Right after my daughter graduated, I packed up the truck and trailer with tent, sleeping bag, portable fence, water bucket , tub of grain, and a freshly bathed horse. Sounds like an ideal horse lover's camping trip, right? No saddle needed, but instead, I packed my yellow fairy dress, big iridescent wings, and... a unicorn horn? Yes folks, that unicorn you see me riding is my special unicorn. That's Sweetie. She's 25 years old and the sweetest most gentle horse you could imagine. We were going to be spending a hot and humid weekend at the Maryland Faerie Festival.
We arrived at dusk. Driving down a hill across a damp field in the dark with a big horse trailer is strange enough. Having to weave in and out of 10 foot tall flowers and butterflies is surreal. I parked, put up the fence, filled the water bucket, set up my tent, unrolled my sleeping bag, decorated the trailer, and collapsed into my bag. I fell asleep to the happy chomping of an 850 pound creature right outside my tent. She stays close to me. I woke very early and gladly found that Sweetie was still with me and snoozing beside me!
Because I needed to get an early start, I grabbed the bag of chopped fruits and veggies for my daily juices. I gave Sweetie her grain and tromped up the hill to the juicer and dining hall. Let the juicing begin! I came back down the hill a little later with 3 quarts of juice in the cooler and one quart in my belly. I painted rainbows in Sweetie's mane, painted sparklies on her hooves, added glitter on her face, donned my costume... 10am and we were ready. Bring it on! We had what seemed like hundreds of little children in a steady flow, walking up to stand beside the unicorn for a photo. Occasionally we'd escape the corral and the crowds and go for a little jaunt out into a large hay field.
There was a crazy storm that night, and for a while we bunked together, Sweetie and I. The rain, thunder and lightning was nearby, but as long as a tornado didn't pick us up, I felt comfortable inside the trailer with my equine buddy for company. She paced a few times, pausing to sniff my hair and look outside. I was trying to catch up on a days worth of Twitter. As soon as the light show stopped, I opened the trailer, Sweetie went back to grazing, and I went back to my tent. Ahhhh. The following morning, I woke to an even better shot of the unicorn a chompin' at my tent window. The orange lump at the bottom of the picture are my feet in a sleeping bag.
We had another beautiful sunny day. I made more juice. I think some people thought it was for my horse... Got some strange looks as people walked by with their coffee and donuts. That afternoon, I heard a remarkable sounding band playing. They sounded wonderful! It was a hint of something indescribable, like Sheryl Crow goes Celtic. I had been listening to music all day and this was different. I hopped on my unicorn, dressed in my golden fairy costume and rode up the hill, wind in my wings... *sigh*I was so surprised to hear the lead singer's exclamation about goddess with wings on a unicorn. She called to me, "Come on up here, fairy princess!" They began to play their next song "Goddess" and I was a live music video! The band's name is Mythica and they sent me the words to that song through myspace, "A princess with wings, a heart never sweeter to yours, a goddess wrapped in gold, my aurophobia grows old." - Goddess (by Mythica). I have to say, that it was the highlight of my day!
We were very glad to get home, both pretty tired from the heat, sun, and crowds. I went out to check on Sweetie and found she was just as tired as I was.
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