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// Chapter 4- On The Road Again - 1 Feb 16 
// Story: Waking up a Unicorn 
// by Alden MacManx 
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A couple of hours later, Soaring Heart woke Rapid Transit for dinner. After eating, he took the great-grandchildren out to the yard to play. When they were done playing, they sprawled on the grass and he went back to the story.
It took about a month for me to get in shape enough to pass something the size of an RV through the gate without falling over. In that time, we went back to the RV place and looked for just the right one to bring along. I wanted to leave Oberon where he was, as a camp site for when I came back. I was sure I would, because of the treasure trove of goods inside.
That month of waiting made it so we were ready to leave about 1 Feb 2016. Being that close to midwinter, I decided to not gate to northern Illinois, which had proven to be under some inches of snow. Instead, I chose to gate in at Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where I once spent a night when I drove cross-country back in ’86. Take 40 east to 49 North, 49 north to 44 east, 44 east to St. Louis, where we pick up 70 east across Illinois to State Route 1 in Marshall, then north on 1 to Paris. Should take a couple of days, allowing for unknown range on a tank of fuel, how tired we were, availability of diesel and state of the roads.
Sara and I took our time preparing Puck for the trip. I didn’t know anything about changing oil, but we found an RV that had oil in the engine, would turn over, was relatively easy to handle, had fuel, and everything we could think of trying worked. I did make a Brodie knob mark two, which involved two hose clamps, a curved piece of metal, a thin bolt and nuts, a furniture knob and the use of a drill bit to ream out the hole big enough to sink the nuts into the top, so it would pivot without driving nuts into the soft part of the hoof. Worked better than the Mark One version, which didn’t pivot.
The next problem was to teach Sara how to drive American style. She knew how to drive British style, but she had to get used to being on the wrong side of both the vehicle and the road. Traffic was not going to be a concern, obviously. After that was learning to drive Puck through the telegate. So I needed the exercise. Did take me the whole month to be able to pass the RV through without strain.
Sara and I took a week to load Puck up with supplies, food, tools, and gifts for our new friends. I know, I could just telegate back to get them, but if we were going to move in up there, best be polite about it. Chatting with Alex weekly gave us some information about items they could use, and so we spent some time each day organizing the warehouse, so I could get at them quickly.
Leaving the dogs was not going to be easy. I made sure they had plenty of food available, the shelters would stay dry, and said goodbye to everyone, including the puppies. I did promise to come back, but I could not say when. The pack understood me. Understood me so much, that they would not let us go unless one came with us. The one chosen was Laddie, a good sized black Lab who liked being around us, even Sethra, who took to his entry into Puck with her usual disdain. A last minute addition to the crew, insisted upon by Vera, was one of her pups, a female brindle pit bull we had named Vanna. She really liked being with Sara and I, being underfoot while we explored the warehouse.
Before leaving, I took Sara with me for one trip back home. I wanted to take some memorabilia from the house, so I would have some memories of my family, not to mention some more books. But before doing that, I wanted to check the tack shop that was a couple blocks from the house. Never went into there before, but now I had reason.
“Why are we going here?” Sara asked as we walked through the trailer park to the tack shop.
“I want to see if they have saddlebags. If so, would you not agree that they would be useful?” I replied.
“You do have a point, Dom. Not something I would have thought of.”
“If they do have some, we can gate back and raid the place. The first trip is the hard one. Once in, going back is easy.”
Looking in the windows didn’t reveal much, so we forced an entry. I really hate breaking glass panes that size. Fortunately, we didn’t suffer any cuts from flying glass. Inside, we did find a bunch of saddlebags of all sizes, along with saddles, reins, and other tack. We took the ones that fit us, Sara able to get her wings outside the bags as I cinched them onto her. She did find she could fly with them on, loaded testing would come later. She flew back to my house, while I gated.
“Grampa, why didn’t you just unlock the door?” Silver Spiral asked.
“Because, kiddo, I was not feeling up to it. I was about to leave home, and I felt upset and worried. Kicking the glass helped calm me down.” Rapid Transit explained.
