December 1
I woke up before the sun got up, and I wasn't sure what time Peggy was gonna get up. She had said that she was going to get up earlier than noon but I didn't know how much earlier and I didn't want to fly off somewhere and have her waiting on me, so I decided that maybe if John and Chrissie were up I'd go out and fly around the neighborhood and then we'd go out and do fun things. I hoped some of her friends wanted to, as well, 'cause it was always more fun with more people.
I didn't get out of bed until I heard her parents moving around, and then I got up and went downstairs and I thought I'd be helpful and make coffee for them. Their cupboards didn't have handles on them that I could pull with my mouth, so I had to hook a forehoof under the bottom of the door and pull it open that way. And then everything was crowded in there together so it was hard to get just the can of coffee and not anything else with it. But after I had it out on the counter, the rest was pretty easy, and their coffee maker was just like Aric's.
The carafe was almost full when John came downstairs and he thought I was Peggy until he came into the kitchen, and then he said that he'd thought it was strange that she was up so early. He was a little bit confused about how I'd made coffee, too, and he thought that it was leftover coffee from yesterday until he saw it was coming out of the filter basket.
He poured me a cup and one for himself and then went out and got the newspaper, and we sat and drank our coffee until Chrissie came downstairs.
She didn't believe that I'd made the coffee, either, and John had to tell her three times that he wasn't lying, that I'd done it. He said that he could dump out the pot and I could make a new pot to prove I could do it, but that was wasteful, and Chrissie thought it would take too long, anyways.
After she left for work, I snacked on some cereal that he had called Special K. I didn't know what made it so special except maybe that it had little strawberry slivers in it that melted on my tongue. The box said that they were freeze-dried, which I guess was one way that humans kept their food for later. But if you could still get fresh strawberries at the grocery store—and you could; I'd seen them—why freeze-dry them to put in cereal when you could add fresh ones yourself when you were ready to eat them?
I went upstairs long enough to put on my flight gear and I decided not to take my camelback 'cause I was just going around the neighborhood a little bit.
John followed me far enough outside so that he could turn on the Christmas lights so the house would be easier to find, and he asked if I wanted a coat or a hat or anything, since he said it was really cold, but I told him that I already had my winter coat on and I didn't mind the temperature at all. And then I called the airplane directors and I told them where I wanted to fly, and they said that I could. I think they were happy that I wasn't going to be in the way of their runways this morning.
So I took off and followed along the street until I got to the end, and then I just kept going north, parallel to the airport. I didn't turn until I got to the 24 Highway and I would have rather gone east but the airport was in my way, so I went west toward the mountains instead.
Even before I could see the sun coming over the horizon, I could see it turning the tops of the mountains orange, and as I watched it slowly worked its way down their slopes, and when it started to get close to the bottom I circled back around so that I could watch it rise, and while I waited I studied all the lights at the airport. I had had to learn what all the different colors and patterns meant so that I could get my pilot's license but I'd forgotten some of it because I hadn't ever had to land at an airport after I'd passed my test.
Once the sun was above the horizon, I went further west until I got to Academy Boulevard, which was an important road and easy to find. It had lots of businesses on it, including the Firestone, and it probably had a a college on it somewhere, too. And I followed that south for a couple of miles until I got to where it branched to the east and changed its name, and I followed that road along all the way back to Peggy's neighborhood. It was too important a road to go directly to her neighborhood, so she had to go around a bit further and come back, but I could just fly straight across the grass and fences to get back to her house.
I pushed the doorbell and John let me back in, and I went upstairs to shower.
When I was done with my shower, Peggy hadn't woken up yet, so I stood on the floor and groomed myself and then I got out my journal and wrote in it some.
She woke up while I was still writing, and she hugged me before she went off to take her shower. I kept on working until she came back into the bedroom and then I closed it up so that I'd be ready to go as soon as she was dressed.
Peggy checked what the weather was going to be on her portable telephone, and then she packed up a duffel bag with other things that she thought she might need, and she told me to make sure that I took my flight gear.
She said that we were going to meet up with Clive and Gina in the afternoon, out at Royal Gorge, and we were all going to go to the hot springs together unless the weather got bad but right now it looked like it was going to be good.
She decided that we ought to take some lunch, so after she ate a bagel for breakfast, she made some ham and cheese sandwiches for her and just cheese for me, and then she went outside and started up Cobalt so it would have time to get warm and melt the frost off the windows. And she looked through the pantry until she found a box of Triscuits that we could also snack on, and she got some apples out of the electric icebox and put it all in a plastic grocery bag.
