• Published 25th Feb 2016
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Silver Glow's Journal - Admiral Biscuit



Silver Glow takes an opportunity to spend a year at an Earth college, where she'll learn about Earth culture and make new friends.

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August 3 [West Michigan Loop]

August 3

My back was kinda kinked from sleeping in the papasan, but that didn't spoil my mood at all. I was gonna fly another long flight, and then I'd be ready to go to Chicago.

And the weather was perfect for it. It was nice and clear outside, and I turned on my computer and looked and there was no chance of rain today.

I'd already figured out where I wanted to go on the map. First, I'd thought about going to Holland, 'cause it was about fifty miles each way and I thought that would avoid all the airports, but there was one on the south side of town, and I didn't want to have to wait around getting approval to fly into their airspace.

But there were some roads that looked like they'd be pretty easy to follow, and when I measured them out on the map with a piece of string, I could get my hundred miles. A little bit of the route was going to be unfamiliar, but I'd be making my final turn and coming back from South Haven, and I knew where that was and what it looked like.

So I made oatmeal for breakfast and I made it extra mushy because one thing I'd learned from my last long flight was that I was going to run out of water before I was done flying.

I also had a can of anchovies to give me more energy, and I changed the batteries in my flashing light just to be sure that it wouldn't quit before I was done flying. Then I put on my flight gear, except for my weather radio, because I wouldn't need that.

The grumpy man was directing airplanes, and he probably would have let me fly higher above Kalamazoo if I'd asked nicely, but I didn't want to bother him and make extra work for him, so I told him that I wouldn't go higher than a thousand feet before I got to the other side of the 131 Highway and he said that would be okay.

I jumped off my balcony and then climbed up over the wires and trees and started heading west.

I cheated a little bit on my altitude, 'cause I'd been making a nice, slow climb all the way out to the 131 Highway, and when I got over Drake Road I was already at nearly a thousand feet, and I didn't want to break my rhythm, so I just kept climbing after making sure that there weren't any airplanes around, and I was at about a thousand one hundred feet when I crossed the 131 Highway.

Now that I knew that there was a grass airport off to the south of Main Street, I paid special attention for airplanes coming that way, especially since it was such a nice day for flying. I did see one airplane on the ground near the runway, but it had a cover over its windshield, so it wasn't going to be flying anytime soon.

When I got to the M40 road, which was where there was a greenhouse full of cars, I turned north and followed that. I knew that it went through Gobles, and I knew what that looked like because the Kal-Haven trail also went through Gobles, but after that I was going to be in completely new territory for me until I got back to South Haven.

I spotted the Kal-Haven trail when I was a bit south of Gobles, because it looked just the same as train routes. It went where it wanted to go, even if that was cutting through the middle of someone's fields.

There was also another grass airport off to the west. That one was even easier to see, because the wires that ran by it had big red balls on them that I could see really easily. The people I'd seen fishing in South Haven had red and white buoys on their fishing line that bobbed when a fish took the bait, and at first I thought maybe they were for something like that, but then I realized that they were so the airplanes could see the wires and not run into them.

On the north side of Gobles, there was kind of a cluster of lakes I was flying towards. I think that it was a little lower and swampier out here.

The road curved off to the east, and I followed it, past a big open lot that had a squiggly dirt trail in it, and more lakes. If I hadn't been carrying my camelback, I would have been really happy seeing all these lakes.

There were a lot of fields out here that didn't have regular sides at all, and sometimes it was pretty obvious why—I didn't know a lot about farming, but I did know that you couldn't plow a swamp, so you avoided it—but other times the woods were left in a jagged edge along a field for no reason I could determine.

Farmers were smart, though, so they must have had a reason.

I found the Kalamazoo River again in Allegan, which was where I had to change roads. I'd intended to fly all the way to the intersection, but now that I was getting closer to town, I wasn't sure that I would be able to tell where the M89 road ran through town, and I could clearly see it.

I'd cut maybe a mile off my trip if I flew over to it now, and if I got lost looking for it, I might add a mile. I decided that was worth the risk, because even if I followed the wrong road through town, I could go to the right one when I was outside of town.

I did lose it in town, and so I flew all the way to the river and over a big dirt oval on a spit of land that was around a bend in the river, and then turned and caught up to the road after it had crossed over the river. I could see that the river kind of broadened out into a lake and at the very end of it I saw what I thought was probably a dam.

The next turn was a bit tricky because there weren't any good landmarks, and I wished that I'd had a map of some sort with me. I knew that I had to turn due west, but I wasn't entirely sure which road to follow, and I wound up going too far north, because the road I was flying over stopped when the ground got swampy.

But I could see the one that I did want, just south of me, so I angled along until I got over it.

I could see Lake Michigan ahead of me pretty clearly now, and I guessed that I was a little more than ten miles from it, so navigation would be pretty easy from here on. Even if I lost the road I was supposed to be following, all I had to do was fly to the lake.

The last town I went over before I got there was called Fennville, and it was a strange town. There were lots of houses that just went along the main road with nothing behind them, and little neighborhoods that stretched off north and south a ways out of town. And they also had a collection of square ponds with fountains that I thought could be fishponds, but I was too high to see if there were any fish in them.

I crossed over the 196 Highway, and then right beyond that was the lakeshore. That brought back fond memories of driving along it with Aric on our road trip, and now I had a completely different view of it.

