The next day we woke up in our comfortable beds , and went down to eat some free breakfast. They had lots of stuff to eat: biscuts, waffles, eggs, fruit, cereal, etc. The waffle batter came in little clear plastic cups, which you then poured into the waffle iron, then turned the waffle iron over to cook them. Dorma tried make a waffle himself, but his paws with very large claws are not the best when it comes to grabbing small things (though he is getting better) and he ended up spilling his cup of batter on top of the waffle iron! A worker noticed this, and as he could not see Dorma, Steve had to pretend he had spilled it. The worker bought it, and mumbled something about parents not watching their kids as he went to got get a rag to clean up the batter. Spencer then helped Dorma make a waffle, while I helped Blaze and Mary helped her partner Savannah, and then us kids tried to find a place to sit. Mikhail found another room adjacent to the main one that had no lights on in it, and some dude passed out on one of the tables with a newspaper and a glass of orange juice. The rest of us were nervous about that guy, and finally convinced Mary to go back to the main room, which was sunny and warm. We found a table, and ate our yummy breakfast. We then packed up our luggage as Spencer, Blaze, Littlefoot, Trevor and I watched the Digimon movie on Toonami, and I took our first photo on the vacation of the pool from the 4th floor stairway window (which Dad lifted me up so I could get a better view).
Before we headed to Disneyland, we visited the famous Las Vegas Strip and stopped at the Belagio hotel. We parked our cars in the south parking garage, and the head inside to see their conservatory. The conservatory and gardens at the Belagio is completely surrounded by the hotel, but as there are no floors above it it is able to have a glass and green painted steel roof to let the light in. If you ever been there, it is quite nice, and they often change the theme to keep one coming back. This time they had an "American" theme, which included a large mock-up of the Liberty Bell hangin in the air above a small pond. We took some photos, and then Savannah flew up to the height of the bald eagle statue that was on top Liberty Bell.
"Hey, can someone get a photo of me up here?" said the large pink bird Digimon.
Steve volunteered, and snapped a photo of the Biyomon with his Kodak single-use camera. Savannah then tried to fly down, but was not paying attention and flew into wire that was holding the eagle up. She lost her balance, and started to fall.
"Savannah!" yelled Mary as she ran to the green railing going around the pond, flowers, and Liberty Bell. She leaned over as far as she could, and caught the big pink bird in her arms. The weight and speed of Savannah hitting Mary's arms caused her to loose balance, and she nearly went over the railing into the red and white flowers. Thankfully, I and Dorma was next to her, and we were able to stop the human and the Digimon from going over.
"Watch were you're going!" said Mary after she got her balance back and had walked away from the railing.
"Well, you know me, I'm a klutz sometimes." Savannah blushed.
"Yes, and you are my klutz." replied Mary as she and Savannah then hugged.
We left the conservatory and found a lady playing the piano and doing requests, and Dad requested her to play Canon in D, which Steve was learning to play at the the time. She played it very well, and we were all impressed. We also saw their new glass ceiling which cost 1.2 million dollars to make and put in. Uncle J did drag us to a salon on the 24th floor, which for most of us was boring, but thankfully we did not stay there long.
Uncle J also wanted to see some outlet malls on the outskirts of Las Vegas. He and his kids left before us, so we tried to find them. We got off the correct exit to the outlet malls, but unfortunately, there where two malls, one on each side of the freeway. Uncle J said they would be at the Banana Republic, and we tired to find it in the outlet mall on the left side of the freeway, which was white and blue in color. It was not there, so we tried called Joey on a payphone, but he did not answer. Dad then decided to forget it, and we got back in the car and headed south through the boring flat desert of Nevada and California.
After many hours, we finally stopped in Barstow, California for some gas and food and as it turned out Uncle J and everyone else had left right after we had, so they pulled in only about a minute later. First stop was a 76 gas station for some fuel on Main Street, the across the road to a place called Barstow Station. Let me try to explain it to you. Sitting near the railroad tracks, Barstow station is a brown wood building that is also partially made from railroad cars. The front of the building is made from grey painted passenger coaches, while in the back there were box cars and a caboose. Sandwiched in between was the before mentions brown wood part that was two stories tall. Inside was kind of a mini mall, with restaurants and and souvenir shops. A true tourist stop.