We drove south out of town on the 115 Road, which ran alongside the mountains, and then when we got to a town called Penrose we turned onto the US 50 Road, which took us to Cañon City and then pretty quick we started driving up into the mountains. There was a bend that took us right by railroad tracks and Peggy said that was the Royal Gorge Railroad that only ran on weekends in the winter. And next to it was the Arkansas River, but I couldn't see it from my seat in Cobalt. Peggy said that we'd be seeing it in the Royal Gorge.
So we went up into the mountains and it was really pretty, 'cause all the rocks that were exposed were reds and browns. And when we got a little bit closer, I saw that there were lots of burned trees on the mountain. Peggy said that there had been a forest fire a few years ago, and that was why. And she said that a lot of the buildings in the park had burned down, too, because the firefighters couldn't save them, but now most of them had been rebuilt and the bridge had been fixed.
If we'd had a big fire like that we would have gotten lots of weatherponies to bring a really big rainstorm to put it out, 'cause the forest couldn't burn when it was all wet. But humans couldn't do that, and Peggy said that when there was a lot of wind and it was really dry, forest fires were very hard to fight, and a lot of times people had to cut firebreaks and let the fire burn everything until it got there.
She said that there were kinds of forests that needed fires to renew them, and that there were some kinds of trees that their pinecones were stuck shut until a fire burned through, and then the new trees could grow where there wasn't any competition for sunlight or nutrients.
I didn't like the idea of that. I thought that it made more sense for ponies to gather the pinecones and put them somewhere that the trees could grow, rather than letting a fire do the work, 'cause fires were dangerous. Besides burning things on the ground, they made dangerous updrafts and filled the sky with smoke.
We got off on a smaller road called 3A, and followed that back until we got to the parking area, and there weren't too many other cars there because it was early and cold. Peggy said that was why it was good to visit in the week in wintertime, because not too many tourists came.
Peggy said that there was a tram that went over the gorge which was a lot of fun and there was also a bridge that went across it, and she said that it used to be the tallest suspension bridge in the world but now there was one that was taller than it. And we could take that across, too.
Before we went inside, Peggy told me to put on my camelback and GoPro, 'cause I was going to want them. She said that I probably shouldn't wear my vest, unless I thought that I really needed it. I decided that I'd leave it off, 'cause it was more fun to fly without it when I could.
She said that it was the most fun to take the tram first and then the bridge, so that's what we did. There was a little sign saying how many people it had carried, although this was a new one because the old one had burned up in the fire.
The tram was just like the gondolas at Breckenridge, although they were a little bit squarer. And since there weren't many other people we got one all to ourselves, and I stood in the front so I had a really good view out the windshield, and Peggy stood next to me and as it went up into the air a little bit from the station, I saw more and more of the gorge, and I was starting to wonder just how deep it was, 'cause I still couldn't see the bottom, and 'cause the sides were really steep I didn't see it until we were almost overtop of it, and I wanted to go flying down in it and I would have jumped out of the tram if I knew how to work the doors.
The bridge had steel lattice towers, kind of like the kinds that held up the big electricity wires, and that was really neat to see. They weren't cement towers like the Mackinac Bridge had. And it was a really pretty silver color, and it had a nice wide deck to fly off of and land on again, and right in the middle the supporting cables were really low, so it would be easy to get over them.
It was hard to see the river and the tracks that Peggy said were right by it, 'cause they were down in shadow. And then when the tram was past the middle, we went to the other end so we could look at the other side of the canyon.
We got off in the tramhouse on the other side and there were some buildings that had displays about the canyon and some other things to do, but I was more interested in flying down off the bridge, and Peggy must have known that I would be, and that's why she told me to wear my camelback and GoPro.
So we walked back to the bridge, and then out on it, and that gave us both plenty of time to look at the scenery even though I really wanted to just gallop to the middle.
Peggy told me that sometimes people had been allowed to bungee jump off the bridge, which was a sport where you tied an elastic band to yourself and jumped off of something and then bounced back up. She said that it wasn't allowed now, though, and there was even a sign that said that nobody was supposed to jump off of the bridge. So I thought that I might get into trouble, but she said that she had a solution for that, and told me to fly above the bridge first, 'cause that way I wasn't on it. I thought maybe that was cheating a little bit, but if she said it was okay it probably was.
We went out to the center together, and then she walked over to the railing on the eastern side, and I followed her along and looked out at the canyon. She told me that she'd wait up top for me, and if she got kicked out of the park she'd stay just outside their border in Cobalt, so if I didn't see her on the bridge to fly out there instead. And then she said that I should make sure to fly under the bridge at least once so she could take a movie of me with her portable telephone, 'cause it wasn't too often that she got to look down on me when I was flying.
