north, back to San Luis Obispo for dancing at ‘Madonna Inn’ as I enjoyed it so much the previous week. Cailin hosted me at her apartment and also offered to show me around town the following day.

Tuesday we took a trip to the local beach to search for some crabs and stick our feet in the pools, then we walked around down town taking some pictures in the famous gum alley which is covered in layers of people’s gum ! Nice. In the evening we went to a private blues party at the apartment I had sleapt in the week before. I really like blues, I need to find more in London.

Wednesday I get up fairly early, and drive to Santa Barbara for some lessons with Sylvia Sykes on Balboa and Lindy. I love her teaching, she just has endless moves that she’ll reel off, we focused on some of her favourite Dean Collins styling. I met up with Emily again and we went for the evening westie class and had another hour of practice after. I crashed at Emily’s place and got up early ready for a long drive to San Diego for a meeting with Joel and Alison Plys.

My good friend from London, Larry had convinced me to give a Blues weekend a try in San Francisco, so I contacted the organisers the night before just to see if I could arrange last minute hosting, it turned out that Barry the chap who was looking after my friend could also squeeze me in. After my connecting shuttle brought me right into the heart of San Fran, Barry swung by in his blue Porche to pick me up. He lives in such a fun district of SF, it’s off Haight street and is full of hippies and vietnam VET’s. The area is vibrant youthful and just a lot of fun to walk around exploring the independent clothes stores and cafe’s. A quick luggage drop at the house, and we were off to Cat’s corner for some Lindy in a bar with a great live band.

I dragged myself out of bed Thursday morning and headed to Market street on the Muni Train. I bought myself a Tom Tom for the big road trip south, ready for the hire car I pick up on Monday. I’m just not familiar enough with the signs and highways to be comfortable navigating through cities without sat nav. Thursday evening Barry and I headed to another bar in the Tenderloin district for more live music and relaxed social dancing. Then we switched venue to 502 ballroom at 9:30pm for more Lindy on a great big dance floor. I danced with Ruby who I had previously seen at Putney Rowing club when she was travelling through the UK – small world !

Friday I met another guest Barry was hosting for the ‘Blues Shout’ weekend Rachel from Austin. We decided to explore down town SF and ended up walking from Market street to Pier39 then caught the old cable car back to the Muni train stop. We got back to Barry’s ready for the first night of Blues which was amazing, I’ve not had much Blues practice but it feels so relaxed not having to worry about step patterns – you can really get into the musicality and get taken away with mood. The best part of the evening was the ‘everyone on the dance floor Jack and Jill’ which was whittled down by the judges moving around tapping you on the shoulder to pull you out. I made it to the last stage but was very relieved I didn’t get to the spotlight finals !! the night ended for us at around 4am

Saturday Larry, Rachel, Lesley and I attended the blues classes in the afternoon then relaxed between our next long night of blues. Which lasted until around 5 in the morning. By which time I was losing confidence in my blues having seen some incredible competitions by the Pro’s.

Sunday I went to Lindy in the Park with Larry, and we were joined soon after by Rachel and Barry. It’s a great atmosphere but not easy dancing on concrete! Then I decided to hire a Harley and ride over the Golden Gate bridge, Rachel was brave enough to come with me especially as it was her first time on a bike. We explored the little town over the bay and found some gorgeous forests with little communities tucked away on a hillside. I’m beginning to fall in love with California.

Monday morning I booked my Hire car for 2 weeks and set off on the Muni to pick it up at Union Square. After all manor of problems with the booking agent and Thrifty, I finally managed to get a nice Kia Automatic. I set off South for a little town called San Luis Obispo just north of Santa Barbara, for a Lindy night at a restaurant called Madonna. I was going to meet Cailin who I had danced with at the Blues weekend and had told me all about her local scene in SLO.

