August 5 [Driving to Canada]
August 5
I got up a little bit early, and made myself a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast because that was a good way to start the day. And then I sat out on the balcony and let it cool a little bit and by the time I started eating, the bold birds were back at the birdfeeder, having their breakfast.
When I'd finished, I went back inside—which made the birds fly away again—and washed my bowl and then checked over my saddlebags to make sure that I'd packed everything that I would want to have with me. I decided to also take my Bible because I was way behind and maybe I would have a chance to read some more. I probably wouldn't; it's rude to read when you're with your friends unless they have something to read, too. But I'd be sorry if I had idle time and no Bible.
I didn't have to wait too long before Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn came to get me, and since I was watching out the front windows, I knew that they were here before they even had a chance to knock on my door. I grabbed my saddlebags in my mouth and flew off the balcony and around to the side, and Miss Cherilyn was just walking up to my door while Mister Salvatore was turning Sienna around.
Before we left, they wanted to make sure that I had my identification cards, and Mister Salvatore made me go through my saddlebags and show him. He said that I couldn't get into Canada without them and he wanted to make sure that we didn't get turned back at the bridge for a dumb reason.
He put on sunglasses and Miss Cherilyn asked if I wanted to sit in the front seat but I didn't mind it in the back.
When we were driving, I told them about the time I'd flown over the 94 Highway to Battle Creek and all the things I'd seen from the air. You could see some of them from the ground, too, like the big Target for semi-trucks, but a lot of things were blocked by trees. I know that we went past the dirt mine that had the bad-smelling pretty lake, but I didn't see it.
Mister Salvatore wanted to stop at Firekeepers, which he said was a casino, and Miss Cherilyn said that he couldn't with me in the van, and so I said that I wanted to go, too. She told him that he was corrupting me, but I don't see why going to a casino is corrupting. And we didn't stop anyways because if we did we'd be late to pick up Aquamarine.
Just after Battle Creek, we went around a looping ramp and got on the 69 Highway, and we followed that northeast towards Lansing. There was a town called Anger which we passed and I didn't think I'd want to go there.
We got off the highway on a road called Lansing Road, and Miss Cherilyn asked Mister Salvatore what he was doing, and he told her that it was a shortcut. She said that she didn't trust his shortcuts and if was really that great why wasn't anybody else doing it, and he said it was because they were all sheep blindly following their GPS when anybody who could read a map would see this was half the distance.
I don't know if it was any shorter, but we got on the 96 Highway and took that to the 127 Highway and then took Trowbridge Road and drove past the train station and then followed a road called Mt. Hope to get to Aquamarine's apartment.
Miss Cherilyn went in to get her, and a few minutes later, Miss Cherilyn came back with Aquamarine, and she hopped into the back of the van with me and we nuzzled each other and said how much we were looking forward to Stratford.
Well, we couldn't go until Aquamarine showed Mister Salvatore that she had her identification cards, too, and when she did, he drove us back to the 127 Highway and instead of going back south to the 96 Highway, we went north and turned back on the 69 Highway.
Both of us knew the first part of the trip—that was how we'd gotten to the Tall Ships Festival—so we talked 'cause there wasn't anything new for us to see until we didn't go on the 75 Highway.
Right after the exit we didn't take, the road got really bad, and we went past neighborhoods of run-down houses and dead trees and I asked where we were. Miss Cherilyn said that this was Flint, and it had once been known for making Buick cars, but now it was notorious for having poison water.
Well, that didn't sound like anyplace I wanted to visit.
After we left Flint, it turned into farmland on both sides of the highway, and it stayed that way until we got to Port Huron. We joined up with the 94 Highway, and then there were a bunch of signs warning us that the next exit was the last exit before Canada and then more warnings that traffic was going to stop.
And it did; there was a long line of cars and trucks waiting to go through the little booths that were set up across the highway. They were like the tollbooths, but slower, and there wasn't an EZ-Pass lane.
A man in the booth asked a couple of questions and then Mister Salvatore paid the toll and we went on the bridge.
When we were on the other side, there was another set of booths that was wider, and the line was longer, and we had to go into a special lane and park near a building called Canadian Border Services Agency.
Before we got out, Mister Salvatore gave me and Aquamarine a clip-on earring with a number on it and he said that we had to wear them until we got back in the van.
All of us had to get out of Sienna and go inside, and then we met with three men in blue uniforms and for a little bit me and Aquamarine didn't have anything much to do, because Mister Salvatore was showing them a bunch of papers.
