Spying on the castle-mansion, foiled by pitbulls

I was perhaps a spy or something, and had walked up an outdoor walkway in the woods to the outside entrance to the top (third?) story of a castle/mansion of grand proportions (maybe football-field sized).

The door was open, looking into a roomy stone hallway. Before I could really step in, a pair of pretty evil-looking brown pitbull-like dogs came up to me and began to menace.

On and off, they went from baring their teeth and looking ready to pounce, to zoning out and looking nonchalant. I decided, though, that I better not take chances, so I strolled back down into the woods. The dogs followed me for a ways, still switching between evil and docile.

The last stretch out of the woods was a neatly delimited steep slope, covered in fallen leaves, with a railing all the way up the left side. As I climbed the slope, holding onto the railing, I noticed that the entire railing was covered with a very thick layer of whipped cream.

Two (or three) towers

I had lost track of a girl I was with earlier (with medium length dyed redhead hair). I was walking through a sparsely wooded park (reminiscent of Rock Creek Park in DC) in autumn, along with some friend of mine. Off to the side, in the distance, but not too far off, I spotted two massive light gray towers, sort of castle style with battlements, but maybe the size of the steam stacks at a nuclear power plant. These two towers belonged to a complex, and a third tower, a little bit separated from the other two, was also present. I decided to take a picture, but even at this distance, I could only fit the two towers closer together into the picture.

I believe I later went over to that complex, and possibly found the girl from earlier in the lobby there. But I can't quite remember.

Star Wars tower battle — then, composing the battle music

In the Star Wars universe, we are in some sort of final battle sequence. (It's unclear whether this is an immersive video game or possibly a movie shoot.) The battle is on foot, in the area in and surrounding this gigantic castle-like tower, whose depth stretches down for what looks like hundreds or thousands of feet. At first, most of the fighting takes place on the "ground" level, which must be little more than a platform in the open air for all that depth below it. I'm taking down storm troopers left and right with my blaster, actually banking my beam off walls to hit them.

At one point, a guy rolls by in a souped-up motor scooter; apparently he was a minor cast member from the X-wing fighters that destroyed the first Death Star. This reminded me that this might be a movie shoot.

The battle starts to escalate. People begin entering the tower, or falling below the platform and using long grappling hooks to hang on or get inside. The only structural detail I see inside the tower is a very spacious stairwell that begins at the outside edge near the bottom of the tower and spirals slowly up for an unknown distance. (Even at the bottom of the tower, the ground below is still not visible.)

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Somewhere on the outside of all this, I and a band are jamming/composing music to go with this final fight scene. Unfortunately I can't recall a single note of it. Seems like I swapped instruments with the "new guy" just as we got to the solo or bridge. Can't even remember who was playing what instrument though.

Scenic train ride to the east

Preparing to take a train back east with a bunch of townspeople. Everyone made sure to collect all their belongings and bring them to the train. For me, this included my bike, bike rack, bike lock, bedclothes, hoodie, half-eaten granola bar, backpack, suitcase, etc.

The train conductor noted that our one guard in town was the only guy with a gun and so anyone who wanted to board the train better be on the guard's good side. The guard was flattered and half-chuckled. I was standing near the guard when that was said, so I gave him a little salute.

The train set out -- source was maybe somewhere around Colorado or Wyoming; the route would take us directly east via the Black Hills of South Dakota. Looking out the window, we saw plenty of interesting scenery (and surprisingly little wilderness). The first thing I noted were the giant dandelions which I had first seen in real life in Colorado. At that time, I had only seen the seed stage, but in the dream, I saw some of the flowers too, and they did bear some vague resemblance to dandelions; bigger, less vibrant yellow, more droopy -- but maybe they were dying off.

I got hungry and dug into my suitcase, finding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich whose two halves were, in some ineffable way, shaped like two chicken fingers. Ate it.

Next, we passed through a hilly area, where these very small clouds were floating, quite close to us, and not far from the ground, ranging from eye level to maybe 50 feet up. There were a lot of them, and as close as they were, they zoomed by as quickly as the train zoomed along. I spotted a fleeting space between a group of clouds that looked like China, and I mentioned it. Mom mentioned she saw one that looked like Ireland, but when I looked up to see it, it had already passed. I went and got my Nikon camera to take pictures of the clouds, but by the time I was ready, they had all passed.

My camera had a little glitch, and I had to remove the battery and put it back in to get it running again. It wasn't a simple operation, as there were a few buttons (all of which appeared to be power buttons) to be pressed and a bottom panel that slid up out of the way. When I touched the battery it was kinda hot.. Anyway, I got the camera on again and fiddled with it, when suddenly a magnificent towery-castly-cathedraly thingy whizzed by on the left (with other, less impressive development on either side of it...). I was on the right side of the train so I wouldn't be able to get a very good shot. But I decided to go for it, so, with camera in hand, I leaned backwards and to the side and hit the button. I didn't hear a click, so I figured it hadn't worked, but when I looked at the review screen, I had taken a surprisingly nice picture of the lower half of it.

I wondered how it had worked if the shutter hadn't clicked. I turned it around and took a close picture of my eye, but that time the shutter worked. I was confused. Mentioned it to Greg and Neil, sitting in the seats behind me.