Lots of little boats were out, most of them pretty close to the shore but I could see some further out in the lake, too. I didn't see any big freighters, and I thought that they would probably be out in the deeper part of the lake, away from all the little boats. It had been really nice to see them going by so close when I was with Aric and when I was at the Tall Ships Festival, but those passages were really too small for them. I knew that the bigger ships at home had to be really careful when they were going into harbor, and they couldn't have very many sails set or move very fast, and I think that if they didn't have to come into port to unload their cargo and to get new supplies, they would rather stay out at sea where they had room to maneuver.

I liked having the whole sky to play around in, rather than having to stay low and watch out for trees and tall antennas and wires.

I flew a ways out over the water and followed the coastline south, and once I could see what I thought was probably South Haven, I angled out even more over the water.

Besides the boats, there were lots of seagulls flying underneath me, and every now and then I saw a shadow in the water that could have been a really big fish, although it was probably just my imagination.

I don't think that there are any really big fish in the Great Lakes. There aren't any whales or dolphins or sharks at all. Which is too bad. It's really fun to see a pod of dolphins playing in the waves.

I also kept looking over towards the other side of the lake, hoping that maybe I could see the tops of the buildings in Chicago, but they were just too far away to see, even though it was still really clear.

When I finally got to South Haven, I turned inland once I got over the harbor, and then flew southeast over the city until I found the M43 road. There's another road that goes almost due east, and it has a big, easy-to-find intersection with the 196 Highway, but that's not the right road. I probably could have followed it back and found Kalamazoo once I got far enough inland, but that wasn't the plan.

It was pretty easy to spot from the air, as long as I didn't look for it in town, 'cause it ran diagonally away and all the other roads were pretty straight.

A electrical wire path ran alongside it for a while, and I finally noticed that they really stood out because they would make really sharp turns, almost at random. If I knew where all of them were, I bet it would be possible to follow the big wires from place to place.

By the time I got to Bangor, I was starting to feel a bit of flight fatigue, and I had to keep reminding myself to pay attention to the things around me and not just focus on the road, so I started to play little games with myself to keep myself sharp. Following cars with my eyes wasn't as easy, because the road wasn't as wide or straight, so I would lose them in the trees, plus a lot of them would stop at houses or turn down other roads, which they mostly couldn't do when they were on the highway.

And there weren't any railroad tracks, either, so I couldn't watch a train or even watch for a train.

So I tried to spot the furthest away field that I could tell what direction the rows went in, and that helped me keep my head and eyes moving, which meant I was more alert.

I was really happy when I crossed over the M40 road, because that meant I was getting pretty close to town. Close enough that it was time to start thinking about descending, and this time instead of trying for a smooth descent, I did a more stairstep descent, where I'd glide for a little while, then flap my wings, then glide, and so on. Which put me a bit too high as I was getting close to Meijer, so I just glided until I was across the 131 Highway, and by then I was under nine hundred feet.

Just like last time, when I got inside, I took off all my flight gear and went right into the shower. I really needed to figure out a way to carry some extra water with me when I flew over Lake Michigan, because that would make the trip a lot more pleasant.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, though, because it would probably be cooler over the lake.

When I'd rinsed off all the lather and cooled down some, I went to the kitchen without drying off and had a light lunch, then I went back into the shower to wash properly.

I preened out my feathers and brushed my mane and tail and then I went outside to go to Meghan's so I could meet her for our salon appointment. I really didn't feel like flying all the way there, so I just flew across Main Street and landed on the sidewalk in front of the Dollar Tree.

I'd been inside and they hadn't had any trees at all.

On my way there, I did make a couple of short glides, just to work my flight muscles a little bit so that they wouldn't cramp up.

Meghan had to get changed once she got home and I should have gone upstairs to help her, but I'd found a nice sunbeam on her porch and I was enjoying it too much to move, and she promised she'd be right back down anyway.

She sat on the porch with me while we waited for an Uber-Car to pick us up, and asked me what I'd been doing, so I told her about my flight and she said that I really deserved to be pampered after flying all day like that.

Maura was really happy to see us both, and Meghan and I got to sit next to each other while we got groomed, and even though I'd already washed my mane and tail, they did for me again.

She looked at my hooves, too, even though she didn't know how to trim them. She said that they were looking pretty good, and I said that was because I'd been doing more flying and less walking on cement. I said that I still thought I'd want them filed the next time we came to the spa, just to make sure that they were in good shape.

My tummy was pretty growly by the time we were done in the salon, because I hadn't eaten much for lunch, and Meghan heard and said that instead of making a nice dinner that would take a while we ought to just have the rest of the leftover casserole and brownies and a bottle of wine that she'd bought for us yesterday and I thought that sounded like a really good plan.

It had tasted better the first time, but it was still really good, and the wine she'd picked was perfect. Maybe a little too good, because I had more than I should have, especially after a whole day out flying. It didn't really make me feel drunk, just really, really sleepy.

And then Meghan said that she thought what I really needed to relax was a good massage, and I thought so too so we went up to her bedroom and I lay down on her bed and she started to massage my wings and barrel and I think if it was possible to melt with pleasure I would have. I couldn't even move when she'd finished and I told her when she got undressed that she was just going to have to roll me out of her way and she said that I might get cold not being under the covers and I said that I would worry about that if it happened.

So she got a new sheet out of her dresser and lay down on top of the blanket next to me and put the sheet over both of us and I stretched a wing out over her belly and told her that it was all her fault for relaxing me too much,then tucked my head down against her side and closed my eyes.

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