Then I got called and I had to show one of the men my identification card, and he said that he had to ask me some questions. So he started out by asking if Silver Glow was really my name and what my hometown in Equestria was and where I was going to school, then he asked me how long I would be staying in Canada, why I was visiting, and if I had been to Texas or New Mexico in the last three weeks.
So I answered all his questions and then he asked me if I'd been around any other horses in the last six months, and he didn't seem too happy that I had been out at a horse farm yesterday. So he started asking me if any of the horses there were sick and I said that I didn't think so. And he looked at my earring and then made a note on a piece of paper.
I guess he was happy with my answers, because he let me go back with everyone else, and then he called Aquamarine in, and she was gone for about five minutes before she came back out, too.
They welcomed us to Canada and let us go back outside and get in Sienna and when we were moving again Miss Cherilyn took back our earrings and I asked why we'd had to wear them.
Mister Salvatore said that one of the requirements for a horse to go to Canada was that it had to have an identifying number on an ear-tag, mane-tag, or neck-tag, and he thought it was a stupid requirement for us but since it was the law, he had no choice.
And then Miss Cherilyn said that they would have let us in without them, and Mister Salvatore grinned and said that he'd wanted to make sure that we were in full compliance, and besides, had she noticed how embarrassed the one border guard looked each time she saw us sitting there with numbers in our ears.
We got off the highway—which was now called the 402 Highway—so that we could have lunch. We drove to a Tim Horton's, because Mister Salvatore said that their food was better in Canada. It was right across the street from a big park called the Hiawatha Horse Park, and he asked if when we were done eating we wanted to go over to the park, and we both did.
He wasn't expecting us to say yes, I guess.
Well, it was more parking lot and less park, so it wasn't very pretty at all. He said it was for horse racing, and Aquamarine wanted to know if we could run around the track, and he said maybe we'd do that on the way back but he had a rule to never be deported from a country within one hour of entering it.
He did have us stand by the sign at the front and had Miss Cherilyn take a picture of us and him, then we got back on the 402 Highway.
Ontario was pretty flat, and the highway went much straighter than any of the highways that I'd flown along in Michigan. But we kept our eyes outside the van just to see what we could, because we were in a new country now and that was pretty exciting.
Off in the distance to the south I could see some big white windmills, and Miss Cherilyn said that the south part of Ontario was covered with them. She said that in America, most people were against free electricity, but in Canada they were more practical and made lots of it and then sold it to America.
When we got to the 81 road, we went north and then turned off it and went along the 19 road. There weren't very many towns at all—it was mostly fields and trees. It was like being on the train, almost. When we got close to a town, there would be a few big advertisement signs, and then we'd go through a little town and then we'd be back in fields.
After passing by a town called St. Marys, we went by a big reservoir, and then pretty soon we were back to farmland again.
We finally got to Stratford, and Mister Salvatore drove us to the hotel, which was called the Bruce. He got the cards for their room and for our room, and he gave us our cards (we also had an extra one for Cayenne when she arrived) and he said that Gusty was already here and so we put our things in our room and then went to see her.
Gusty was really happy to see us, and we all hugged and nuzzled and she said that she was really excited for the show and she'd been going over her lines to make sure that she got them all right and Nicky was coming to watch the play, too but she wouldn't be here until tomorrow morning.
So we said that we could stay in her room tonight if she wanted us to, so she wouldn't be lonely, and she smiled and hugged us again and said that that meant a lot to her.
We talked up until it was dinnertime and then Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn found us and took us to the restaurant which they said was the very best in all of Stratford.
He was telling the truth about the meal—it was really good. All three of us studied the menu and decided to get the farm salad and the summer squash composition, and we also got a grilled romanesco cauliflower and I got an ivory salmon, and we shared everything between us except for the salmon because neither Aquamarine nor Gusty wanted to try it.
And then they had a good dessert menu, too, and my eye was drawn right to the sunset on 21, because it had cloudberries in it, which are really yummy. So we got that and also a cheese plate and we shared that, too. Aquamarine was kinda surprised that Gusty had suggested the cheese plate, 'cause she said that most unicorns don't like cheese.
We all needed to stretch our legs after that meal, so we went outside and walked down to the park where the festival was. Gusty said that was where they were going to perform in the morning and she was really excited about it. And she said that a couple of her friends from Orange is the New Black were also coming to see the play, which was really exciting, and she hoped that we'd all get a chance to meet tomorrow.
