[Gpdd] MISC: Virtual Halloween story, part 1

[Carol Riley]

 "Hurry up, mommy, hurry up! We're going to be late!"
"Avalanche, we are NOT going to be late! PigAir doesn't land for 45 minutes and it's a 20 minute drive to the Thompson McDuffie regional airport."
"Mommy!"
"We will be there with plenty of time before PigAir lands."
Avalanche chattered his teeth and gave his mommy dirty looks all the way to the airport.
"Here they are! Here they are!" Avalanche wheeked loudly and ran to the gate. First through was Puff, escorted by Eddie, Nugget, and her cats Lizzie, Macaroon, and Fortune. Eddie and Nugget were grinning ear to ear because they were escorting Puff. 
"How did you get to be the escorts?" Avalanche asked.
"Uh, we, well, ...." Nugget started.
"We beat the other boars at dice," Eddie finished. He winked. "No chaperones on PigAir."
Oliver came out next, escorted by Lulu and Mimi. Lulu winked at the boys. "You are the only ones who know how to shoot dice," she said as they walked by.
The rest of the guinea pigs came off the plane and through the gate in no particular order, all dragging little sachels of food and periodically stopping to snack. Avalanche was happy to see many of his pig friends that came to visit last year and very glad to meet several new friends. After several minutes, all were safely aboard the mini van that was rented for the special occasion. In about 20 minutes, the mini van pulled into a parking lot. The sign said "Cullars Inn". The suite and the adjoining room were booked for the weekend. (The suite is the ONLY room that has a full sized refrigerator.) Sugar and Cinnamon whispered to the pigs as they went inside, "Keep Otto busy. Don't let him in the suite." "Why not?" several asked, but Sugar and Cinnamon just hushed them and pushed them into the room. It took several minutes for all of the guinea pigs and 3 cats to get into the two rooms, being there was about 40 of them. 
Once everyone was inside, Tijger put her paws over Otto's eyes. "No peeking!" When she took her paws away, there was a HUGE salad bowl full of fresh lettuces and veggies. "Happy 6th Pigday Otto!" every pig shouted. "And belated Happy Pigday to Berke and Eddie, and everypig who has had a Pigday in the month of October!" Otto, Eddie, and Berke blushed a little, but happily were the first ones to tuck into the salad bowl. Little by little, every pig went to the bowl and dragged out something good. Soon after the bowl was empty, several pigs curled up for a nap. Many were tired from traveling but most were tired from having full tummies."What are we going to do this afternoon?" Willie asked Tate. "I don't know."
"Well, I hope we get some graham crackers," Cinnamon said.
"Come on every pig. Into the mini van. We are going some place special," Avalanche's mom said. There was a minor amount of pushing to get to the mini van, but overall, every pig got on safely and found a hay block to settle down on for the ride.
After the mini van was on the road for about 15 minutes, a few pigs made faces. "Ewww! What is that smell?" Derby asked. "It STINKS!" 
"Well, you will get used to it after a couple of minutes. And you will have to get used to it," Avalanche said. Derby looked sideways at Avalanche.
The mini van pulled into a dirt driveway. The sign at the end of the driveway said something about a dairy farm, but most of the pigs were holding their noses with their paws and weren't paying attention. The mini van stopped in front of a very large barn, where the smell seemed worse.
"Ugh! This is just awful!" Roisin said. "I agree. Pee-u!" Niamh replied.
"Stop complaining. It will get much better," Avalanche said. The pigs followed Avalanche into the large barn to see many cows, and a few horses. "Oh, that's what smells," Niamh said. A cow turned to look at her and "Mooooo". Niamh hid behind her sister Roisin. 
A man was hitching up a horse to a hay wagon. "Can we ride in that?" Cosmo and Casper asked together. "Why that's the plan," the man answered. "Come on over here and scoot on up the ramp to get to the wagon. There's fresh cut hay in it for you all to munch on and relax while we get to the field."
"The field? What field? Where are we going?" several pigs asked. "You'll see. Come on up," the man answered.
Eddie and Ethan escorted Puff up first, followed by Oliver, Lulu and Mimi. "Hay! Fresh hay!" Puff wheeked. Her nose was in the air sniffing hard. Even though the hay smelled wonderful, the rest of the pigs waited for Puff and Oliver to settle down, and the three cats - Lizzie, Macaroon, and Fortune - to find a comfy spot for themselves. Eventually, all pigs found a spot to relax and munch for the ride.
