h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Technical difficulties last night, but I wrote everything out on Notepad (the program, not the child), so, without further ado...

Day 23

Z and I managed to head out for the Scottish Road Trip before ben or Guest woke up (being so far north, the sun had been up for awhile, behind the thick gray clouds). I had placed all the planning for the roadtrip into Z's hands, once we figured out what I wanted to see and what was actually possible in our timeframe (no Skara Brae, nor any isles, not even the closer ones). Me being me, I had to sit on my hands many times once I'd made that decision. Good thing, too--Z finished up a PhD during that time, and that's just a wee bit higher on any list of priorities... He did cheerfully tell me via FB messenger (yay train wifi) that'd he'd booked two hotel rooms for the night just that past day *twitch*!

Our first stop was to look at the Kelpies up close. Being so early, there was no one to enforce parking fees Of course, that also meant that the cafe wouldn't be open for a couple of hours. The sculptures were almost overwhelmingly large, and would've been impressive for that alone. The fact that I adore horses certainly didn't hurt

We drove for a bit, and stopped for breakfast in Callender. I had a scottish fry-up, and my first taste of haggis. After breakfast, we continued on to visit with Richard Harris and his wife for a bit (for those that don't know, Richard, Robbie Stamp (whom I'd met at the evening portion of the London Meet--he was the one that said I was twice part of h2g2 history) and Douglas Adams were the ones that made h2g2). We had a nice visit, and I admired the Z and I had to get going, as we had a lot of miles to cover. Now, the last bit of road between the motorway and Richard's is unpaved and rutted, with nice opaque puddles when we were there. We were driving along, and then we started hearing an awful noise. It was kind of rattly at first, and then there was the unmistakeable sound of metal on metal. We pulled over, and Z looked all under the car, and at the wheels, and anywhere he could think of--since we couldn't pinpoint the sound and, indeed, it sounded as if it might be moving. After the inspection showed nothing, we decided to keep going, as there was a garage back at the intersection--we would just have to hope that 1) it was open and 2) that we weren't doing irrepairable damage to Z's car. A few miles later (but well before the garage), the sound worked its way to the back of the car, and was gone. We finally figured out that we must've picked something up from a puddle, and continued on our merry way with no further mechanical worries--and with me having heard the story of how minichessemouse had once diagnosed car trouble accurately from the back seat.

Our next destination was the Crannog Centre, with a short detour to Killin, which has shallow waterfalls. Crannogs are artificial islands built in lochs with causeways leading to them, some dating to the Neolithic period. Most now are either submerged or look like natural islands, unless one notices the regular (usually round) shape. The Crannog Centre has a full-sized reproduction of a crannog, with a guide dressed in period costume, and demonstrations of different kinds of lathes, on how to drill a hole through rock with wood, and a firemaking demo (which took awhile, since rain makes for a bit of humidity). The next destination was also prehistoric--Clava Cairns. Z had been there before, with ben, and it was a good thing he had been, as the first and only sign on the way was only half a mile away. Even as ruins, they were impressive. Many of the stones used to build them were half the height of a man, and not skinny little slabs, either. And the smaller stones fit together precisely.

Our final destination was to be the only hotel I stayed in for the entire trip. We got to Carrbridge around 10pm, and I was slightly weirded out about how light it still was. The rooms (well mine, anyway--didn't see Z's, but I assume his was the same) were clean and neat, with tiny beds, and breakfast was included. There was some entertainment down in the lounge, which I was too tired to check out, but Z, who passed by while getting our luggage from the car, said we weren't missing anything (and that we brought the average age of the hotel's guests down quite a bit--it appeared that the hotel was one that was a regular stop for senior coach tours).

Wow - very impressive indeed. Not many Researchers get to meet one Founder, never mind two! Paper Lady is highly honoured

Fascinating about the Crannogs

There was a lady in our tour group in a chair, and she made it over the causeway (with help, as the causeway is made of logs, but still)

Great to bring back some lovely memories.