After safely tucking my gifts away in my backpack and sliding Lucinda, my doll, into my belt, I headed out a onto the Silk road. I put a harness on Destiny and she followed begrudgingly behind me, complaining under her breath constantly. She is use to leading. I could not hear most of what she was muttering but definitely heard the sentence "� Who ever heard of walking", many times in between mutters. I explained patiently that soon we would ride, as soon as I had heard from Donkey Inc. which we would fly to, and this seemed to make her more indignant. After repeating "A DONKEY"� a few times she kept sound to a low mutter. I was glad as the sun was now coming up and the fields were glowing in autumn colors. It was time for me to enjoy the walk.

All along the road cat tails were swaying in a gentle breeze. A group of six sparrows swooped and dash through the weeds as though in play. It is golden autumn and even the air seems to have taken on an autumn glow. The clouds are large and heavy and all the bottoms are grey. I hope that does not signal an approaching storm. For now though I will absorb all the sights my eyes can absorb, snap picture with the camera in my mind, and record them in the Silk Road album in my brain, to review later.