Back to Aberfeldy and another wee dram … dram.

We decided to take Friday and regroup before the next phase of the trip … laundry and a hike in the woods, etc. Actually Robert Burns wrote about the Birks of Aberfeldy in a poem and it is about the Moness estate we are living on and the walking paths near here. Obviously too many wee drams if Bruce is talking about poetry, eh.

After check out on Saturday, we head north to Dornoch and we will see if we have any sort of connection with the outside world from there. We’ll be two days in Dornoch.

Now a word from Jo-Anne, thought I'd try my hand at bloggjng. Scotland has some of the most
beautiful countyside I've ever seen, didn't think anything could top Germany..... It's so clean here the roadsides are spotless, mind you they have very very small roads. We were a little intimidated at first but Bruce is driving like a local (scary). Now that we have the new Tom tom I am semi retired from being map girl which is rather nice! All you skeptics out there ... yes we are still married thus far into our new adventure.

We'll try to get on line in the next couple of days ... the adventure continues ...

650 miles on the Hyundai. Filled it up Thursday morning before going to Inverary and it was another $70 for a half tank. I think it is getting about 25 miles to the gallon on diesel but still is pretty expensive.

Inveraray Castle was like the last two, very well worth the trip and expense. Again a place where the family is living today. There are more than 1300 pieces of ancient armaments in the castle and the art and furnishings are awesome. This is the home of the Duke of Argyle … you know the socks, eh. After our tour, we ate at a little restaurant that must have been functioning for the last couple of hundred years right by the water and dock in Inveraray and the hostess was a hoot and her Scottish brogue was fun to listen to. We were the only people in the place, with the cold rain and fog outside, and the coal fire warming our backsides … it was really neat. It's really unfortunate you can't take pictures in any of the castles, just outside. In the government facilities like Edinburgh castle you can, but as these later ones are still homes, the owners would rather you buy their brochure with their pictures ... helps pay the rent, eh.

Now Friday morning and this will be the last entry until we get up to Dornoch in northern Scotland where we will spend two nights.

Yesterday we went over to Inveraray Castle on Loch Fyne and it was a great trip in spite of the weather which is still 60ish and misty rain and fog. The road to Inveraray takes us past Loch Lomand which is really neat in the wind and rain … with the white caps on the water. The Loch Lomand national park is a fantastic piece of property … this whole section of the country seems like a park … so clean and remote. There seems to be a lot of camping in travel trailers here as we are passing them quite a bit and the caravan or trailer parks are every few miles along the road. While we thought of venturing further while here at Aberfeldy, our average speed on the roads seems to be about 30 miles per hour so that determines how far we go each day. Thursday over to Inveraray was 65 miles (mostly two lane and a bit one lane) and it took about 3 hours including stopping for gas, hitting the ATM (387 bucks got me 200 pounds), and the obligatory tea and scone stop.

Scone is the place where many of the Scottish kings including Robert the Bruce were crowned; all on this site since 849ad. Again an impressive collection of 12th to 18th century art and artifacts and very worth the entry price. The real feeling of Scottish history is real and present. Again like Blair this is a real residence with owners and their families who have lived on the property for hundreds of years. The combination of art and artifacts we have seen today rivals that of a portion of the Louve in Paris, particularly concerning the 14-18th centuries.

Ahhh back home in Aberfeldy, 540 miles now on the Hyundai, and another wee dram.

As it was only one in the afternoon, we went down to the area of Perth and the Palace of Scone. Again the Tom Tom Navigator talked us through the route. In addition to a 3D view of your route, it shows the speed limit, the speed you are going, and then alarms when you are approaching a speed reduction area and potential camera area.

After the tour, we passed on eating in the castle dining room and went down to the village of Blair. There we ate at the water mill which is one of the few active mills that has been operating for around 500 years. We had really good lentil soup, bread ground in the mill, and tea.

Blair is a must see. The rooms are chocked full of artifacts from 500 years of the same family living there; incredible. The baronial life presented at Blair is impressive; it is still occupied by the same family that has lived here for 540 years and their possessions are all on display and within touch. There were probably 30 rooms full of things from about 1400 to 1800 and all explained thoroughly; you could have spent several days at Blair trying to digest all the material that was within arm’s reach. The most impressive here are the armaments (guy stuff) and the collection rivals that in the tower of London. As you walk the halls you can actually touch the silver or stocks of weapons from around 1500 and there are hundreds if not thousands of them lining the walls.

