Belinda Darcy
St. Louis, M0 to Louisville, KY

A bit of a late start today, since we only
had to do 4 hours of driving. During the
planning stages of this ambitious ex-
pedition, we had decided to schedule
one or two days of minimal driving for
the sake of our sanity. Since I was the
travel agent in the family, it was up to
me to figure out where that would make
sense. I’d always wanted to see Ken-
tucky. I associated it with the Colonel’s
fried chicken, and the Kentucky Derby,
and that song “Kentucky Woman”
(Even in the jungles of New Guinea, we
got Casey Casem’s American Top 40
every Saturday via a radio station on
Guam.) Actually I had managed to re-
member a song for every state that we’d
passed through so far, much to Martha’s
amazement. I had also discovered,
whilst poring over my copy of Women ’s
Traveller late one night, that Louisville
had no less than 6 gay bars, 3 of them
designated as “mostly women”, 2
“mostly men” and 1 “gay men and les-
bians”.Who knew it was such a hotbed
of homo activity? I had decided then
and there, that come hell or high water,
we were going to check out this little
Southern oasis.

Leaving the plains behind, we headed
into woodsy horse—country. It was gor-
geous. Fall hadn’t yet touched the
leaves, so we were surrounded by roll-

ing green hills, farms and tobacco fields. .

I wondered aloud if perhaps we should
have looked in to Louisville as a pos-
sible new home. Martha just smiled and

assured me that this was “nothing” com- -

pared to Vermont’s offerings.

We found our Holiday Inn, and Martha
went off to explore the amenities, while
I crashed for an hour. She returned, un-
impressed, whining about wanting a

A Martha and Belinda’s Excellent Adventure:

steak for dinner. Actually, she’d been
craving meat for 3 days, and I’d put it
off as long as I could. So I agreed, on the
condition that she go downstairs and ask
the male receptionist with the well-
manicured hands for a recommendation.
According to him, the best place in town
was “Kunz’s. No question, Kunz’s”.

Now, either he was on commission with
them, or for some reason took a dis-
liking to Martha - who knows - but we
lasted at Kunz’s for less than 3 minutes.
The service was fine. We were shown
to a table right away. Bread and water
arrived almost immediately, along with
2 gigantic menus, but one look at Mar-
tha’s crestfallen face and I knew we
wouldn’t be staying. Maybe it was the
complete absence of music. Maybe it
was the fiercely heterosexual clientele.
Certainly it was the decor. It reminded
me of an ancient Ramada Inn Conven-
tion Center gone to seed. Ugly low ceil-
ings, bad carpeting, unflattering flo-
rescent lights and 70’s furniture.
Martha had been so looking forward to
this, and I just couldn’t bear to see her
disappointed. I suggested we get the
hell out of there. She wasn’t sure that
we should, since the bread was “al—
ready on the table and everything...”. I
volunteered to do the formalities, so
she agreed. Feeling terribly big and
butch in my role as temporary knight-
in—shining-armour, I strode over to the
maitre d’ and calmly informed him
that we would not be staying. When he
asked why, I simply said that we were
“looking for something a little more
intimate and romantic.”

We headed over to J .Timothy’s (which
had been recommended by the local gay
hotline as gay—frequented) and had a

658-5353

For information write:
The Lavender Connection

The Lavender Connection

A Discreet Dating. Service

PO Box 546 - Colchester, VT 05446

 

July/A ugust 1993

Part 6

fabulous dinner in a lovely setting, served
by an ever-so-cute gay waiter. Martha
found steak on the menu, and I had mes-
quite grilled veggies and “Fallen Choc-
olate Souffle”. We were very happy.

We decided to check out the huge
(mixed) Connection Complex - 5 bars,
a restaurant and a theater. It sounded
like a mall. This we had to see. It had
ben renamed “The Missing Link” which
I thought sounded rather Darwinian,
and an odd choice for a gay bar. The
restaurant and video bar were open but
empty. We played a game of electronic
trivial pursuit, and then moved to the
main bar. It happened to be Country
Western night (surprise, surprise) so we
stumbled through a 2—step and then sat
around people-watching for an hour.
There’s something very sweet about 2
big cowboys holding each other tight on
a dance floor... And there’s something
very HOT about watching those line
dancers slap their boots and sashay
across the floor en masse. You can feel
the energy from 10 feet back. Great fun.
We left around midnight ears ringing,
clothes and hair reeking of smoke, glad
to be here and queer. V

(to be continued).

Read omvt
Monthly

ARANOFF

1\'I"I‘C)IKI\7E.YS [ST LA?’

UPSON

SERVING THE NEEDS OF TEE
LESBIAN AND GAY COMMUNITY

V c

Susan L. Aranoff Lisa A. Upson
28 MAIN STREET, MONTPELIER, VERMONT 05602
802.223.1418