So I went up and over the supporting cable, and then dove down and got a little bit of forward speed before turning around and going back under the bridge, maybe twenty feet below the base of it. And then when I came out the other side I went a little ways upriver before I started descending faster.
The canyon was kind of confining, but I could still make a big spiral down it, and I stayed a little ways back from the walls in case there were Quarray Eels, even though I didn't think that they had those on Earth. And when they were adults, their burrows were pretty easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for, and I didn't see anything that looked like a burrow.
Pretty soon, I was down in the shadowed area of the canyon, and I was still a few hundred feet above the river and the railroad. And I stopped circling, and decided that I'd go upstream a little bit.
The bottom of the canyon was really pretty, and the river was wild and full of rapids. If I'd been by myself, I think I would have flown all the way to Cañon City, but I didn't want to leave Peggy behind. I didn't think of calling her on my portable telephone, but I could have landed and done that.
I went about a mile downstream, and then I turned back around and flew upstream, and once I was under the bridge I started to climb, but I went a ways upstream before I turned around and headed back towards the bridge. It was easier to make a shallow climb than a steep one, and it gave me more time to look at the scenery.
When I got closer, I could see that Peggy was still on the bridge, and she waved at me and I waved back, before I went under the bridge and back upstream some more. And I didn't turn around until I was above the lip of the canyon and the fire-scarred forest was around me.
I went a little ways above it, and I could see some fresh new evergreens poking their crowns above the ground, replacing all the ones that had burned. Maybe they were the kind that needed fire to open their pine cones.
Here and there, I saw a few little clusters of trees that had somehow survived the fire, but there weren't too many. Maybe the winds had been just right and protected them, or they'd had more water in them than their neighbors. Fortunately, I didn't have much experience with forest fires.
I was as high as the tops of the towers when I came back, and I went right over the one on the north side and then glided down, sort of following the path of the supporting cable, then I landed right next to Peggy.
She asked if I'd had fun, and I said that I would have liked to fly the whole length of it, or at least from the bridge to Cañon City.
Peggy looked at her watch and said that I could, because she could just meet up with Clive and Gina there. She said that it was probably five or six miles, and there was a train station there that I couldn't miss, so I nuzzled her and I went up and over the edge again.
This time, I just glided down. It sounded like it was going to be too far for me to make it without flying some, but I thought I'd take my time and maybe if there were some good updrafts I just might be able to make it all the way.
The canyon never really opened up until I was close to Cañon City, and the mountains were getting lower and lower. The sun had gotten high enough that even the bottom of the gorge was in full sunlight, and I was happily flying along about fifty feet above the river, keeping right over the center. But it didn't open up and flatten out until I was almost to the edge of the city.
I saw the train station right away, but I didn't see Cobalt, and since it had taken us a long time to get from the town to the bridge, I thought that maybe I'd beaten Peggy. So I landed right next to a big brown truck and I was kind of surprised when the window rolled down and Clive leaned out and asked me where Peggy was.
I said that I must have beaten her, and sure enough a couple minutes later she turned into the parking lot. It was a lot longer to drive than it was to fly, 'cause the road wound around even more than the river did.
There was another girl in the truck besides Gina and at first I didn't recognize her, then I realized that it was Leah, who I'd met in the summertime. She looked different when she was dressed in her winter clothes.
Clive said that it made the most sense for us to all go together, because he had plenty of room in his truck, and Peggy agreed, so we got our things out of Cobalt and she left it behind.
The truck was called an Excursion, and Clive said that it used to be a forest service truck. It had a big diesel motor in it, and I thought that Mister Salvatore would really like it. It was even bigger than the Suburbans that he liked to drive.
Peggy said that we were going to go to the Mount Princeton Hot Springs, and then Gina said that she thought we were going to Valley View, which she said was closer. Peggy had never heard of it, and she asked if it was nice. Gina said that you had to hike a little bit to get to the springs but they were really nice, and she said that you could even stay out after dark and see all the stars, 'cause there wasn't much of anything around them. And Leah said that there weren't as many people there usually, either.
So Peggy thought about it a little bit and said that we'd go there instead.
We drove through the mountains until we got to Poncha Springs, and we stopped for a quick meal at the Hunger Trailer, because Clive said that there wouldn't be any more restaurants when we started going south, and I was glad that he had, 'cause the food was really good there.
We went south on the US 285 Road, and it was in kind of a high valley, just the same as the road we'd gone through on the way to Breckenridge.
This was called the San Luis Valley, and Peggy said that there was a big sand dune park in it, where she'd been when she was a kid. We weren't going to get to see that, though, because it was farther south than we were going.