We were on our way back to the hotel when Mister Salvatore got a call, and it was Miss Parker, saying that they were almost in town and she was sorry that they were late but Cayenne's flight had gotten delayed.
All of us waited for them in the lobby, and when they came in everyone was so happy to see everyone else and we were all hugging and nuzzling and shaking hands and hooves and pretty soon someone in the lobby started clapping.
Well, Gusty got kind of embarrassed that we were causing a scene in the lobby, so the four of us went up to her room and we all laid down on the bed and Cayenne opened one of her suitcases and got out her folding computer and a big bottle of Jacapple, which was a spiced apple whiskey, and we sipped that and took turns showing pictures of ourselves and friends on her computer. I guess I was the only one who didn't use Facebook much, but I told her about the movie of me flying in a storm that Meghan had put on her YouTube and we watched some of that. Gusty wanted to know how I flew in a storm like that at all, and I said that it wasn't even the worst one I'd been in but I hadn't had my GoPro in the storm where I got forced down on a roof.
I think that Cayenne could have stayed up all night, but the rest of us were tired so Gusty put on her nightclothes and then the three of us snuggled up in one bed and told Cayenne not to be too loud and not to invite any boys over, and she said she wouldn't.
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If horses have to be marked going into Canada, do ear tattoos work? And if so, then why not butt tattoos?
So cheesey!
Canada used to have more lax border agent. Then someone in the United States decided that since both countries were sharing so much border, it would be "easy" for baddies to enter the States via the Canada. And so during one of those negociation about economic agreement (back in the late days of the cold war I think), one exigence was better security at Canadian's borders.
And then even canadian comming back from travel found themselves annoyed by how intransigeant canadian's broder agent could be.
Sure, the relief option on Google map isn't the most accurate thing ever, but Michigan and the South-West of Ontario are kinda similar, with more hilly terrain as you get closer to Toronto.
Silver Glow hopefully knows not to fly into the blades of a windmill. But her feathered friends aren't so knowledgeable.
I don't think I've ever had cloudberries, but I have had cloudberry liqueur.
And we get to witness more Cayenne! Love that pony.
7624067 Indeed. I can see that law being amended fairly soon to include cutie marks.
7624078 Twilight Sparkle. Quesadillas. It all makes sense now!
Travel can be so intresting, but its better when its not Too intresting.
Lets see, Music today?
Driving Away From Home?
Wristband?
She said that in America, most people were against free electricity
Hain't nothing as expensive as free.
We do import a lot of hydraulic power from Quebec, though.
7624099
Bird deaths is the only halfway reasonable excuse anti-alternative energy people give for opposing wind farms. (At least it's more of a legit excuse than Trump opposing them because "they're ugly and ruin the view").
But then, it could be said it's only the stupid birds who get killed and the species are being improved, darwinianly.
7624190
I couldn't care less about bird deaths. Wind and solar power connected to the grid are terrible because they are so expensive.
There is currently no efficient way to store electricity. You have to use it as you make it, and visa versa. Wind and solar are unreliable. So for every megawatt of wind, you have to have a megawatt of fast response (and expense) gas turbine power to compensate for fluctuations and avoid brown outs.
In short, you have to build two expensive and inefficient power plants instead of one comparatively inexpensive conventional or nuclear plant.
Oh, and the windmills kill birds sometimes.
ear-tag, mane-tag, or neck-tag at lest it was not a microchip.
and yes I have hade my stallions microchiped in the past.
7624190
That's more of a Kennedy view than a Trump view. (There are some great windy places along the Massachusetts shore where wind power would generate a lot of energy.)
But TheCyanRecluse is right, you can't provide the baseline power modern society needs with intermittent energy sources.
7624101
I want to see her bring over someone for everypony to share.
No one mentions the BENEFITS of free dead birds for the weasels and opossums and vultures.
7624122 From my understanding of things, the main reason for these import is the time it takes for a nuclear power plant to change it's production. So us's grid "need" additional power to smooth some of the peak point.
'Course that's what they told us when we visited a power plant with school. Could be false.
7624291
You terrible person, you!
7624304 You mean the hydraulic imports? It's my understanding that it's relatively cheap as these things go, and all the infrastructure has been in place for decades. It's convenient to New England and New York energy markets. Nuclear plants have horrendously long construction/regulatory development periods, which means they're very slow to bring on market. It's generally natural gas which is used for load-balancing in the modern energy markets.