On Wednesday we decided to drive less and first go up to Blair Atholl Castle and then if time allowed over to Scone Palace, both about 30 miles from Aberfeldy. Blair, while not historically huge, is a beautiful place. Every castle is 7.5 pounds per person or $15 entry for a single ticket … we claim “ol guy” status for seniors and get in for a mere 6 pounds or 12 bucks a head.

And after another hard day on the road around Scotland we head back to Aberfeldy for another wee dram of Scotch ...

Balmoral Castle itself was a disappointment. I guess we’ve seen a lot of castles in Germany and France and Balmoral was definitely not worth the $28 admission. You are only allowed to see one room, the ballroom (100 feet by maybe 40 and very plain) yet are allowed to roam the grounds and gardens (again by Continental standards, very small and plain). We can say we’ve been on the dance floor where the Queen danced, but I’d rank her ex-yacht many more times impressive than this castle.

As opposed to the road around the north side of Loch Tay, which is forested and filled with lakes and homes by the lakes, the road east toward Balmoral (A93) is a wild contrast. As you first get on A93 it is still forested and hilly … beautiful. But then for the next 35 miles to the town of Braemar it is starkly moonscape. The hills range up to 3,000 feet high and there are ski slopes along the way (still some snow patches), but there are very few trees; just heather and scrub grass … and the ever present SHEEP. For a 10 mile piece of the road the sheep are not fenced and allowed to wander across the road so you have to go pretty slow around the winding curves to be sure not to hit one of the critters.

On Tuesday we headed northeast to Balmoral Castle which is the sometimes residence of the Queen … particularly in the fall. This trek of about 60 miles took at least 2.5 hours because of the small winding roads. They depict this yellow line on the map and call it a state highway (A927 for example) however that turned out to be a one-lane road through farmers fields … I’ve seen bigger driveways, eh. That one was truly tiny … but by golly, we still shared it with an occasional tour bus, eek. And the speed limits were way over what you could possibly maintain.

There’s absolutely no shoulder on the road so no room to escape. On the left or passenger side, there is usually a rock wall or trees right at the edge of the pavement so no room to wiggle when confronted with the 18 wheeler or tour bus. On a BIG road, one with a center line, the distance from where my left tire begins hitting objects, over to the center stripe, is about the width of our car, just barely including mirrors; on the smaller roads which are more common you just get as far left as possible and wait for contact. I drove in Naples for 100 days and this is just about as exciting … the confrontations are the same, except here there is just a lot less traffic. I actually think the left side of the car was off the ground for a brief period after hitting something … no visible damage to the rental yet though.

One more before I close for the day. We bought a Tom Tom 910 GPS system before leaving Texas and it worked flawlessly all the way up to Meaford Ontario. We switched it on here and presto it is guiding us around all the little town in central Scotland ... turn by turn ... including the roundabouts ... awesome machine and I recommend it to anyone. The audibles are clear and the routing is super easy to use and correct, especially if you are like me and tend not to listen to the navigator very well.

There are so many of these guys and gals that there must be a thousand for every citizen of Scotland! You would think that with all this wool on the hoof that a sweater or lamb chop would be cheap ... nope. Same with Scotch. You can't move mile without bumping into a thousand sheep and at least one distillery but the price of the stuff is still double that at home .... oh well more economics later. Oh yes, I put a half tank of gas in the Hyundai and it was $64 ... air for the tire ... free.

Monday we were off to the west, following the Tay river to Loch Tay and that was a really pretty drive all along the north shore of the lake. At the end of the Loch are spectacular falls and then we headed south to Stirling. We stopped for lunch of steak pie and a baked potato at a little town called Kilmahog and then went to Stirling and the famous castle. Today was mostly clear with a light wind and about 60 … so a nice day and Bruce picked up a little sunburn as we were out quite a bit. Stirling castle is a must see … not as spectacular as Edinburgh, but so historically important.

Sunday we got up late and did mundane stuff like laundry in the complex laundromat. There are probably a hundred condo units here of varying sizes; from small efficiency apartments in hotel like settings to ones like ours at about 1000 square feet and are free standing cottages. There are 2 bedrooms and 2 baths in ours plus a large great room with kitchen and living area. We’re at the top of the hill and the picture windows of our unit face out over the River Tay to the hills on the other side of the valley and the view is stunning.