At home, I loaded the bags with some more books, a photo album, and something special- a cleaver in a brown wood frame presented to my grandfather when he retired in 1977. When he died in 1993, my father claimed it. Now, I will. I left behind a note, in a plastic envelope, telling my father that I had returned, and that I would check back every so often to see if he had, too. We then gated back to the warehouse, where I stowed the treasures in Puck. For once, Sara didn’t needle me, for which I was very grateful. I turned in early, to get plenty of rest before the morrow.
The next morning, Sara did the final checks on Puck, making sure all tanks were full or empty while I transited to Sallisaw, Oklahoma and the parking lot of the Saddle Inn. Turns out it was now a Days Inn. After all, it had been almost thirty years since I have been there. 
I walked around the lot, fixing in my mind the location I wanted Puck to come out at. Had I come in blind, we would have driven into the lobby, which would not have been good. I decided on a place that gave us a good straight to pull out on, and decided we would come through slowly, in first gear. After transiting, then we could kick it up a notch. I then transited back to Seven, and Sara.
Puck was up and running when I got back. I climbed in and got in the passenger seat. “First gear, Sara. Let’s take it slow going through the gate.” I said quietly.
“Scared, Dom?” she asked gently.
“Apprehensive. My first big move in a long time.” I replied before taking a deep breath and opening the gate. “Let’s do this.” 
Sara eased Puck through the silver disc, coming out in Oklahoma. I felt far less strain on my magic this time than when I first did it. I guided Sara to the interstate highway and we set off for Illinois. Sethra climbed up in the seat next to me and purred, snuggling close. She always could read my moods, even more so since I became a pony. Fortunately, Sara also picked up on it, and she just turned on the stereo, already loaded with playlists we had hashed out. Instead of the ‘traveling music’ set, she keyed to the ‘comedy’ set, leading off with the theme to ‘Super Chicken’. I looked at Sara, she glanced at me, and we both started laughing.
The kids giggled at that, having heard Grampa sing the song to himself when faced with a difficult problem. He mock-glared at them to quiet down before he went on.
We cruised down I-40 east to I-49 north, making the transition smoothly. The ramps were still strong, easily holding the RV. Sara drove for several hours, along I-49 through Arkansas, up US 71 when I-49 ended into Missouri, picking up I-49 again, following it to I-44. The emptiness was a bit disturbing, not seeing any traffic at all. No cars, no trucks, no nothing. By unspoken agreement, we left the comedy list on all the way through, needing the laughter.
We stopped to refuel, refresh and relieve ourselves, Laddie and Vanna included, at a place called Kum & Go just off I-44 in Sarcoxie, Missouri. Sara let Laddie out while I hunted up the diesel vent to pump out enough to fill Puck’s tanks. Sara explored the Kum & Go, to see if there was anything edible inside. It wasn’t long before she came galloping out.
“Dom, someone’s been here!” she called out. “There are empty packs of crisps and cookies all over the place!”
I looked up from my fueling operation. “Sure seems like someone’s been here. Why don’t you look around while I finish fueling up?” I said, glancing around. “There are some RV’s over there. Check them out, and I’ll help when this is done.”
“I’ll take the dogs with me. They should be a big help.” Sara said.  “Laddie! Vanna! Someone else here. Help me look.”
Laddie let out a woof and started sniffing about, Vanna close by. Sara led them into the store to pick up a scent. I was stuck filling the tanks. Puck has big tanks, and the 12-volt pump was slow.
The trail the dogs found did not lead to the RV park, but the parking lot for cars. They went up to a family van and alerted, Laddie sitting down, Vanna yipping, and Sara hovering, trying to look inside the van, but tinted windows made that hard. The side door slid open and a pony’s head peeked out, looking quite scared.
I could see what was going on, but not hear anything because the pump’s hum was too loud. A few minutes later, after some conversation on Sara’s part, punctuated by Vanna’s yips, the pony came out of the van. He was a dark orange color, with a brighter orange unruly mane, with a shock of bright copper mane hair between his ears. He was not as tall as Sara or I, but he sure was the chubbiest pony I have ever seen, struggling some to get out of the van.
