I’m here!

Oh, everyone, I can’t tell you how glad I am to be here!  Such a journey, the trials I had, and what I had to do to get here without a passport!  Well, more on that in a bit, let me tell you about Knotts Island, or at least what Mari has told me and shown me so far.  The island is small, on the border between North Carolina and Virginia, and is protected from the Atlantic ocean by the barrier islands you can see on the horizon line in the photo above.  Here’s a link to a Google map so you can get an idea of where I am.

So, the journey.  This was the first flight I’ve taken not under my own power, I mean, without flying on my broomstick.  I was on a plane, and at first that was okay, although it did get a little tiresome on the long leg over the Altantic, and I did so long to be able to feel the wind in my hair and the splash of spray on my face.  Then I arrived on the shores of the USA, and the trouble started.  I couldn’t see what was happening but I could hear voices saying I was absolutely not going to be allowed into the country without a passport!  Imagine!  Me, needing a passport!  I knew I should have traveled by broom.

Well, I didn’t travel all this way only to be turned back for lack of little blue book.  I tried every spell I knew to get myself out of the bag so I could really let loose with the power of my broom but to no avail.  So I began calling out, in a little old lady’s voice: “Help me!  Oh please, kind customs people, please let me out of this bag!”  There was silence.  I struggled and kicked and cried. “Will no one hear the cries of a wretched old lady??”  Someone unzipped the bag.  I leaped out, and pointed the end of my broom at the group standing around me, all looking like extras in a Stephen Spielberg movie (you know, mouths hanging open, awe and wonder on their faces).  “Passportamus Createamus!”   The power required blew the bristles off my broom.  But there, on the table next to my journal, was my passport.

Unfortunately, as you can see, it’s an American passport.  You have to be so specific with these spells, or Goddess knows what you’ll get.  Anyhow, I’ll skip over all the confusion, excitement and arguments that ensued at the miraculous appearance of my passport.  Eventually, I was packed back into my bag, with my new passport all legally signed and sealed and stamped, and was sent on my way.  When I arrived at Mari’s, I was exhausted.  We had a glass of wine (Moonrise Bay Cabernet Sauvignon, from one of the two island vineyards), and then Mari showed me to my room, introduced me to the alien, whose name is something unpronounceable, and to the resident black cat, whose name is a very pronounceable Junior, and tucked me into the bed.

I slept so soundly, with the alien guarding my dreams, and Junior curled up at my toes.  Till tomorrow, my lovelies.