It took several minutes of a bumpy ride for the wagon to reach a freshly mown field of grass. "Awww, we could have cut it for you Mister," Ricky sadly said. He was looking forward to munching through a field of grass. "I thought I would save some time because you are all going to use the grass to make something special." "We can't eat it?" asked Pakora, looking like she was ready to cry. "Oh no, you CAN eat it while you make something special." "Whew! I am just about ready to starve!"
After quite some time grazing, the pigs wandered over to where the man waited patiently. "All full for now?" he asked. Several yeps and nods of the head told the man they were done for the moment. "OK gather round. I am going to teach you all how to weave a grass mat that you can take home with you for a snack later." Agatha went right over to the man. "I'm ready! I want the biggest grass mat EVER so I can lay on part of it and munch another part of it all at the same time." 
The man took several long pieces of grass and explained how to weave the pieces together into a mat. Many pigs were very good at weaving, as their small paws were able to manouever the grass without issue. 
All of the guinea pigs, concerned their mats would never be large enough, spent quite some time in fashioning their grass mats. Each wanted to be sure there was plenty of mat for snacking. Adriana, Amorase and Alberta all figured out how to make round mats, and when they were done, they showed off their special mats to the other misfits. "Well, that's nice but it still tastes all the same," Mistletoe said. He had made a square mat and was quite proud of himself.
"Look what I did!" Tyrion waved a very large rectangular mat in front of Magnus and Ivan. Magnus took a nibble on the end closest to him. "Hey! That's MY mat! Back off, you have your own." Magnus and Ivan snickered. Peaches and Raani were complimenting each other on their not-so-square mats. "Ooohh, yours is pretty!" "So is yours. Can I taste it?" Raani asked. Peaches chattered her teeth. "You have your own."
While the pigs were admiring each others mats, Benny motioned to Fernando, Martin, Kevin Bacon, Billy and R.B. to follow him. "Shhh. We're getting some corn." "Corn? What for?" Billy asked. "For later. You'll see." The six snuck away from the group and quickly scampered across part of the field to the corn that was growing in the next field. "Every pig grab a small ear of corn and drag it back to the hay wagon. We can hide them until we get back to the van." The six boars set to the task and had the corn hidden on the wagon before any other pig noticed they were missing for a while.
After the pigs finished their mats and their admiration, they got back on the wagon and went back to the barn. Many thank yous and purrs were heard. The man smiled. "I'm glad you all enjoyed yourselves." Each pig took their mat onto the mini van and settled down for the ride back to the inn. Some couldn't resist a nibble or two of their newly made grass mats on the ride.
When the mini van arrived, the six boars waitied until all of the other pigs were off, then snuck off the six ears of corn. "Bring them around back. Follow me," Benny said. Once behind the building, the five other boars noticed a large thing. "What is that?" Fernando asked. "It's a contraption. Here, put the corn in here. Tomorrow night we'll have something very special." "What?" Martin asked. "You'll see." Billy and R.B. winked at Martin, realizing what Benny had been up to and what the result was going to be.After dinner of fruits and veggies, the pigs got back on the mini van. They were all headed to Little River to have a boat ride down the river. "Mommy and daddy usually take the boat out for something called fishing, but mommy said we can go on the boat and take a ride," Avalanche told the group while they were riding. When the mini van arrived at the dock, the pigs were picked up one by one and placed on the boat. The cats said they would wait for the pigs to come back, not caring much to be that close to the water. Besides, there were woods all around for them to explore while the pigs had their boat ride.
Louis and Henry settled down near the bow of the boat. They were just enjoying all the others' company and the boat ride was very smooth. Angelina settled near Otto, while Willie and Tate walked all over the boat, checking out every spot to see if any food was hidden. 
Soon, a small island came into view. The boat was beached on the shore and every pig was taken off. Pigs ran all over the island, munching on grass and looking for berries. It was still warm in Georgia, about 85 degrees Farenheit during the day and in the low 60's at night and some berries were still on bushes for snacking. When they were finished, all pigs were put back on the boat and the ride continued. Between the full tummies and the relaxing ride, several pigs napped on the boat. Realizing this, Avalanche's mommy returned to the dock. The cats were waiting and helped take the pigs off the boat and put the sleeping ones in the mini van. 
It was a quick ride to the inn. "Oh tomorrow's Halloween!" Waikiki said. "What are we doing?" "It's a surprise" several pigs who attended the Halloween trip in 2015 answered. All the pigs settled in and slept very soundly for the night.