After the chores on Sunday we were just driving around the little town of Aberfeldy and discovered … honest to god, just by chance … that it’s the home of the Dewar’s scotch distillery! What luck, eh. Well we had to pop over and do the tour of the facility, which is rated as one of the best distillery visitor centers in Scotland. In addition to the tour of the brewing process we got to sample some of their single malt stuff (Aberfeldy Dewar’s 12 year) as well as the White Label blend that is sold in the States. Even at the distillery the price was about $30 for a fifth for the White Label; well above what it costs in the states.

On the way home we stopped off at a local pub for a few pints of ale and got engaged with a couple of locals and managed to have a long conversation in spite of the hooting and hollering of the normal pub atmosphere. Jo-Anne was in her glory talking with people who were extremely well versed in our politics and who, like us aren’t fond of our current president and are hoping the Democrats will bring our great country out of the dark ages of the last few years … not our words, but theirs. Fun people and a good time and we crawled home …
Saturday. Off to the Thrifty car rental place. Keep in mind that we had snow showers in the morning and then 45 mile an hour wind and showers all day … will summer ever get here … wait it is summer … at least really late spring. While waiting in the queue for the rental car, some 14 year old pulled the fire alarm and everybody had to evacuate the building for about 20 minutes … in the freezing rain. Then Bruce was presented with the brand new Hyundai Santa Fe with 35 miles on it and the damn steering wheel on the wrong side! I had hoped for an older beat up rental like I normally am offered so no one would notice when the mirrors are ripped off. After a fun (read scary) and scenic left hand side of the road trip we arrived at the condo at Moness Country Club in Aberfeldy, about 70 miles north of Edinburgh. Booked through the government Armed Forces Vacation Club www.afvclub.com . With the dollar at a very low point for our government employee friends, this is a deal at $299; actually an RCI time-share let to the government on a space available basis. As we type this the sun is setting on a spectacular view out the front picture window of the Scottish highland landscape … breathtaking!

We arrived in Edinburgh after a short 6 and a half hour flight; we had a 150 mile an hour tail wind and landed about 40 minutes early. We hopped a taxi to our B&B, the Lairg, which was about two miles west of the castle and the main part of downtown. Usually we check on whether the place has an elevator or lift and on this one we goofed; the room was on the third floor. Ironically it was the number 2 room, but for some reason they started the numbering at the top and worked down to number 10 … strange … I guess that’s from driving on the wrong side of the road too long, eh. The room was large for European standards and had two queen sized beds. After our spoiled life in the RV the three channels of TV and no wi-fi capability left us wanting a bit more of the conveniences. The afternoon we arrived, we took the tour bus ride around the town to get oriented and to ward off the jet lag but pooped out early.

Yesterday was a busy one. The night before we had a blinding thunderstorm which the fiberglass box of the RV made twice as exciting. We broke camp in the morning to 45 degrees and sunshine though. Spring has finally reached Meaford and the flowers and trees are getting to full bloom. This of course brings billions of mosquitoes which made my trying to unhook the RV pretty comical with the running and swatting. I still have to figure out how to flush the black tank without getting splashback on my face and glasses. By the way Jo-Anne's hand is mostly back to normal with just a little pain and stiffness remaining ... good enough to heft her 57 pound suitcase and carryon, eh.

We finally got the Flying Scotsman unhitched and moved to its new storage in the apple barn of a friend. I didn't remember to bring the camera to get a pic of the bus snuggled in next to a 35 foot yacht after I backed it into the place ... many hundreds of thousands of dollars of plastic moving in close proximity ... scary! I'll get a pic of my masterful parking when we return in a couple of months to retrieve the bus.

We said bye to Jo-Anne's parents and brother Rick. Buster and the Bandit, the cat and dog, were, of course, oblivious to us leaving, both sleeping soundly.

We're now in Toronto near the airport at a Hampton. We have a 5pm departure to Paris, then Edinburgh, so will get a late checkout and maybe a nap before the flight. This will be our first flight on Air France so we'll let you know how it goes.

