//------------------------------// // March 18 [the trip begins] // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// March 18 Aquamarine and I got up before the sun and took a nice relaxing shower together. It was really nice to bathe properly, and we made a good team 'cause I could fly up and adjust the showerhead so that it was in the best position for both of us. There wasn't any awkward bending around to brush out my tail or getting myself confused while looking in a mirror and working on my mane; she did mine and I did hers and we both looked really good when we were done. We talked about how much trouble we'd both had finding somebody to groom us—she'd gotten a bit luckier than I had, I think, because the campus had farriers and groomers, but then I liked the salon that Meghan had found, and I didn't think I'd be as comfortable in a barn as she was. I let her take the lead for breakfast. I knew she'd know the best place to eat. We had to ride the elevator (she didn't really like all the stairs), and I got over my discomfort by just flying above the floor and matching its speed down. Of course it had to confuse me by stopping midway so that a couple of people could get aboard, and when they were on, there wasn't really enough room for me to fly without being really rude, so I stood next to Aquamarine and just dealt with it. They should have put windows in the elevator. We went to a dining room that was a lot like the one at Kalamazoo College, and had pretty much the same things to eat. She went to a table with a bunch of her friends, and introduced me to them. I did my best to keep track of who was who, and I think by the end of breakfast I had it all right. It was nice to put some faces and scents to names I'd only seen in her letters before. We couldn't stick around for too long because we had to get to the train station, so we took our trays back to the washroom conveyer (which was also almost the same as it was at Kalamazoo College) and then headed back to her room. If I knew my way around her dorm, I would have flown up the stairs rather than take another trip in the elevator.  But I didn’t, and I didn’t want to get lost. Her human helpers were already waiting outside her dorm room, and she introduced me to them. They were Mister Barrow and Miss Parker, and both of them were just as nice and friendly as Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn. They helped us with our luggage—although there really wasn't that much—and Aquamarine woke up Jenny long enough to say goodbye. I thought it was odd that they were still having classes while we weren't, but Mister Barrow said that Kalamazoo College was on a different schedule, which is why I'd gotten out early. I guess that meant that Aquamarine was missing a day of classes. Hopefully they weren't anything important. They drove us to the train station in a small van like Sienna. Most cars have their names on the backs, but this one had a rear door that opened up on its own and so I didn't get a chance to see its name. We had to wait around so I got a chance to see a freight train pass really close by. There were round black cylinder cars that had bottoms so high off the ground that I could have walked right under them if the train had been stopped—that’s how big it was. I couldn't imagine how much stuff could fit on a train this size, or what it was needed for. When our silver Amtrak-train finally showed up, Mister Barrow and Miss Parker helped get all our stuff aboard. They were going to travel with us for the whole trip, just in case we needed anything or if there was any trouble like an angry man. Plus they were going to be tour guides and answer any questions we had. The train cars were a lot like the airplane was, with rows of identical seats all together, but it had much bigger windows. They didn't open, though. Unlike the airplane, we could pick whatever seats we wanted. I wanted to sit on the right side, because I'd be able to point out some of the Kalamazoo College campus as we went past it. It was fun going through town—we went past houses and streets and some big buildings and a few freight trains that were on different tracks, then through a wide place where several trains were stored (I think those are called yards) and then we were out in the country. I don't know if I would have recognized Kalamazoo as we were approaching it, but the conductor announced each station before we got there so people could get ready. Mostly everyone on the train kept to themselves, but there were a few people that waved at us and several young children who wanted to pet us. There really wasn't much of the campus that could be seen from the train car, but I pointed it out as we went by. Then we whizzed by Western Michigan University, and out of town. The train really started to pick up speed once we were in the country. It rushed past fields and through tiny little towns that were gone almost as soon as they were noticed. We stopped several times in Michigan, then crossed into Indiana. The roads in Ohio were better than the roads in Michigan; I'd noticed that when we went to Punxsutawney. The tracks in Indiana were worse than the tracks in Michigan. We never got up to speed after New Buffalo, and the train alternately sped up and slowed down. I could see that there were more and more factories and houses and stores and roads so I thought that we were probably getting really close to Chicago. But an hour later we were still going, and it was still mostly built-up—I was beginning to wonder just how big Chicago was. I knew that humans had big cities, but this defied belief. And all the cars! Sometimes we were next to a road—it looked like a highway, but the cars weren't moving very fast at all.  How were there so many of them? They were all crowded together, lane after lane of them all together. I even saw a truck that looked kind of like Winston, and pointed it out to Aquamarine. The tracks were also terrible. The car banged and lurched as it crossed over bad sections of rail. I guess everyone who was riding the train was used to it: Miss Parker had come back a couple of times to check on us, and when we were in Michigan she had just walked normally, but now she was bracing her hands on the seats as she walked. We finally got to the train station, and while we didn't have to rush to get to our next train, we couldn't spend a whole lot of time dallying, either, so we went to a little cafeteria and had a late lunch and walked around a bit to stretch out and went out of the building long enough to look at some of the Chicago skyscratchers, and then we had to find our way to our next train. Miss Parker was sending telegrams on her telephone to try and locate a pony who was supposed to meet us here. I tried to guess who it might be (because it wouldn't be fun to just be told). But I was wrong. We finally located her, and her human helpers. They weren't going with us, so they weren't supposed to be on the train, but they'd managed to convince the conductor to let them aboard anyway. This train was taller than the last one—it had a second floor on top of the first. Us ponies all had a room in the bottom floor, and Mister Barrow and Miss Parker had a room on the top floor in the same car. I didn't really pay all that much attention to what they were saying, because Aquamarine and I were getting acquainted with Cayenne, our new traveling companion. She was a unicorn from Canterlot, who was going to college at Northwestern. I remembered seeing her before we left Equestria. She had the most luggage of all of us, two full trunks plus her saddlebags. Aquamarine had just packed one suitcase and her saddlebags, and I just had my saddlebags. We spent the time before the train left arranging our room and exploring the train. There was a dining car more towards the front, and a car that had big curving windows. All three of us sat in the seats and talked about college. Mine was the smallest and most like an Equestrian school, while Aquamarine was at the biggest school. Cayenne liked the nightlife in Chicago; she said that there was always something going on and there were theatres and art galleries and museums and she never was lacking for something to do. She thought it was weird that Michigan State had fields and greenhouses and pastures and lots of open green space. It took us all by surprise when the train finally lurched and left the station, headed north. We stayed in the city for a long time before we were finally out into countryside, and it seemed like it wasn't that long before things started getting built-up again. I was starting to get bothered by the lack of scenery beyond buildings close to the tracks, but once we left Milwaukee we were back in the countryside. The final member of our group got aboard in Madison. She was actually wearing clothes: a little skirt and a sweater. She introduced herself as Gusty, and had just barely settled into our room when the train left the station, and our trip to see America began.