In fact, I've seen a lot of arguments to the effect that wind and solar are basically stalking-horses for the natural gas lobby against coal, nuclear, hydraulic and the rest of the industry. Natural gas tends to be more expensive than the other majors, but it's still cheap on an absolute scale vs. wind and solar, crazy reliable, and highly flexible. Natural gas plants are the natural complement to highly unreliable or periodic wind and solar energy projects. Of course it's in their interest to get the government and the taxpayers to subsidize these expensive "sustainable" projects. And as far as I can tell, wind farms aren't especially sustainable from a maintenance point of view. There are three separate farms along the Allegheny Front west of the Logan Valley in my neck of the woods. I've never seen those farms operating at greater than 60% capacity. It seems like they've always got a large number of them shut down for maintenance, repair, or I-have-no-idea. And if you go online, you can find video of bursting turbines from the UK and India and so forth, for examples of what happens when you don't have maintenance crew riding herd on the farms and shutting them down in excessively high winds.
It's kind of odd how heavily everyone's gone into wind turbines, while the various tidal bore turbine experiments seem to be getting slow-walked. The moon's tides are a lot more predictable and reliable than the winds outside of a few narrow corridors. Sounds like they got the Bay of Fundy up and running last May, but I'm not seeing anything since the "yay, it's running!' articles.
Mr Salvatore has potential as a Bad Influence, possibly even an Evil Companion. Miss Cherilyn talks about being corrupted like she thinks it's a Bad Thing.
Silver, being in a casino will probably not corrupt you, but it might very well bankrupt you. Vacations are no fun without money.
ICR who said it but someone said "Every traveller needs 2 suitcases. Pack 1 with money, the other with patience, tolerance, and understanding. Dip into both as needed. When either is empty Go Home because the fun part of your trip is OVER. I've traveled enough to know it's true.
TBH, the whole 'have to comply with Canadian laws regarding cross boarder movement of horses' thing is really kind of dumb. Like, incredibly dumb.
From the Canadian side, it's absurd to think that they'd see ponies as horses to begin with; however much they might look like them on the macroscale, they're pretty obviously not horses--such as having wings or human level intelligence or whatever.
On Salvatore's side, he's essentially risking some level of diplomatic incident, I would imagine; I can't imagine Celestia would be too happy to learn that her ponies were being treated like animals.
Filly, have you heard of the Canadian Shield? Niagara Escarpment? Ishpatina Ridge?
...
Maple Mountain?
In Ontario I pay more for Ontario produced power than you do for that Ontario exported power. Free power it isn't.
Fun Fact:
Power is often referred to as "hydro" in Ontario due to so much of it being produced by hydroelectric generators. Hell, it's in the names. Ontario Hydro and Hydro One being the electricity transmission and distribution utility(ies) for the province.
Fun Facts on Ontario power generation:
Nuclear: 12,900Mw total capacity (Bruce Station is the largest operational nuclear facility in the world)
Hydroelectric: 8,129.51Mw total capacity (Adam Beck went online in 1922 as the first large-scale hydroelectric generation project in the world, it also happens to be in Niagara Falls next time you feel like playing tourist.)
... yeah I'm 100% sure that that horse law doesn't apply.
Has Silver ever said which translation of the bible she is reading. I hope it's not the KJV as it has a lot of problems, errors and is in a dead language.
Most unicorns don't like cheese? I'm pretty sure that was just Twilight, since even Rarity seemed shocked about that fear.
I'm guessing she got that fear when she was young. As Celestia's apprentice, she likely attended many high end parties, which likely had... I think it's called fondue or something, that melted cheese fountain type thing. And having interacted in some way directly with skin burning levels of heat from melted cheese is likely enough to develop a fear of hot melted cheese.
My memory is failing me. Why Texas and New Mexico?
It's a demarcation dispute, it's Silver's job to corrupt people around her rather than vice versa.
Yeah, that doesn't sound like a very nice place.
7624603
I don't know for certain but I assume they have some sort of disease which isn't present in Canada
for the bonus chapter list: Cayenne getting to meet rendom boys in a hotel...
Relevant video:
7624101
Me too! Love the little slut.
7624389
i started laughing when I got to that 'free electricity" line. We sell to the US at a loss, which is another reason why Ontario Hydro has the highest rates in North America. Wind Turbines may not need fuel to turn, but they are NOT cheap to run.