Trevor and I were looking around when Suzie and Chloe came up behind me and asked, "Want to got check out the train on the track?"
"There is a train?" I asked. I loved trains, so much so my grandfather on my mother's side had gotten me an O-scale model train.
"Yeah, and me, Chloe, Emma, and Carmen are going to go look at it. Come on you two!" she said as she yanked on the sleeve of my dark blue polo shirt. We headed out the south side wood doors and walked around to the back parking lot under the bright afternoon sun. Beyond the chain link fence running along the back of the parking lot was many railroad tracks, and on one of them was a very large freight train full of box cars.
"Cool!" I said as we arrived at the fence.
"I wonder what's in all those box cars." mused Emma. The Tapirmon then shifted into her corporeal form and went through the fence to look.
"I wish we could got look too." said Carmen.
"Well, you know what adults say: "It's dangerous to play around tracks." I replied.
"Though, the train is stopped, and on the track nearest to us." thought Chloe out loud as she rubbed a white three-clawed paw under her chin.
"Don't even think about it." I replied. "Besides, if you have not noticed, there is a fence with barbed wire on top in our way."
"Ah, but if you where an animal..." said Trevor.
"Humans are animals." I replied, remembering what I had learned on Zoboomafoo
"You know what I mean. Just turn into an animal and head over!"
"Well..."
"Come on, let's do it!" pleaded Carmen.
"OK. Fine, but only for a quick look." I replied. I then led my two younger cousins to hide behind a blue 1989 Dodge to change. Unlike our Digimon and Pokemon, we would still be seen when in animal form, and so we had to hide, just as they did in Animorphs. Unlike Animorphs, we did not have a two hour time limit, and we could still talk with our mouths.
We ducked behind the front of the car and changed. Where we are from, you can change into the mascot of the schools you went too. Hopefully you have a cool one, otherwise you might be Jordan River Beet Diggers or Knights or something still human and boring. Thankfully for us, we had gone to elementary schools that had wildcats as a mascot. We each quickly changed into our kitten wildcat forms (kitten as we ourselves where still young.) I was a brown wildcat kitten with black tabby stripes and brown eyes, Suzie was a light yellow one with brown tabby stripes, and Carmen was also yellowish, but with light spots.
"I'll meet you over there." said Trevor. He hopped onto the hood of the Dodge, then hopped onto the top of the fence. He then jumped over the barbed wire and used his large ears to gently glide down.
"Let's do this quickly before the train starts moving, or our parents come looking for us." said Suzie. We padded over to the fence with Chloe walking besides us. Being wildcats now, it was a snap to climb up the fence, though we had to make sure we did not make too much noise. Did not want the attention. Reaching the top, I slid my feline body under the barbed wire and leapt to the pebble below. My two cousins followed close behind, and soon we all sat on the pebbles and waited to Chloe to join us. As a bipedal triceratops, she struggled up the fence. Reaching the top, she then tried to slip between the barbed wire and comedown the other side. Almost to the bottom, but then she slipped and fell, landing on her back.
"Chloe!" yelled Suzie and she rushed over to her partner. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied and slowly got up. Suzie then gave here a quick lick, and we walked over to join Trevor and Emma at the train.
"Hey, come up here!" said Emma as she hovered over a red box car with "Union Pacific" written on the side. "There are a couple of holes that you can use to look in!"
"Alright, we'll be up!" I replied. There was now place for us to climb up on the side of box car facing the parking lot, so us wildcats padded around to the side facing south. There we found a latter for Chloe to climb. If we had been bigger, we could have used the latter too, but thankfully there where some platforms on the side that were just perfect for just to use. I lead the way, and leapt onto the first metal platform. It was little high, but we all made it. Soon we had made it to the last platform, right next to the hand break wheel. This last leap was a little taller, so I ended up doing a running jump. I reached the edge of the of the roof and grabbed on tight. Thankfully, Trevor had already made it up, and he helped pull me up.
