Down Time At AIT

Thanks Plotnik for reading.... maybe you can give me some tips for surviving the military....

But back to my late series of posts....

During AIT in San Antonio, we had some down time, mainly during the weekends. Friday, if you were good, you got an 11 pm bedcheck... meaning 10:30... running across the barrack area at 10:59 was not a very good idea... And we got an extra treat on Saturday morning, we only had to be up by 6:30 am... but then we had to clean the barrack area until around noon or 2 pm, when the drill sergeants would run an inspection and decide if we were to be released for the day or not.... so around 3 pm, after a round of showers and waiting for cabs, we were released into San Antonio, a pack of sex-crazed and drink-hungry recruits, and that's just the females. I tended to stay away from the Riverwalk area, because, dammit, I see enough green uniforms during the week, and I'd rather see civilians in normal clothes, with long hair. So I headed to the Quarry, an upscale version of a strip-mall. There, I would indulge in my love of books, music, and movies. And then, around 4:30, I'd call up a couple of cabbies that I've used and would head towards something else that I didn't get to see enough of during the week, women in various stages of dress shaking their ta-tas at me.

I could go on and on about the strip clubs, but I'll try to keep it short and just to this one post. Most of the places in San Antonio are bring your own beer, but because of this, they're allowed to be fully nude. The first place we went to was this place called Paradise, but we didn't realize that it was BYOB. I had to run out and get a couple of six packs at the nearest gas station, but that wasn't much of a problem. Paradise is the place for you if you love latino women. It's also pretty seedy, with a large majority of clientele there being Mexican. Think of the strip bar from "From Dusk 'til Dawn" and you'll have a nice picture of it, but only in a long squat building that could almost be a double-wide. I felt totally comfortable there.

Rick's Cabaret is a nicer, up-scale "gentleman's" club. It's a bit farther away from the centre of town and Ft Sam, but to those of discrimination tastes, it's well worth it. I took a buddy of mine who's marriage had fallen on hard times there, and he forgot all about his troubles, but at the expense of his wallet. It's not BYOB or fully nude, so beer is pretty expensive there, and the girls, well, they know how to work a drink or two out of ya.

Wild Zebra is a little hole in the wall where the beer is cheap, the lap dances are only $10 all the time, and you get what you pay for. The saying from the Hustler club is reversed here: 100 ugly girls, and 3 pretty ones. Competition is tough for the attention of the pretty ones, so unless you're gonna "make it rain", go for the ugly ones. They'll appreciate it more. *laughs*

Now my home away from home was XTC Cabaret. It's somewhere between Rick's and Wild Zebra, but prolly close to the Zebra than to Rick's. Most of the guys there were ex-military (surprise, surprise) and they were rather accommodating to us fellows from FT Sam. And really, I just went there to get away from base and drink a little bit, really. At first, it was just me and another guy, and then he started telling other people about it and all of a sudden, my getaway place was crowded by other freakin' soldiers. And the worst ones there were the females. I just wanted to drink my Bailey's and support the single moms.

Like I said, I could go on and on about the clubs in San Antonio. I did look forward to the week-ends because I knew that I could go, relax, drink my drinks, and look at pretty women dancing. On the other hand, I did spend a lot of money, because between the cabs, cover, beer, and the requisite wad of singles and twenties, it could get expensive. But in my mind, it was worth it because it kept me sane. Or maybe stable is a better word, since my sanity could, and has been, questioned time after time.