Where do I begin telling the saga of my sojourn to Thunder in the Mountains.
I guess in the wake of my successful trip last fall to Black Rose 2000, my collared submissive sunshine and a dear friend, chocolat were both eager to attend a major event with me.
  

 While I did send them to attend The Boys Class in Dallas in April, there wasn't much in the way of shared classes for all of us. I did host an impromptu 2 hour "Idle Hands are the Dominant's Workshop" that weekend, and we did have one dungeon event. But the spotlight event fell to Thunder in the Mountains which had come highly recommended to us by alexi a year or two earlier.
   

Funds were tight for this Dominant this year. even plans to attend the highly touted TES30 with my dear east coast play thing had to be shelved. I regret missing that event. But the idea to style Thunder as a road trip from Houston to Denver and back... took on a great sense of adventure for the three of us. Sharing the expenses would keep the cost down and the rapport between my collared sunshine and trainee chocolat had been going well for some time. A few vehicle preparations and a Triple A Trip-Tic later and we hit the road one Wednesday night.
   

We are an eclectic bunch to say the least. But we managed to drive from noon Wednesday straight through to Thursday around 7:30 AM (gaining an hour for the time zone change) and taking turns sleeping among the piles of luggage and kinky toys all packed in the rear of the van.
   

The running joke of the trip up there... was centered around the discovery I made that I didn't get road weary driving, if I could sing. However the combination of my singing and the serious Bass speaker I have on my stereo, caused the sleeping sunshine who had just finished her 6 hours behind the wheel... to ask me to "turn down the music", it was hurting her ears! (it was only Simon and Garfunkel no less.. you expected Metallica?)

    Lord, Colorado is beautiful. The blue skies and so much of them! The mountains, The warm friendly people! There was a good feeling for these three weary travelers as we rolled into town. We were early for our rooms at the Holiday Inn.. hopeful to get an upgrade to a suite on chocolat's priority club membership.. but there were none to be had. So we plopped down in the lobby the first leather folk to arrive. me in my "Daddy" baseball cap... and my two sluts looking just a bit ready for sleep, waiting for a clean room to become available. I knew if I started snoring there in the lobby they'd either toss or find us the presidential suite! I did not snore and the room was nothing to write home about. Beautiful Aurora Colorado and the first non smoking room had a view of.......... nothing, roof and a wall of the convention center!
   

I Was too tired to do anything but get our ten tons of kinky stuff situated. loading it precariously loaded on a cart and dragging it through the meandering lobby path to the elevators.. ( gawd I hope the back pack with all the dildoes and butt plugs doesn't fall off the cart and open all over the lobby..) as it is my crop and cane are sticking up too long for any cases. And I was tired and grumbly that my hats had gotten a bit squashed in the packing. ( ya don't want to NOT pack Sir properly) So we crashed. I think all of us managed to fit on the King sized bed... though plans for the weekend were for chocolat to sleep at the foot of Sirs bed on a pad we brought just for our pet. We were on a budget but the one big Steak dinner was planned that night. The Hotel staff recommended an interesting homespun place not far from the hotel. The wait was not intolerable and the food excellent.
   

We were not on any lists to volunteer but hey there we were a day early. chocolat phoned Rich the event co ordinator who suggested we check the convention center for a large truck full of dungeon gear. We found the dungeon folks as they had just finished a load and we offered to help .. they suggested to check back later when he next truckload came in. warm wonderful people Corwin and Chris and a few others. So off we went to the local K-Mart to get sunshine a swim suit for the pool and exercise room.
   We checked back one more time to the massive room as the Hotel staff set about locking up for the night. We all turned in deciding to catch up on real rest that didn't have to occur at 80 mph with Simon and Garfunkel in super bass.

Friday
Friday morning. Crack o dawn.. down to the gym. I'd been a stickler for us to all work out heartily before the trip. Us sea level folks were gonna have to work a bit in the mile high altitude. sunshine is the gymaholic, she found her treadmill and took off. For me. well the Lifecycle was broke. my CD player batteries were dead. I ended up on the fan cycle trying not to let it dry out my contact! We watched chocolat ( the trimmest of us all anyhow) just putter around all the equipment adding stretching and her own flavor of workout.
The sauna never got hot but the hot tub itself was a joy for tired backs and shoulders.
  