Once the boy got out, Vanna immediately got between the colt’s forelegs, causing the colt to trip and fall. Vanna proceeded to cover his nose with slurps, causing him to giggle. I could hear the fuel coming up the fill line, so I shut the pump off and removed the hoses. Setting the apparatus to drain, I moseyed over to where the colt was losing his fight with the puppy. 
“Dom, this is Willie. He appeared here two nights ago. He’s been the mystery raider of the store. Last he remembers was falling asleep in the car on the way to Dallas, and waking up here all alone.” Sara explained, the little pony looking up from the puppy to nod in agreement, bright golden eyes showing concern mixed with joy.
“Hi, Willie!” I said with as much joy as I could muster. “Would you like to join our merry band? Vanna seems to really like you.” I asked as Vanna let out a yip of agreement.
“Where are you going?” Willie asked.
“We’re going to a place where more ponies are, so we can all live together, pooling our knowledge and skills to make our corner of the world a better place.” I told him.
“Will there be fresh food there? Everything here tastes funny to me.” Willie replied, a hopeful look on his face.
“It must be the preservatives, Coppertop.” I said with a smile, hugging the chubby pony close, Sara moving in to hug the two of us with her wings. “We got better food than what you can find in there.”
“You brought Doctor Coppertop here? He’s not fat now!” Silent Flight exclaimed.
“Yep. We adopted him right there. Yes, he was a very fat colt who grew to a nice big strong earth pony stallion, a fine doctor and a great father to his family. He learned well from us.”
“He doesn’t make me nervous when he checks me over at the hospital.” Silver Spiral said.
“At his age, he’s mostly retired, only going to the hospital when he feels like it. Now, may I go on?” he asked. The twins nodded, and he went on with the story.
Willie looked up at Sara and I. “Okay, then. Can we go?” he asked hopefully.
“But, what about your parents, Willie? Do you care about them?” Sara asked, still holding the hug.
“You’ve shown me more kindness now than they have ever shown me. They were two fitness instructors who could not stand their fat kid getting fatter by the month. We were heading to Dallas to see if I could qualify for surgery. They would not let me be ME. They forced me to exercise daily, and it HURT!” Willie said with some heat. “Can YOU be my parents?”
Sara and I exchanged a glance that held more meaning than the Encyclopedia Brittanica.  “Of course we will, Willie. We care enough to offer you our love.” She said before a flash swept over all of us.
When the flash dimmed, Sara bore a cutie mark on her flanks, one that consisted of a large red hollow heart with two blue wings, one on either side. Inside the heart were two smaller golden hearts, which left room for a lot more. “Wow…” Willie breathed.
“So that’s how Gramma got her cutie mark! When you and she adopted Coppertop!” Silver Spiral shouted.
“Got that right. Every kid, grandkid and great-grandkid in the family has a gold heart for each of them. The first two were me and Coppertop.”
“Wow… and you saw it happen!” Silent Flight said with excitement.
“That said it all, Coppertop!” I said with a smile. Sara kissed us both before letting go.
“Is Puck ready to go?” she asked.
“Fully fueled. Have to recharge the water tank and dump the sanitary before shoving off.” I told her.
“You do that, I’ll get our son settled.” Sara said possessively before leading Coppertop inside the RV.
“Stick me with the dirty work, eh?” I muttered as I went around to the side, to the water holding tank fill spout and chores.
“That’s your job, Rapid Transit!” she called out before heading inside Puck. Somehow, I knew that was going to stick…
“So Gramma gave you your name!” Silent Flight giggled.
“She did. Fits, doesn’t it? Come on, kids, let’s head inside. I smell rain coming.”
“That’s right, Grampa. Should be here in a few minutes.” Silent Flight said.
“Then, let’s go inside. Being cold is okay, being wet is okay. Cold AND wet, no thanks!” Rapid Transit grunted as he got up off the grass. “More tomorrow, okay?”