Traveling (by Bion)

My human decided that we were not spending enough time together, and so I accompanied her on her annual Christmas pilgrimage to her place of origin. She journeyed home to the far off lands of Kentucky (where she was born) and Indiana (where her sister's family now resides). The other Dragons remained here to keep my human's roommate company. Jerry wanted to come, but, luckily, my human appeased him with the offering of a new hat and scarf set. I'm glad Jerry likes his new scarf and hat, and I'm even more pleased that he didn't come with us. I don't hate Jerry, but the idea of spending ten hours in a car with him is about as appealing as editing a third grader's book report.

Jerry, looking Christmasy as he posed under the mistletoe in

his new hat and scarf. Do the ladies like hats and scarves?

The journey started off just fine. She told me that I was on vacation and wasn't allowed to edit anything, including her driving skills. I agreed, although honestly, I haven't done any real editing in months. She also told me I was going to have to ride in her purse, which didn't fill my dragonish heart with feelings of peace and comfort, I can tell you. As Jerry has expressed in a previous blog, a woman's purse is one of the most terrifying things in the known universe. I'm pretty sure that in the deepest darkest corner of every woman's purse is a portal to another dimension. Once inside a purse, there may be no return. However, my human assured me that I would be riding on the OUTSIDE pocket of her purse. I thought that to be a reasonable place to ride, and so I relaxed and enjoyed the sounds of her traveling music. My human enjoys a wide variety of traveling music. Her current favorite is Mitch McVicker, but we also enjoyed some Christmas music and some Beatles. By the way, most Dragons agree that the Beatles are the best human musical group of all time.

I also discovered on this journey that trail mix is awesome. My human let me have some. She neglected to tell me that the trail mix had cranberries in it until I'd already had several mouthfuls.

This stuff tastes AWESOME and makes me see magical ponies.

Cranberries, as you may have read in a previous post, are also known as "Dragon Nip." I'm afraid I behaved in a very undignified manner and may or may not have participated in some wild karaoke (PAAAAAAPERBACK WRIIIIIITER!!!!) somewhere along the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. After the nip wore off, I fell asleep alongside my human's dollar store sunglasses.

Ack! My mouth was hanging open while I was asleep. How embarrasing!

Before the whole "Dragon Nip" incident, my human and I experienced the most beautiful rainbow either of us has ever seen. The colors were vibrant, yet muted, as though shrouded by some secret mist. The rainbow made a perfect arc out of the clouds, across the sky, and settled in between two hills. The sun was glinting off those hills like pure gold, and I admit that I would not have refused if my human had decided to abandon our journey to her homelands in order to seek the gold beyond that rainbow.

My human did NOT pull off the road to take a picture of the rainbow, and she says that will probably be one of the greatest regrets of her life. I assured her that beauty so pure should not be photographed, and should remain etched only in our memories. I'm glad I was able to share that rainbow with her, though. I believe both of us will be searching for that rainbow for the rest of our lives, and beyond. I'm also quite certain that the rainbow will become a theme for at least one of my writer's stories.

Nothing of great note happened in KY. My human was tired, as was I, so we slept. Then we departed the next day for IN. Once we reached the dwelling of my human's sister's family, I didn't see my human for about 3 days because she was spending all of her time with her nieces and nephew. I admit, they're pretty cute. I did get to spend some time with all of them. I also met my human's sister's cat. I have to say, cats are not my favorite.

Kitty kisses are worse than Jerry hugs. Blech.

My human had given her sister's offspring a castle set that came with a Dragon and a knight. I spent a few minutes conversing with the Dragon, and I discovered that his name was Paulie. After that, one of my human's nieces grabbed me and started banging Paulie over the head with me. My human rescued both of us and put me back in her purse.

Serves him right for being named "Paulie."

Unfortunately, when we returned to NC, she forgot I was in her purse for a few days before putting me back with my brothers. I have to admit, I was actually happy to see Jerry. I gave him a New Year's hug. He's not getting another until 2012.