 Now off to the Holiday in breakfast bar. Lisa was our hostess a strong pretty black woman who was warm if not amused with us. She did a great job of feeding us and helping us get whatever else we needed from the hotel staff. She took good care of us and while we scrimped by doing our own bell hopping we were very generous with the hands that fed us. The food was great, by the way!
   

Still hours before registration opened but you could feel the hotel converting from a normal place of business to almost exclusively a leather event . More and more leathery type people were arriving this day. It was nice to be all set up already. We had hoped to do a few normal touristy things with our extra time. sunshine an art history buff and the spiritual center of this clan hoped to do the museum district. chocolat had never weighed in with anything specific to see but was also hopeful of some Denver tourism. I simply had hoped to visit a few of the leather stores in the area. Which brought us to Broadway near downtown Denver. Our first stop... The Crypt. A local leather/ kink emporium which was not to be vending at the event. sunshine found a perfect PVC dress her size. It had a long train that hooked up to a perfect length with some metal hardware on the small of her back. She looked so fine in it. But alas it was not in our budget.Suffice to say, chocolat would not let her "sister" out of the shop without finding a way to finance the purchase. Never did sunshine glow so brightly. We are most grateful to chocolat's ingenuity and ability to make good things happen. She was a hero in that moment.Sean of The Crypt (really from Rhode Island) was a great shopkeeper thank you sean. we marched further down Broadway and found a vintage clothes store. sunshine got a perfect PVC hat for the outfit for a song! ( not Simon and Garfunkel, no bleeding ears here) I was gifted one of those four pocket Mexican type touristy shirts but all in black! A few more shops and we jumped back in the car and headed back to registration.

    Registration went well. We each took our place in a line according to our last name and while the girls seemed to get packets with lots of stuff I managed to get my badge and shirt.. so if I don't have the full list of vendors and clubs here one can only hope ( hint hint) next year Sir Malo's packet will be properly stuffed! Some wonderful looking folks on line, and while I had never met her, I picked Fetish Diva Midori out of the crowd in an instant.Oh and look over there. Molly Devon of Screw the Roses fame. I had the pleasure of meeting her a year earlier in Houston. The energy was definitely building. The event schedule was becoming important.We had agreed to try to attend things together and I permitted each of us to have one event Purdue to either break away or bail on if need be. sunshine is the type to require an afternoon nap in normal altitudes I knew with a full day of classes barely any bathroom or meal breaks and a full night of dungeon we would have to pace ourselves carefully. A meet and greet in the lobby at seven. I knew chocolat was one of those prissy lil things, and gave her strict guidelines about being ready and having everything pressed ahead of time. With only a few exceptions chocolat was ready to go each time we needed to be somewhere. so we are all set to go.. and sunshine cannot find her id card (which included her driver's license in the same vinyl pocket.) Y-gads! We tear the room apart, no luck.

    7:15, time to go downstairs. we'll ask security for the event what to do. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable meet and greet I ever did. I spent a good time of it by myself meeting folks as the girls were looking all over for the missing ID badge. Met a neat couple from Nebraska who had a new young woman along with them.. And we met charlie the boot boy, for the first time. I like charlie a lot. she/he reminds me a lot of a dear submissive I once had of my own. Spirited and wise ,warm, yet tough in a way. I was in my Vanilla is for Ice Cream shirt under my vest. and charlie had his PIG shirt on. we traded compliments on the attire. charlie an awarded boot black, looked forward to shining folks boots, I knew he/she would do fine even without seeing the work. My soft buff Harley boots were impeccably cared for by chocolat, so I had no need of charlie's work, but the boy's exuberance and warm smile would be one of several that made the place feel like home every time we connected. Since my subs are also "boy" trained and dress the part at times we all had a good appreciation of What charlie's boot passion and service ideals are about.
   