Clive turned off the road onto one that was called GG Road, which turned into a dirt road as soon as we went around a curve, and then just went straight across the plain, which was dry and only had little shrubby bushes. When we got closer to the mountains, though, there were bands of trees that were living where the water was, and that was also where the road finally decided it wanted to curve.
When we got up to the gate, Peggy read the sign and then looked at Gina and said that she hadn't mentioned that it was clothing optional. And Leah asked what the point of hot springs was if you had to wear clothes, and anyway she could if she really wanted to.
Peggy crossed her arms and said that it would have been nice to know that while they'd been discussing where they wanted to go, and Gina said that she was sure that me and Peggy would like it and that Clive had been nervous at first and so had she but it was totally worth it and you could wear a swimsuit if you wanted to, or not. And I told her I didn't think it would be any different than showering together, but Peggy was still a little grumbly about it.
She changed her mind when we got further back, though, 'cause it was really pretty, and probably 'cause she had time to think about it while we were walking back to the hot springs.
The springs themselves were in a little clearing that was surrounded by trees, and there was an upper and a lower one, which were different temperatures. It was made up of big rocks, and there were some rubber mats down so that people and ponies wouldn't slip when they got out with wet feet and hooves.
There were a couple little benches where we could put our clothes or sit if we didn't want to be in the water, and that was about all that there was. And I really liked it, and so did Peggy. She admitted that the ones at Mount Princeton were more like swimming pools and not as natural as these were, and she said that it had been a good choice.
Then she said that she was still going to wear her swimming clothes.
There wasn't anywhere for her to change, though, and she finally tried to drape a couple of towels over a tree branch to make a sort of screen, but they weren't cooperating and kept falling down.
I said that I could fly up to the branch and sit on it and that would hold it in place, although it was a kind of tight spot for me to fit in, and she looked at her friends who were all getting undressed on the banks of the hot spring and decided that she was being dumb.
So she went back down and she wrapped the towel around her waist and took off her pants and underwear first, and then she took off her shirt and bra and stepped into the springs and kind of shielded herself with the towel until she had her hips under the water, and then she tossed it up on shore and stretched out in the water.
It wasn't very deep—I could lie on my belly and still have my head above water, and the water really didn't hide anything, 'cause it was crystal-clear. Peggy said that she was kind of nervous because it was her first time being naked out in the open during the daytime, and Leah said that she'd get used to it, and stretched out in the sun.
I thought it was strange, because it was like being in Meghan's hot tub, or the showers together—people at first were uncomfortable with taking their clothes off and bathing together but after they'd spent a little time doing it they got more comfortable with it. And I thought that it shouldn't have been hard for Peggy, 'cause it hadn't been that long ago that we'd had our shower party together. Maybe for people it made a difference if it was people you'd been naked with before.
Everyone tried to stay as much underwater as they could, 'cause even though it was sunny and clear it wasn't very warm, and when you got out of the water you got chilly really quick, but as long as you were in it you stayed nice and warm.
Clive had been smart and had brought a big bag with food and drinks in it that we could all share, and so every now and then people would make a quick dash out of the water and get something to eat and then get back in. And we played around a little bit, splashing each other and jumping around on the rocks and running to the other pool and them coming back to this one, and as long as you weren't out of the water for too long you didn't get too cold.
We all sat next to each other to watch the sun go down over the distant mountains, and it was a really pretty sunset that painted everything orange and purple, and then after it was gone it started to get dark really quick.
Peggy asked if we should get dressed while we still had some light to see by, and Clive said that he had a lantern, and he got out of the water long enough to get it and turn it on. Then he said that we should stay for a little while and see the stars and then go, and he promised us that he had several flashlights so we wouldn't have any trouble finding our way back.
So we leaned back and watched the stars come out, and even saw a shooting star before we finally decided to get out of the water and dry off.
I shook off as well as I could, and then they all dried off and got bundled up in their clothes as quickly as they could, and Clive and Gina lead us with their flashlights.
It took Clive's Excursion a little while to warm up, and I think that while it was I was the coldest one, 'cause I didn't have any clothes to wear and my coat was still pretty damp, so Gina let me sit in the front because that seat had a butt-warmer. And then when it started to blow warm air through the vents, he started driving back to Cañon City.
I'd warmed up and dried off by the time we got back to Cobalt, and Peggy started it and then we sat in the Excursion a little bit longer and said our goodbyes, and everyone got out so that we could all hug, and we drove back to Colorado Springs together.
It was nearly midnight when we got back, and John and Chrissie were already asleep, so we went inside as quietly as we could and me and Peggy both had a beer in the kitchen and then we went upstairs and went to bed, and we both agreed that it had been a really fun day.