For months, Brian Davis and his four Duquesne University buddies plotted their May getaway -- a trip to celebrate his 21st birthday at the intersection of chance, kitsch and cleavage, better known as Las Vegas.Although he's a fan of the cult-movie classic "Swingers," which stars Vince Vaughn and his pals on a spin through the Strip, Davis had never visited the razzle-dazzle desert town. But his friend Zach Braun, of Philadelphia, was a veteran and served as leader of this particular rat pack.Girlfriend getaways are wildly popular, but groups of guys traveling for fun is a growing sector of the travel industry, too.That's why Scotsman Gordon Dalgleish co-founded PerryGolf, a lifestyle travel firm with offices in Wilmington, N.C., and Helensburgh, Scotland. He started the business 25 years ago so men could travel with their friends and play the best golf courses together.Molly Fitzgerald, co-owner of Frontiers International Travel in Pine, Pa., sends more than 50 percent of her company's mail to men, who eagerly sign up for dove hunting in Cordoba, Argentina; salmon fishing in Russia; and bone fishing in the Bahamas -- three trips that fill quickly.Because of the sporting nature of her business, she added, "We've always seen a great interest in getaways for guys. It could be a father and son. It could be a grandfather, father and son on a fishing trip" or a group of guys who share a passion for hunting.Whether it's eight longtime friends determined to visit every National Football League city or two restless road warriors who like to keep driving, traveling with your favorite band of brothers is so popular that it's called a "mancation." Actor Vince Vaughn used the term in "The Break-up," a romantic comedy he starred in with Jennifer Aniston in 2002.For Davis, Duquesne's classes ended on April 30 and by the evening of May 1, his 21st birthday, he was ensconced in the Luxor Hotel with Braun, Pat Corcoran, Roy Carlson and Kurt Savage.An education major who graduates next year, Davis drank his first legal beer in the ESPN Zone at a nearby hotel and casino called New York-New York, where he could watch, on different screens, the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff game and major-league baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates."One night, we all wore suits and played the tables at the Bellagio," Davis said. "We saw Penn & Teller at the Rio," adding that he liked the show because it combined lots of comedy with magic.On another evening, they visited Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel in old Las Vegas, home of the World Series of Poker. Later, they found themselves among Pens fans at the Stratosphere, a building with a circular observation deck that offers spectacular views of the Strip. Dining at Wolfgang Puck's and visiting the all-you-can-eat buffet at The Excalibur hotel were required because, as Davis said, "Twenty-one-year-olds like to eat all the time."For Greg VanHoose of Cranberry, Pa., a national account manager for Valvoline, the pressure is on this year as his eight-member group, which boasts three sets of brothers, gathers in Pittsburgh on the first weekend in December to watch the Steelers.Their goal? To watch a football game at a stadium in every city with an NFL franchise.The idea was born while VanHoose and his friend, Jeff Raider, of Chicago, watched the Green Bay Packers play the St. Louis Rams in Wisconsin on opening day in 1995."You could smell the grass. There's not a bad seat in the place. The fans are awesome. Lambeau Field is the mecca of football," VanHoose said of the stadium where Vince Lombardi triumphed as a coach.During their long weekends, VanHoose and his pals often see a college football game, play golf, sightsee and choose their next destination. Once the NFL announces its schedule in April, e-mails begin to fly and a date is circled.It helps that one of the group's members, Tom "Trey" Feazell, works at Phillips Arena in Atlanta and "always comes through with tickets," VanHoose said.Back in the '90s, when his three daughters were young, VanHoose recalled, his wife would say, "You're leaving for a long weekend, and you're leaving me with the kids."Now, his wife, Julianne, says, "Have fun." When he returns, VanHoose usually notices something new at home or on his wife."But you can't say anything about it except, 'It's nice that you bought that new bedroom set,' or 'That's a nice new outfit,' " Van Hoose said.Not all male getaway groups are small.The Hondas, founded in 1970 with 40 members, are "a boys club that's grown up," said Joe Blattner, a 54-year-old retired advertising executive from Collier, Pa. Many of the men are business owners or professionals who met when they attended Colfax or Minadeo elementaries in Pittsburgh.The Hondas took their first big trip together in 1990 to Las Vegas, where they played 3-1/2 hours of softball in 95-degree heat in a valley five miles from the Sands Hotel.By then, they were whipped and realized that, "No one had even thought about how we are going to get back to the hotel," Blattner said.So, they begged a guy with an F-10 pickup truck to give them a ride. The sympathetic motorist refused to take any money; the predicament taught the Hondas that each facet of a trip had to be coordinated and delegated."None of us has changed. We're still all kids at heart," Blattner said.At each gathering, the men sit in a room and talk through breakfast and lunch. Each of the 15 to 20 men talks briefly about what's new in his life, including health problems, marriage and children."We probably do it about every five years," said Howard Schulberg, a lawyer from Thornburg, Pa. "Joe gets on the horn and starts bugging everybody, as is his wont. He's good at that, too."A desire to watch baseball in different parks prompted Evan Durst, a 23-year-old first-year law student at the University of Pittsburgh, to map out a trip that entailed seeing 12 baseball games in 11 cities in two weeks.Durst, of Murrysville, Pa., pulled it off with three buddies -- Jesse Rosenthal, 22, of Pittsburgh; Seth Preminger, 23, of Columbus, Ohio; and Jeremy Stein, 23, a Columbia University student in New York City. The foursome spent only four nights in a hotel; on other nights they stayed with friends or relatives.During the last two weeks in May, they saw baseball games in Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Boston, Washington, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore."Two of us had just graduated, and one had just finished a yearlong fellowship. It took us a lot of planning," Durst said."We ended up logging about 4,500 miles," he added.Durst liked Boston's Fenway Park best because he enjoyed seeing the Green Monster live and the block-party atmosphere surrounding the park before and after the game.At the New York Mets game, the men had their best ballpark meal -- Italian sausages with peppers and onions. They made it a point to try local foods-- five-way chili in Cincinnati and cheesesteaks in Philadelphia."We found a very out-of-the-way, hole-in-the-wall barbecue place in St. Louis. It was the best meal of the whole trip," Durst said, adding that on his next journey, he'd like to see games in ballparks on the West Coast.The foursome saw their most exciting game in St. Louis, too. The Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Rays on a home run in the 14th inning.The call of the road and the wild summons John Frechione, 59, an administrator at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Latin American Studies. He limits his trips to the end of summer and usually travels with his friend Bob Gariano, a 58-year-old businessman who lives in suburban Chicago.In October 2003, they drove in his black Jaguar convertible to Scottsdale, Ariz., to visit Gariano's son. For eight out of 11 trips, the standard vehicle was Gariano's 1997 750iL BMW with a 12-cylinder engine, which had 350,000 miles on it when it was sold."It's the most comfortable car to sleep in," Frechione said.He records his impressions in notebooks. So far, the duo's most memorable journey was in July 2004, when they logged 7,940 miles round-trip from Lake Forest, Ill., to Alaska and back."I think we only spent two or three days in Alaska. We visited my brother a couple of days," Frechione said, adding that his friend "really likes to move. All the rest of the time was driving the 8,000 miles. That was such a beautiful drive. We actually did end up pitching a tent and camping in a few spots on the way up."(E-mail Marylynne Pitz at mpitz(at)post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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