    Taz and Gar, Keith and Joy were also new friends we made. Taz is hot. Gar a gentleman through and through. Keith a good photographer and joy soft and demure.Thanks for the photos by the elevator. E-mail us so we can send them to you. Somehow with all the trips around to the room and back and looking for the badge. we ended up making a grand entrance to the lobby event three times. It was inadvertent but my gawd the heads did turn. I know it was the women in their PVC that caught the eyes. I was glad to have such a lovely frame. I'm just one more guy in a leather vest without my dear companions. There were a lot of fine looking folks at Thunder in the Mountains. so the compliments we all garnered certainly made these out of towners feel most welcomed.
   

No sign of the badge. and while that spelled trouble as far as a driver's license on the trip back home.. we just decided not to have a crisis about it. It would turn up or we would deal with it later. security issued a new badge and sunshine had to use a second Photo ID, of all things.. a SAM'S Club card. (and if you know sunshine.... you know she is as far from a SAM as you can get. she is the original good girl) So it was a sort of humiliation play each time her photo ID was checked.

Friday Dungeon
9 P.M. and the dungeon was opened. It was in the attached convention center, but it was like a two block indoor walk from the hotel lobby. ( golf carts for lazy Doms and toy bags next year?) lol
   

We had snuck in earlier so we knew the lay of the land so to speak, but the energy was good as we entered. Lots of single tails going full force. I prefer working a chain station to a cross since I like to work all sides of my subject. We made a beeline for one such station worked up an electrical outlet for the violet wand and I put sunshine up on the chain right away. Across the way a wonderful scene with a single tail is taking place. a woman we would soon meet named Leenie was playing sonja with skill and grace. It was a joy to watch.
   

Warming up sunshine, a little wand play, the wand doesn't seem to be working well, so on to the conventional floggers and other accouterments, and sunshine seems to be very reactive this night. Before long I check her hands and wrists. she is string a lil high which doesn't help circulation and can make one more lightheaded sooner.. I'm not comfortable with her hand temperature and decide to lower her down to adjust. Unclipping the first arm... then the second and suddenly she is all but dead weight! I manage to get one leg half under her while holding the arm I have up, but she still comes down firmly. It is not expected , nor is it graceful. But she is lowered without harm so I'm grateful. Of course you always want everything in a highly pubic scene to go flawlessly... and this did not.. the altitude and high chaining had worked against us. but we had a hotel blanket and some water and soft bunny fur for sunshine to enjoy her space. She is a good sport and a wonderful play partner. Once I was assured sunshine was stable,I decided to place chocolat up on the chains . Before long the sweet dark petite woman was naked and taking my work.

    I had put cuffs on both women before entering the dungeon as a matter of convenience. It sets the tone and makes binding them so much quicker. chocolat was chained to the station and care was used this time to keep her elbows at or below her shoulders to compensate for the altitude and lightheadedness the play and posture can bring. chocolat is a pain slut of the first degree. but the watch word now was "pacing". No need to spend all the energy in one night. There was a long weekend ahead. Tonight's scene should be exciting but not totally exhausting. Little warm up was needed and soon a vigorous spanking was interspersed with her favorite purple flogger and other devices of pain /pleasure.

    It was the presentation of the knives that got chocolat's attention and seemed to form a semi circle of onlookers for a short time. Being in the middle of scene it is hard to note anything just outside of the immediate play space,so gauging the size or interest of the crowd was out of the question. The focus now HAD to be on the blades. One is a tad sharper then the other. My ability to sense the pressure upon the skin is keen but requires total focus as even having them in the wrong hands can lead to unintended scratches or worse. The blades dance across her skin, now pressed into her soft cheek, here under a breast. now, two tugging at a nipple. The girl is reminded in a whisper "Don't move sharp edges". chocolat is new to blade play and she does as she is told. Now the cold steel thrust into crotch. only the onlookers realize the knife has been flipped and it is the handle that is pressed up to her most delicate places. TRUST. the edges are played.. the giving and receiving complete. chocolat takes several good whacks from her favorite implement, the cane before she too is cut down and laid out on the blanket we brought to enjoy the new space she is in. A trio of players approaches hoping to use the chain station next. so the toys are packed up and the station made ready for the next participants.

