Jeff Cagle
Eng 111-42
6/01/09
Personal Essay

All Aboard the Disorient Express

I had been to Key West, Florida before but nothing could have prepared me for this October 2006 trip to Fantasy Fest. It was like destination key weird. Fantasy Fest started over twenty-five years ago when merchants from Key West where brain storming and came up with the novel idea of having adults dress up for Halloween. After a few years the organizers decided that this annual event needed a theme to reign in the creativity and they came up with titles like “Tinsletown Dreams,” “Junglemania,” “Call of the Wild” and this year’s theme “Key Weird on the Disorient Express”. Because Fantasy Fest draws so many people hotel rooms go for $300-$400 per night and usually sell out. One must plan far ahead to get accommodations on the island or anywhere in the Florida Keys during this week. I began my trip at the fall bike rally in Daytona called biketoberfest, which is always a blast. My queen and I spent Thursday through Saturday in Daytona, then on Sunday morning loaded the car and attached my Harley to a homemade motorcycle hauler and headed toward Key West for the adventure of a lifetime. Everyday had a new theme for costumes and Sunday was pirate night. I of course was a buccaneer and she my wench. This was my only store bought costume. Everyone dressed up like it was some sort of contest. We had planned our costumes for months and were afraid they might be a little risqué since we really did not know what to expect. In reality our costumes’ were quite mild comparatively. Like I said each night was something different; red night, toga night, plaid night-most of the women wore a catholic schoolgirl outfit, one night I was a caveman. My favorite would have to be fetish night, I had made my costume, and it was purple leather – fake of course – with wide slots cut in it. I wore my black leather chaps, collar with leash, various chains for effect. My hair had purple spikes in it. She was a “dark angel”, wings and all, black knee high boots, and of course purple accents too. The party was at an old house and you had to be in costume to enter. There was lots of leather, whips and chains, even a rack for the floggings. This party was not for the timid, shy or easily offended. There was some full nudity and much partial nudity. As it sounds people were roll playing with many fetishes; bondage, leather, nylons, boots, electrical stimulus and probably more than you want to hear about. The entire week was so much fun. The main street there in Key West is named Duval St and people would just wonder from bar to bar. All the famous ones are there Captain Tony’s, Hog’s Breath, Fat Tuesday’s, Sloppy Joe’s, and many more. It is a right of passage for some to do the Duval crawl which is to go to each bar and have a drink – I can’t drink that much. During the week there are many activities like the homemade bikini contest and body painting contest. The predominate costume was body paint. I remember asking one girl who had a red checkered shirt and blue short shorts painted on, “How long did that take to get painted on you”? “Over an hour” she replied “How much did it cost”? “If you get total coverage like this they usually don’t charge From twenty feet away you could not tell it was not clothes. No birthday suits allowed. Nudity is illegal. Key West city code specifies that body paint does not constitute clothing. The police are very lenient towards this code during Fantasy Fest though. Adults of all ages come to Fantasy Fest. Folks of all different sexual orientation are there; swingers, gays, straights, nudist, exhibitionist. The week ended Saturday night with a Duval street parade. Merchants and organizations made elaborate floats and hundreds of participants rode and walked up Duval Street tossing beads to everyone. Although I am very confident in my straight monogamous relationship it was fun to experience this very eye opening adventure of how others in our society act and react. It’s our crazy life and let’s live it to the fullest and maybe even act on those deep seeded fantasies. I’d absolutely go back again someday; I just have to save up for a while because it is very expensive.

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