I arrive into Salt Lake at around 12 midnight - I forgot to note down a number for a cab company before I leave, so I’m left feeling a little lost until I start talking to a chap standing with his family that all look like Mormon fundamentalist’s, as they seem to be waiting for a cab I ask if he know’s a local firm, luckily he was more prepared than me and had a piece of paper with Yellow cab details. my driver drops me off at a super8 motel, not before explaining how he’s been romancing a mature British lady on an internet chat room that he’ll be meeting shortly ! I wake up in the morning with some stunning scenery towards the mountains that surround this city. For most of Tuesday I walked around down town, taking a tour of the Mormon church and it’s surrounding buildings. and relaxing in a cafe that had free wifi and good chocolate brownies. 

My only swing contact in this city is Monica Peterson who I found on Youtube a year ago dancing some great West Coast swing, I had emailed her ages ago and asked what the scene is like in Salt Lake, she told me about a class and social dance night that was a little out of the city center. I did the class and met Monica for a few dances afterwards, she’s a wonderful Westie and she even taught me some 2 step. I keep checking the time as the night wore on, as my train was due at 11:30pm but it turns up closer to midnight.  I settle down for another 19 hours of westward rail to San Francisco on the Zephyr.

I arrive in Denver at 8am after an 18 hour ride on the California Zephyr, It’s a mile high city so the air is dry but fresh. My friend Andrea from Florida will arrive at 7:30pm after which we are due to meet up with her friend and our host Ashley Bartczak, so I’ve got the whole day to occupy myself. I go straight to the Denver Art museum, which is shut till 10, so I fall asleep under a statue of a bucking horse and cowboy until doors open. It’s a funky looking building and when you get inside there are some interesting angles on all the stair cases. I spend the rest of the day exploring the city visiting a local mall and riding the free buses in the Down town area. Ashley picks me up at around 9pm and we all head straight to the Friday night venue, this is my first overseas Lindy Exchange, so I’m pretty excited. We dance till about 4 then make a move for some sleep.

Saturday we visit a local park for the early afternoon event situated under a pillared stage. It’s nice dancing in the sun, but only possible because of a readily available water supply and complementary ice lollies When the music stops we head out to a picturesque spot that overlooks the local mountain range. Then we take a short 2 mile walk near the bottom of the mountains, as we climb the hillside I notice I’m way more out of breath than I should be for such a short distance travelled, then I remember how high up we are in this city, but it’s the only time I had any issue with altitude - doing Lindy all night doesn’t seem an issue. We dance for a few hours at the first evening venue which has a fantastic sound system. The late evening event is at the same venue as Friday night, It appears there can only be around 3 Europeans at this exchange ! Poor show from our lot, but I guess it is a long way. I meet a chap from London that I had not spoken to before and he gives me some useful tips on places to dance Tango in London. We retire at around 5am and sleep for a few hours at Ashley’s house which is actually in Bolder about 30 minutes north of Denver.

Sunday we check out the early afternoon event, but as soon as we find out there is no dancing we make a move to check out some sights in Denver city. Andrea has a private booked with Marty Klempner and she let’s me sit in to absorb all the great tips on Balboa. Marty is a frickin incredible dancer, and has a strong Balboa group he tutors in Denver on Monday evenings. The night is split between 2 venues, I mostly play with Balboa as Andrea is keen to practice for up coming competitions, and I enjoy converting anyone else I can find to the good old Shuffle After the final Blues dances we say our farewells and I catch a ride back to the station with a friendly chap who is heading my way. I have a 5 hour wait in the lobby and try to fall asleep on some pretty uncomfortable wooden seats until my train to Salt Lake City arrives at 10am

The track from Denver to Salt Lake has some of the most sensational scenery you’ll ever see on a train. The Rockies provide one photo opportunity after another, and it’s such a shame the light starts to fade as we enter Utah because it also holds some incredible sweeping plains with wonderful outbreaks of rocky mountains. After 3 nights on the go I was struggling to stay awake with camera in hand, but I just about managed it.