    We took time to enjoy our head space watching the other scenes. There a brutal whipping on a very pleased male submissive. Here Midori has a handsome boy in some sort of web about his head the rest of his body free bit each movement tugging one rope or another. She later refers to this as a Mad scientist scene. An incredible fisting scene with a redhead in mickey mouse blindfold, and a wonderfully skilled femTop. The energy from the scene drew us in and held us spellbound for the longest time. Most of the business end of things were facing away from us but the sheer power of the scene.. this redhead was so free and compliant and giving of herself...I identified with the Top as I watched her skillfully work the redhead and let her rest... then come back from another direction so to speak. eventually the blindfold came off the redhead and the Top embraced and it was time for us to leave them be. But the scene left it's impressions. Some which will make even more sense later in the weekend. Sexual penetration isn't a mainstay in most public venues where we come from.. but to see it done with such energy and passion and joy was a gift.
We make the long trudge back to our room after a good hard day, knowing the weekend has just begun.

Saturday morning.
We opt to sleep in rather then the gym which may now be full of folks. After the knockout PVC outfits of the night before... sunshine and chocolat decide today is schoolgirl outfit day... Okay well they beg me for permission to make it so. This includes a trip to the local K-Mart for composition notebooks lunchpails, jacks and composition notebooks which get scrawled with Sir Malo's School for Wayward Girls. I am flying my colored hankies for Piercing Fisting and Heavy Top out of my left back pocket, not so much cruising for anything, but as a signature of my interests. After some morning rituals, we amble downstairs to meet Lisa and have our breakfast. It is a kinky lobby morning crowd and the feeling of community is complete. Except for two airline pilots and stewardesses, who look like they wandered in to a Twilight Zone set, the hotel is ours! Leather and Levis abound. Gay and lesbian couplings clearly out number the hetro community here but there is no feeling of division. the pan sexual nature of this event is sincere open and inviting.

10 AM Mark Frazier's Breath Control
Our first class begins. Mark and his two assistants welcome us in to learn about the skill and dangers of controlling another's ability to breath. I thought this was something I had learned well before in a class held in Houston. But after leaving someone with an irritated throat once after a scene, I realized how delicate and precise I needed to be. Suffice it to say I cannot give the class here on line nor am I qualified to... But It is edge play and it does take some learning. Anyone who has shared an intimate kiss with me knows how I prefer to share and then..take their breath.. and yes that is even a form of breath control. We discussed the variety of view points held by different leaders in the S/m world. Mark ( a fellow Texan) while not subscribing to Jay Wiseman's warnings that this play is not wise to attempt at all does in fact suggest reading Jay's work to understand how serious this arena is. KNOW CPR, or have someone present who does. The difference between cutting of someone's air supply , and cutting off the oxygen flow to the brain via the carotid arteries was discussed and demonstrated. Use of Gas Masks and other techniques for "taking someone under" were discussed. Sunshine who all but wet her pants to try the gas mask got her wish. in doing so she missed the plastic bag use going on across the stage from her. Suffice it to say it is all serious and intense. Remember someone deprived of oxygen for as little as 6-8 minutes may begin to suffer permanent brain damage and certainly by 12 minutes that damage will become apparent in the heartiest of individuals. this isn't something to mess around with Auto asphyxiation was touched upon in discussion and not encouraged as it is the form that most often ends in mishap and fatality. the last part of the class allowed everyone in the room who wished to experience breath control in Mark's capable hands, to do so. chocolat got her turn in the big guys arms. It was wonderful to see the "Oh Wow" face that crossed so many as they dipped for mere seconds into unconsciousness and return looking peaceful but amazed. I asked one or two questions and spoke of my earlier mishap to reinforce the need for care regarding the windpipe area ( someone once said to regard as like the cardboard core of a toilet paper roll except once it is crushed there is no real repair.) I quietly mused to myself on the submissive I once had who would immediately cum as I reached for her neck.. and another woman I know who "goes under" from the psychological overload of face slapping, while not an oxygen deprivation per say, the OH WOW reaction was also evident as she came to. I wasn't in a hurry to go try my new techniques on everyone in the hall, but I feel confident to work with breath control as one of the elements in my bag o tricks so to speak. Thank you Mark. To learn more about Breath Control or Breath Play see the vanilla-not.com Breath Control Page.

