Rotary Trip to Scotland

Friday 22 September
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We had a leisurely start to the day with time for Thorns and I to get our laundry finished. We said goodbye to Liz and set off with Mike for Stranraer - which is about 50 miles from where we were. We took the coast road down and saw some great scenery. Scotland is full of great scenery.
We met our new hosts at the Stranraer Golf Club for lunch. After lunch the options were:
A) go see the sights in Stranraer
B) play golf

So don’t ask me about landmarks in Stranraer unless they have sandtraps near them. Bill played in a group with a couple of our hosts (Hugh and John), and Adrienne, Melissa and I got to play with Ian. It was very fun. The 5th hole in particular is spectacular. It was rated one of the most difficult holes in Scotland - you hit off a tee that’s about 100 feet above the fairway, with trees below and to the left, and the Loch to the right. I had no trouble - hit a great drive straight out onto the fringe of the fairway - but the trees were fed by our group.
Someone quoted a golfer who described the hole this way: “Oh, that damn hole - $#@! on the left and water on the right.”

After golf we got to get settled. I’m staying with John and Gail and their adorable 3-year-old daughter Robyn. They also have a mammoth Burnese dog named Katie. Gail is a world-class curler, and there are curling stones everywhere.
John and Gail hosted everyone for drinks, and then we walked a block to dinner. After dinner we went to a silent auction that had a non-silent part called by Ian. It was a fundraiser, and pretty fun. John tracked down a guitar and they had me end the silent part by singing a couple songs for everyone. I wasn’t amplified, but it was still fun.
I entertained a smaller group in the back of the room for a while, then we all went over to Melissa’s host family for more drinks. I sang some more, but finally stopped.
Quite a fun day!

Saturday 23 September
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For some unknown reason I woke up at 7:15. My alarm was set for an hour later, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep. More on that later. I also had kind of lost my voice. Can’t imagine why.

We had a full day ahead of us, heading down the coast to the Mull of Galloway and the farthest point south in Scotland, in a small bus so we got to travel together.
But first, we went to a botanical garden and looked at some nifty plants. I took far too many pictures, which will appear in their own gallery on the pictures page when I get a chance.

The trip down to the Mull was interested - the closer we got, the narrower the roads got, and we had to chase cows out of our way a few times. We had lunch at at restaurant overlooking a cliff and the sea to the west. To the east was a bay, and if it was clear enough you could see five kingdoms from the spot - west to Ireland, north to Scotland, south to England, south east (?) to Wales and straight up to Heaven.
I climbed the lighthouse with John and Macolm - the winds at the top were fierce and I had to hold on to my glasses so they wouldn’t blow off.

We then traveled around the bay to a whisky distillery called Bladnoch. We had a tour from the owner, and it was one of the most remarkable events we’ve participated in. Raymond (the owner) is an Irishman, and he told interesting, funny, and odd stories the entire tour. I have it all on video and should be able to make a very entertaining movie out of it. We got to taste whisky from the barrels - some good, some not so much. They make one whisky that is finished in a rum cask, and therefore has a rum taste to it. Very good.

After that we went back to Malcolm’s for drinks, and the on to dinner at a local hotel. I was dragging by the time we got our main course, and pretty much crashed at the table. I didn’t fall asleep, but I was pretty beat. That from waking up too soon, and having too much fun the night before.

Sunday - Ireland!

Jason

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 7:50 am and is filed under Jason's trip updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.