"Why couldn't Emma just take us up?" I asked.
"You know she has anxiety about dropping anyone." replied Carmen from the platform below.
"Oh, right, sorry." I replied sheepishly as my ears went flat against my head. As a cat, errr, human with anxiety myself, I should have remembered.
"It's ok." said Emma. I looked over at her and she gave me a warm smile underneath her trunk.
Next to jump was Suzie, who also grabbed onto the edge of the roof and Trevor and I helped her up. Lastly was Carmen. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her and jumped. Being younger than Suzie or I, she was even smaller, and I could tell she would come up short. I quickly turned around and layed down on my stomach with my tail hanging down over the edge. My tail was just long enough, and Carmen was able to sink her claws in. It hurt though, and I hissed as I pulled my tail and her up.
"Thanks, cuz." said Carmen as her sister and her Digimon partner came over to her. Suzie rubber her head under Carmen's muzzle while Emma touched her with her trunk. Emma then turned to the rest of us and pointed to the center of the box car.
"Over there are the holes." We headed over and saw a about seven holes, ranging insize from a US quarter to the end of a soup can. Trevor looked in first.
"Wow, that's so cool!" he exclaimed.
"What do you see?" I asked as I padded up to him.
"Looks like lumbar and long metal beams." he replied. I found another whole and looked down. He was right, and we oood and awed at the building materials.
Suddenly, a loud metal clank was heard, followed by a sudden jerk that caused everyone who was not floating in the air to loose their balance and fall onto the roof of the box car.
"What was that?" asked Chloe.
"I think the train in starting to move!" I yelled. "Quick, we need to get off."
"How, we can't got back the way we came." said Suzie. "If we do, we might fall on the rails and be sliced in two by the wheels!"
"Well, I went to another school last year that had a nighthawk as a mascot, so I can fly." I replied as the train jerked again. I quickly turned into a grey and white hawk. Unfortunately, being on a metal roof I had no place really to grab onto with my talons, and at the next jerk I started to slide off the box car. I scrambled for traction, but the roof gave me no help, and soon I was out in open air. Thankfully I had gone off with my talons facing down, and I immediately started to flap my wings to keep from crashing into the rocks below. I flew up above the box car and stared to circle while I assessed the situation. Let me tell you, it was dire. Trevor had grabbed Chloe and pulled her to the edge of the box car roof as he yelled "Hold on to me feet paws!" He then jumped with all he might and launched into the air. Chloe hardly had any time to react as she grabbed onto his legs. Trevor groaned as the extra weight caused him to falter for a sec, but he managed to spread his ears out and the two floated down like Terriermon and Veemon did in the Digimon movie we had just watched this morning.
That still left Suzie and Carmen. Emma was staying still, frozen in panic. As I was a young nighthawk (which is not that big of a bird to begin with), I did not have the strength to lift Suzie up, so I flew down to Carmen and grabbed her quickly by the scuff of her neck. She yowled in shock but quieted down when she realized it was me.
Ugh, I hope this works! I thought as I mustard all my strength to lift my cousin in wildcat form up high. Even being the smallest thing here, I struggled to raise her about a foot off of the box car, and my strength was waning fast. I made a piercing noise as I flew away from the box car and quickly got Carmen to the ground.
"You OK?" I asked as I let go of her fur. My strength then left me, and I ended up crashing to the ground.
"I'm fine." said Carmen as Trevor rushed over to me and gave me a hug.
"Wait, what about Suzie?" yelled Chloe. Her yell caused the rest of us to whip our heads back toward the train, which by know had really started to get going. And there on top of the box car was Suzie, looking at us from the corner closet to us that she had moved to as she yowled for help. And there was Emma, still frozen from fear. Anxiety can be a pain, I tell yah.
"Emma, please help my sister!" my young cousin meowed in the loudest voice she could muster. Emma must have heard her, and she snapped out of her shock and rushed for Suzie. When she got close enough, she hesitated again, but was able to push past her anxiety and wrap her trunk around the wildcat. Unfortunately, the strength of her truck was not as strong as she thought, and Suzie started to slip almost instantly started to slip. Being right next to the area between box cars, if Emma let go, Suzie could land on the tracks and just like she had said earlier, be cut in half by the heavy steel wheels.