12 P.M. Midori Fear and Terror
The girl can draw a crowd to say the least. the room was filled to overflowing. Somehow we managed to get a front row seat for just about every seminar we experienced. The added bonus to that was being able to sit on the aisle and turn to see who was speaking from the audience. While I've spoken to local group on topics and in demos it was interesting to see the sheer number of people someone like Midori faces. She and her boy Hack and a few other willing assistants are all present. A large assortment of evil looking implements are laid out on the table from stun guns to a circular saw! And without giving away the techniques, I can assure you all of the "tools" were in fact used on volunteers! Midori commands a room. She is a complex of assault on the senses. Sitting on the aisle as she walks up and down pulling everyone into her sphere.... the energy she emanates is intense. From what she is wearing. to what she is saying. from her slight nervousness at the beginning to her total intensity as she caresses the subject at hand, Midori is an experience to take if you ever get an opportunity. This was my first and it wasn't a disappointment. Again I cannot GIVE the class here but I can liken it to John Warren's Mind Play workshop at BR2000. Once again the ever squirmy eager sunshine was tapped upon early to be a volunteer for a simple exercise in humiliation and mind play. No twisting of arms here. Then the poor lass who asked a question from the sidelines got to sit in the hot seat for a blindfold and a very scary demo. As Midori puts it. when we all gather in such a room such a scene is one we actually all take part in.Then the stun gun scene. The Dom who volunteered was prepared and curious to experience it....And eventually he did! but the work of setting the mind play up was handled masterfully by Midori. And that was her point. It is the building of a scene or experience that does the work. A seed or germ of an idea can be planted weeks or even months in advance building to the actually event itself. I began some similar work with chocolat later that day.. her aversion to needle play might just well end in the dungeon tonight. (<- insert evil maniacal laugh here->) Midori ended with a personal sharing that had us entirely rapt. The silence was deafening and the room became as one thing as we began to hang on every word. I was close to the woman as she walked the aisle and spoke and I knew the time for theatrics was gone. This was from the heart and It touched all who were present. By the time the doors opened I can bet the folks in the hall had to wonder what had happened in that room. It is Midori's story, I'd never do it justice trying to retell it ( so don;t ask.)

2 PM Shadow Play Dossie Easton
Off to room 4, More of an auditorium setting. I help Dossie move the table up.. she will perch on the edge of it for much of her presentation. Another diet pepsi drinker .. I;ve been reading Ethical Slut which she co-authored, on the drive up so I have some sense of who this person is before it all begins. Midori is sitting in across the asile and she is still obviously recoverign from her last session in a way.. this class almost feels like a continuation of the last one. More about what goes on inside where the previous one was about technique and the energy involved in psycological play. Without giving it all away dossie introduces herself and speaks abit about Jung one of the firts psycologists to break away from the Freudian school of behavioral theorys. Dossie gives us a diagram of conscious subconscious and unconscious states and at the bottom row.. Jumgs collective conscious layer. in the midst of all this She draws an icebergish thing which barely appears at the conscious level and is much broader in the less aware parts of the diagram. It represents our dark places.. and the things we seek to resolve or explore as we work in Lifestyle and scenes.. Lord knows I am not doing this class justice to try to explain it, But it was well worth the price of admission. I know I had some contributions to make regarding places we go and things that we resolve as a result of some of our scenes, but I think I was so engrossd in experiencing the room and the discussion I'll refer to my counterparts review of this class to help share it. I was pleased to meet this redhead who was one author of Ethical Slut and glad she signed my copy of the book.

4:PM Topping for Those who Don't: Pat Califia
One of the main reasons we elected to attend Thunder. both chocolat and sunshine have read much of this author's work and HAD to meet him. sunshine has run out of gas by this point and will NEVER in her life top anyone excpet by direction so even though she is nuts for Pat Califia, she opts to go to the room to rest. chocolat does switch to a degree.. though none of that has been formally figured out while she travels in my realm. I insist for now on bottom space only in my presence and we discuss academicaally, her travels into other places. I would not be opposed to supporting or training chocolat to Top. Frankly one of my earliest submissives sonya moved to Pro Dom having first borrowed parts of my toy bag. My reason for sitting in on this one is primarily because so many people who write to me or speak to me are still searching for their identity in all of this that it seemed to make sense, If I am to guide someone from bottom to Top or to explore such spaces, I'd do well to have the wisdom of such a class.