April 16
Since I'd stayed up late LARPing, I slept late, too.
I felt a strange sort of anticipation for the weekend: maybe I was alone 'cause Peggy and Aric were gone, and maybe I didn't have any plans, but that just meant that I'd have to come up with something to do on my own, and I was sure I could think of something.
When I looked outside, it looked all bright and sunny, and I opened the window to check and it was already warm and properly spring outside, at long last. I'd been worried that the last nice day had just been a fluke, but now I was sure spring was here for real. Any time now the trees would make leaves and the seasons would go on like they ought to.
I was already planning to go on a good long flight today, and was getting in my flight gear when my portable telephone chirped at me. I was so not used to it making noises that I looked around the room before I figured out where the noise was coming from, and then I remembered that my telephone made that noise when I had a telegram.
It was from Meghan, and she said that since it was a nice day the girls were going to go to the beach at South Haven. That sounded like a lot of fun to me—the beach in Los Angeles had been nice—and I could do something else I'd wanted to do as well. So I sent her a short telegram back saying that I was coming over to their room and we could talk about it because I knew that we could make arrangements over the telephone but that wasn't as easy as a face-to-face meeting.
So once I was over at their room I said that I wanted to fly to South Haven, along the route of the trail (that was easier, because I could follow it and there weren't any cars on it) and I could meet them on the beach and play all day and then they could give me a ride back if I was too tired to fly. I still didn't know for sure what my flight limits were on Earth.
Meghan was a little bit worried about me, but I assured her that I could fly a lot further than that back in Equestria, and it would probably be similar on Earth. She said to make sure I took my portable telephone and to call them or send a telegram if I needed help and they would come and rescue me. But I didn't expect to.
They wanted to go before breakfast to get the full day, but I hated flying on a completely empty stomach, so I said that I was going to eat first and then I'd be along.
We arranged a place to meet, and then Meghan hugged me and said that she was looking forward to seeing me on the beach and I went to get my meal while they were finishing packing up.
I didn't want to eat too much, just enough for energy that would stick with me, so I had oatmeal and a small portion of scrambled eggs. Then I got ready and called the airplane directors and once I had permission I took off and headed towards the trailhead.
The beginning was familiar, and then before too long I was in uncharted territory, for me. There were signs at every intersection so that I would know where the trail was (but it wasn't too hard to follow, since it wasn't a road), and it went northwest for a bit and then curved southwest at a place called Alamo.
I passed by a farm which had a big pipe on wheels, and then after that there was one that had lots of irrigation ditches and I went right through the middle of that one. And there were lots of little lakes and a couple of big ones on either side of the trail. Some places I could see how it was navigating the high ground, and other places I wasn't sure why it went where it did.
Right after that was a town called Gobles, and then after I was by there I was out in farmland again pretty quickly. Most of the fields were fallow, but there were some pastures that had cows or sheep in them, and some smaller ones with horses.
I considered flying down and saying 'hi' to the horses, but I was probably better off leaving them alone. I did give a friendly whinny down to a couple of pastures as I passed over, though. And it was good to know that they were there, because there were water troughs in all the pastures, and if a horse could drink from them, so could I if I got thirsty.
I did have a couple of water bottles with me in case I needed to drink and couldn't find any other source of water. And a can of anchovies in case I needed some more energy. But I'd have to land to eat or drink, and I wanted to not land unless I had to.
Not too long after leaving Bloomingdale I went over a pretty big forest that had a few houses in it. And it stayed forested until I got to Grand Junction. I knew that the Kal-Haven trail used to be a railroad, and I could see that it had once connected to another in Grand Junction. Some of the trackbed was still there, and the other railroad was still in place, and even had a train on it when I flew over.
When I got to Lacota my wings were starting to get a bit sore. This was the longest stretch of flying I'd done since I had been on Earth, and I was wondering if I was at the halfway point yet. I thought I was, but I also thought that if I had been thinking of turning back, now it was too late. I wouldn't make it back to Kalamazoo without some rest.
I still couldn't help but make a slight detour because south of town was a squiggly road with a grandstand along a straight stretch, and I wasn't sure what it was for. It didn't go anywhere; cars on it could only go around and around and what was the point of that? Unless humans had sports like barrel racing but with cars.
