Outnumbered & Abroad; Red Deer, the Harry Potter Train, & the Bonnie Prince Charlie (part 21)
Scotland (Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 - Day #8) - We left Scotland early and I was grateful that I was able to nod off in our TIGHTLY packed car. I had barely slept the night before, convinced I was going to upchuck my chicken and waffles. Yes, they had been delicious, but the food has been so poor and lacking here, that I don’t think that my stomach could handle all of the food I placed into it last night. But I made it! By golly, you don’t have a plate of chicken and waffles that good just to lose it to a toilet after all!
Through our drive, we followed a beautiful and windy road by the beautiful Loch Lammond. There was a hotel in Bartlett Bay that I wrote down - it is definitely a future place to visit. The sunrise over the water was actually so breathtakingly amazing, as was all the beautiful fall foliage.
It was along this road that we began to see some of the most amazing stone bridges … which of course led to Warren Clayton and I’s routine “TROLL BRIDGE” comments, questions, and enthusiasms, that in turn led to a whole other set of laughter over a question I don’t think any of our parents could handle on a road trip with us titled, “What does a troll sound like?”
And then the road opened up into this crazy open area of the highlands. I can only assume that the only thing I could see having a purpose out there would be if the entire area was covered in snow - which it currently wasn’t. My suspicions were confirmed, when we started to see signs and turnouts for ski resorts and lodges. What a cool place!
Earlier on the trip, I had thought that I had seen the red deer which was our only playing card at the time. Nicole was the only other one away (thank heavens, as she was driving) and dit’ think they were big enough. Not about to lose my card, I literally shouted at Warren Clayton, the one most likely to wake up to noice, to which he did. By the time that he had actually come too, it was too late and we had passed them. I wasn’t TOO bitter about it, UNTIL, as we drove through these red dirt plains just moments later, filled with minimal grass, Warren Clayton clearly states from behind my seat, “Look, red deer! I get the card!”
And in a statement, so carefully and deliberately stated, with an intensity that surprised even me (who said it), I said, “Fuck you Warren Clayton.”
A lady admiring Warren Clayton to redeem my guilty conscious about getting competitive with him.
The whole car burst from the seams with laughter, including myself, because what are the odds that the one person who had kept ME from getting the card, got it himself and only just a few moments later? I was PLAYED! I was ROBBED I TELL YOU! You can’t convince me that he didn’t do it on purpose! From there on out, “Red deer” was our Americans-in-Scotland version of saying, “Fuck you.”
In order to get out and stretch our legs, we stopped at Glennfinnen Viaduct. We hiked up a few flights of stairs and a switchback to get to the top, where we could see the infamous train bridge from Harry Potter. A family, bedecked in their Hogwarts Houses’ colors was up there taking pictures as well. I was super excited because we got the dad to take our photo. I am already well aware that “Team Photos” are going to be a dime a dozen on this trip.
Walking through the gift shop and cafe at the bottom fo the hill, I got my first introduction to the Bonnie Prince Charlie. Literally nicknamed so because he was a pretty bo who used the Jacoites to try and take back the monarchy.
He failed.
In fact, he’s the reason that the Scottish history was nearly completely erased due to getting the clans up to uprise in the way that they did. The kilts, bagpipes, language, books, history, EVERYTHING was subsequently squashed, burned and banned to keep anything of the sort starting again.
One of the things that I have found very interesting here: reading the newspapers, signage and listening to the radio. They speak so highly of the President Donald Trump of the United States of America. If we were back home right now with the Kavanaugh appointment happening, I couldn’t tell you how many bad things, protests and accusations we would be hearing about. Here it is all positive and the “rudest” you could claim that they are is that they think people are atrocious about even believing the non-evidence backed accusations of the women. Personally, I feel so out of the loop and have no idea about what is happening back home and, quite frankly and semi-guiltily, I am relieved to not have to think about it.
While also discussing politics on the radio, they discussed their owmimmigration issues and how they were going to start kicking out the unskilled foreign/immigrant laborers. It kind of made sense though. It seemed as if they were saying that IF you were going to immigrate the UK, then you had to provide some sort of skill or labor. No free loaders allowed - everyone had to earn their keep.
Through the process of my brain over analyzing the one talk show we could get on the radio, Nicole mad me jump when she yanked the car through a small turnout.
“What’s going on?” I half-exclaimed, thinking something was wrong as we still had quite some time on our GPS to the next clue card destination.
“Castle!” Nicole said.
Randi, who had been jolted away from her slumber in the back (as had Warren Clayton), let out an excited, half-asleep squeal.
Eilean Donan Castle.