We finally gave up on living on the edge with the front wheels in space and boards splintering below us and have moved to a level site near the beach. These spaces require me to take the tow dolly off and back the bus in, but having a level site is well worth it. The only drawback down here by the water is that the southern exposure to satellite TV is cut off; we’re quite north and the satellites are very low on the horizon so the high trees and hill behind us keep that from working. We also have a regular TV antenna that gets a couple of channels so we’re not totally without the news; at least CBC news that is. The XM satellite radio still works like a champ though. We’re still the only inhabitants in the city park so far, except for a couple squirrels, some seagulls, and an occasional stray dog; the quiet, except for Tanya Tucker on the home theater, is exceptional. Ahhhh … camping.

Cost of living: Gas is averaging 1.05 per liter. There’s 4 liters per imperial gallon or 4.20CAD. Converting from imperial to US gallons with -20% equals $3.36 and then using a conversion of about 10% advantage for $$ versus CAD that equals about $3.02 around the same as we had in the States just before crossing. Not a problem now, but will add up as we head West in August. In addition, we still have three quarters of the propane left from when we bought the bus even though we are using the furnace almost every night and that’s rather a pleasant surprise. Even with the exchange rate of 10% in our favor, there’s still some sticker shock as we go to the market; the same bottle of Lindeman’s shiraz that sells for 7.50 at home is 15.50 here and that’s pretty common across the board for any alcohol. Fortunately Jo-Anne’s brother and father brew their own wine (mostly cabernets), in self defense, for about three bucks a bottle and have about 150 bottles aging nicely in the cellar.

A friend of the Martins has agreed to store the Flying Scotsman in his old apple storage warehouse while we are gone for two months. This is great to have it indoors for the time and is really unexpected.

The municipal park we're in doesn't have all the neat stuff like wi-fi that some KOAs had on our way up here. As a result we've reserved a space in the KOA in Owen Sound about 16 miles West of Meaford, from the 19th of July for a month, until we start our trek west.

As the highs are around 60 there is still some snow on the ski slopes along the road from Meaford to Collingwood, which is about 15 miles to our East and a real popular destination for tourists from Toronto. When we get back here from Europe, the beaches will be packed with the same vacationers.

We've settled into the our new home and are content to enjoy the life here till we head over to Europe next week. Literally settled in as the front of the bus continues to sink into the soft grassy soil and I continue to add boards to keep a semblance of level. This 20,000 pound monster broke the rear set of boards as I tried to roll it from left to right but we are finally close to level in that direction. However, the best I can get is about a 5 degree nose down attitude, but this problem is offset by the fantastic view out the front picture window ... just gotta walk up to the bedroom ... but it's worth it.

The Flying Scotsman has landed for a couple of weeks in Meaford Ontario. We got in about 2pm yesterday. Jo-Anne's parents live in Meaford which is at the lower end of Georgian Bay between the towns of Collingwood and Owen Sound. We'll be here until the 16th when we go to Europe so will post pictures occasionally about this pretty little (4500) town. This area is called the Blue Mountain area and is know for excellent winter skiing and in the summer offers miles of beaches ... right now the water is about 40 degrees ... so skinny dipping is out for the time being.

The bus is parked in Memorial Park which is about 200 acres and we are only residents so far. The monster machine is currently parked on a steep slope and on pretty mushy grass. We tried to level it up but it's over the angle for the automatic process. We've put boards under the jacks but will have to move the machine and try again.

Oh yeah ... the toilet backed up this morning and I spent about an hour unplugging a lot of crap ... maybe because of the bad level of the RV ... don't know. Shoveling crap at 40 degrees ... ain't camping fun. Actually the bay is right out the picture window and is gorgeous.

Well we arrived in Port Huron yesterday and the KOA is really beautiful here. We're learning more about the bus and it's 100 + foot turning radius ... and the fact you can't even back up a foot with the tow dolly hitched ...PLAN WAY AHEAD.

This morning we're waking to a 49 rain to get the machine prepped for the trip across the border and on to Meaford, Ontario. We'll cross the Blue Water Bridge and customs this morning, hoping the rain and wind won't be too bad at 250 up on the bridge. I'd put a picture here but you can use your imagination on a cold dreary rainy day.

I'm writing this now as we don't know how the connectivity will be as we progress ... only one park so far did not have wi-fi so it should be good ... and there's always Starbucks, eh.