After that, I could start to see features on the lakeshore, and I knew I was getting pretty close. I’d been seeing the lake for a while, but it was kind of hard to judge just how far it was, ‘cause it went along the whole horizon.
Pretty soon the farmland gave way to more and more buildings which was South Haven, and the trail ended by a bend in the river. I kept close track of where that was so I could go back along the trail if I wanted, and then followed the river along until it went out into the lake, 'cause that's where the beaches were, on either side.
I had a little bit of trouble finding my friends, but not too much. They were all near where they said they'd be, sunning on the beach, and I managed to sneak in without any of them seeing me until I'd almost landed, then Amy pointed in my direction.
They weren't the only ones who noticed me, of course, and there were a bunch of people pointing and gawking when I came down and landed.
I said that I was going to go in the water to cool off, and Meghan helped me get my saddlebags and flight vest off, and then I galloped down the beach not caring who saw and when my hooves hit the firmer wet sand at the edge I took off and glided out a few ponylengths before splashing down in the lake.
It was bitterly cold but it felt really nice after all the exercise I'd just done. Unlike in California, there weren't lots of swimmers in the water. Probably they waited until it had warmed up some before going in.
When I'd cooled back off, I shook myself off on shore and then went back and everyone shuffled around to give me a spot to stretch out. Since I was wet, nobody wanted to touch me, but the sun was out and I'd dry off before too long.
They'd brought a big icebox full of food and we shared it among ourselves for lunch. I offered my anchovies, but nobody wanted them, so I put them back in my saddlebags to have for later.
I went into the water one more time, and I managed to convince Meghan and Lisa to join me. Both Amy and Becky said that we were stupid, and we agreed that was probably so, but what was the fun of coming to the beach if you didn't go in the water, even if it was cold?
They didn't stay too long, though, and I played around by myself a little bit but it wasn't that much fun to be alone so I left the water and went back with them.
We spent the afternoon sort of dozing off and on and looking out at other people on the beach and the boats that were coming out of the river every now and then. For a while Becky used my back as a pillow and I didn't mind because I had my head resting on Meghan's lap and she was petting my mane and I had no desire to move.
Once it was finally time to leave, everyone helped carry things including me (I had beach towels draped over my back). I didn't really want to leave, but I knew it was time and I didn't think I would be up to flying back to Kalamazoo on my own. So we all crowded into the Focus, me in the back between Meghan and Amy.
Although we were back in Kalamazoo in time for dinner if we hurried, nobody wanted to go to the dining hall so we ordered pizza and while they were waiting for it to arrive everyone took turns getting dressed in their lounging clothes but of course I didn't have to.
I wouldn’t have minded watching another Harry Potter movie, but they wanted something more lighthearted than that and there was a little debate before we finally settled on Over the Hedge, which I thought was really funny. Squirrels are really like that and they're always chattery and angry when you're in their tree.
The movie was almost over when Amy got a telephone call and said that it was Russ and he was going to pick her up in a few minutes, so she got some new clothes and went to the bathroom to get ready for him and pretty soon she got another call and left. I didn't think she'd be coming back for the night, because I knew why girls went to boys' houses.
We sat around talking for a while longer, until Lisa and Becky finally decided that it was time to go to bed. When I looked towards Meghan's bed she just nodded and I pushed the covers back and hopped up on the bed. Then she took her shirt off and threw it at my head. Before I could get myself free from it she was in bed and pulling the covers up, but only partway so that I could curl up on her bare chest like I liked to.
If she'd meant to throw the shirt at me to hide the fact that she wasn't wearing any clothes she ought to have pulled the covers up higher, because I could see and I was about to say something but then I thought maybe she'd be embarrassed.
I reached down with my hoof and hooked on the covers and pulled them up a little bit higher and she sort of tensed and then relaxed. Then she leaned down and kissed the top of my head and put her arm around my back and pulled me close to her.
When I was snuggled up against her to her satisfaction she traced her hand along my spine all the way to my dock a couple of times, then she leaned down and kissed me on the top of my head, and so I tilted my head back and nuzzled her on the bottom of her chin then closed my eyes and fell asleep on her chest.