"Emma, I believe in you!" yelled Carmen. Just as she did this, she started to glow white, and a light shot out of her small kitten body and right into Emma. The light then enveloped her and Suzie as I shielded my eyes with my right wing.
"Tapimon Digivolve to...Holesmon!"
Looking through the feathers on my wing, I saw the Tapirmon was replaced by a large, majestic griffon like Digimon with a lion body, a red-brown pelt on her, and eagle head with a metal helmet on it. It was flying up over the box car, and hanging onto its back was Suzie, her claws digging into said pelt. We watched in awe as the Digimon flew around circles above the train till it had passed, and then landed on the pebbles. Suzie jumped off of Emma's back as Emma dedigivolved back to a Tapirmon.
"Suzie, Emma, you're all right!" yelled Carmen as she ran over them, quickly nuzzling her sister and her Digimon partner. The rest of us joined them and soon we were in a big group nuzzle, or hug for those who were at the moment bipedal at the moment.
"I'm so proud of you, Emma." meowed Carmen. "Does this mean you are all over your anxiety of dropping us?"
"Well...I..."
"As someone with anxiety, I can relate that anxiety does not go away all at once. It takes time and patience, but this is a good start." I replied.
"Yeah, that." said Emma gratefully.
"Wow, what an adventure, and it's only day two of our vacation." said Trevor.
"I'm sure more excitement will happen, now let's get back to everyone." I remarked. I turned back into a wildcat, and even though we were tired, we made it back over the fence and into the parking lot. Suzie, Carmen, and I then hid again by that Dodge, and reverted back to our human forms. We then took off in a run back inside the building to the McDonalds where we found everyone eating.
"Where have you been?" asked my dad.
"Oh, just looking at the trains." I replied.
After we ate, Uncle J and his kids went to go shop around Barstow, while we headed down toward Orange County,
We pulled into Buena Park, California and found our hotel, a Raddison that was connected to Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. We checked in and six Digimon, four humans, one dinosaur, and one Pokémon found our hotel room on level 5, between the fun Peanuts Comic level 4 (they had Peanuts themed murals in the halls Snoopy and the gang themed rooms) and the smoker's level 6, which had glass doors to separate it from the rest of the hotel. The hotel, in our opinion, was not as nice at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Las Vegas. The door to the bathroom was built out of flimsy feeling wood, there was no free breakfast, the carpet was cheap, and the beds were not as comfortable. But that is where everyone else (including the dance group) was staying, so we had no choice.
After we settled in, we headed out for dinner by walking north of the hotel to Mrs. Knotts Chicken dinners, which was at the time a tradition of sorts. The sun was beginning to set was we got to the restaurant, and we ordered fried chicken, mash potatoes, gravy and rolls. It was that old fashioned greasy, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal, and it was very good. I enjoyed it very much, though Lucy the Labramon got mashed potatoes stuck in ontop of her muzzle.
Now, before dinner Uncle J, Sam, Mary, Savannah, Suzie, Chloe, Carmen, and Emma had finally arrived and checked in. I talked to them on the hotel room phone, and for some reason, Uncle J told me they were on the 1st floor. After we came back from dinner, I was talking to Mary on the hotel room phone while lying on the bed with Trevor next to me, and as we were talking, she told me to open the connecting door.
"Why, it will just lead to a closed door." I replied, as I had already tried the connecting door earlier with Trevor and Agor.
"Do it again." she told me.
"This is stupid." I told her.
"Just do it."
"Fine." I mumbled as I got up off the bed, set the handset on the table, and walked to the door with Trevor on my right shoulder. Positive nothing of note would happen, I yanked the white connecting door open.
"SURPRISE!" yelled Mary and Chloe as they were standing in the open doorway. I literally jumped in shock with Trevor falling off my shoulder as Mary and the Gammamon doubled over in laughter. Chloe must have talked Mary into doing this, as the little white Digimon loved pranks. After getting over my shock, I started laughing too, as it was a good prank.
End of day 2