Silly Americans, we're even less practical than you! We are only better at keeping quiet about it.
7624388 On the other other hand, Hoof and Mouth disease is nothing to take lightly.
7624389
I think this is Silver miss-characterizing/summarizing what she's being told. For example, she might have been told that the turbines are harvesting wind power, and she sees it as a 'free' thing, hence 'free electricity'
7623400
or it could be something that pops up in a Theory of Everything, one of the big unsolved mysteries in physics. What do you mean by access? I'm fine with humans eventually learning to use tech based around magic and understanding it, but not biologically using it.
where they? I thought they were on public land.
yeah, schools of small fish are really good looking I had neon tetras when I had to break down my tank. The blue and red contrasted nicely with the plants. Zebra Danios contrast nicely as well.
7624603 Perhaps because of the whole smuggling drugs thing from Mexico.
Going through Ontario near the wind turbines makes me curious if they are going by Dunnville. There is the Dunnville airport there, which is also an airplane museum, but more widely known as the filming location for Canada's Worst Driver.
i.huffpost.com/gen/2206678/images/o-CANADAS-WORST-DRIVER-facebook.jpg
Oh come on, that was one unicorn!
Small sample size is small.
7623346
An edict from Walgreen's corporate had required all store employees to say "Be well" instead of "Goodbye", etc., at the end of ALL customer interactions.
"Here is your change Mr. Admiral Biscuit; Be well."
7624896
Oh geez. Which rabbit hole to tumble down next.
7620244
I get what you mean, and on thinking about it you have a good point. My main problem here is that if Luna does not, in fact, move the stars, then the effort she puts into the night begins and ends with raising and lowering the moon, meaning she is no more responsible for the night's beauty than Celestia is for the day's -- meaning in turn there's very little room for her feeling credit is owed to her for a phenomenon she has no part in arranging, invalidating the main reason (as I understand it) that she turned into Nightmare Moon. In fact, since this would leave overseeing dreams as her only responsibility, she should be, if anything, happy that ponies sleep through the night, since it would actually allow her to have a much closer relationship with them than Celestia can have.
I understand that I could be missing something here, and I'm open to alternate views, but the reason I interpreted Luna as moving the stars as well as the moon is because, from where I'm standing, it's the only way for her backstory to make sense.
Wooo Canada represent!
Also cute little ponies.
7624388
Agreed. I don't think that would go over to well.
7624779
A theme song for Cayenne?
Why would Canadian officials ask if Silver's been to Texas?
7626141 From context and inference, there's probably a suspicion of hoof and mouth or some other equine communicable disease outbreaks in those states. They're both major horse breeding states.
7626178 Human Texans have foot in mouth disease. Thank goodness I'm not a native.
7626139
excellent
7626612
Really? I hadn't noticed.
Though it may just be me who's slightly desensitized to that stuff. Things are still very much unequal where I live.
Do you have an example?
7626630
Zecora, the cows, the sheep, mules, arguably the fruit bats, and possibly Gilda (Gilda was kind of a bitch, though, so it's hard to say how much that played a part).
For non USA readers. In the USA the school year is year is 180 days (the least of all industrial countries). Depending on which of 50 states you are in, it is either early August to early May or early September to June. Michigan seems to be a September to June state.
High Schools graduate students in the Spring, so most new students start college in the Fall. A few leave before the end of the semester. So, a few students enter in January (like Silver)
Most Sororities recruit in the Fall. I can see Silver in pledge week. "What is happening to me?" as she learns about the fine old custom of hazing.
Or, torture as a few bleeding heart do-gooders call it.
7627087
It could also be a conscious ability - they can't control their landing if they're knocked out.
"You said nothing about girls. I love these loopholes." -Cayenne
7626650 smartwatches do have trouble with water on the screen. The Apple Watch 2 has water lock, which turns off touch input, but not necessarily the display. However, you need to turn the crown to exit water lock. Not exactly hoof friendly. (Cool feature: the speaker buzzes to spit the water out of its cavity as you exit water lock)
7626730 Hey! We have more than just Sunny and 79. And we only really get that within (less than) a mile of the actual beach. We also have Sunny and 115, or even Overcast and 100. Winter rarely goes below 20, and snow is rare outside of the mountains, but it does happen occasionally
7627322 Batpones are best pones Q.E.D.
7627406 The Secret to Rainbow Dash's Speed