Day 12 of UK Trip
July 16, 2009

We woke up this morning with the sun pouring into the motorhome.  We forgot to close the skylight last night and so at about 5am the motorhome was already light and at about 7am it was flooded with sun.  I lay in bed in and sent some business emails with my blackberry while I waited for everyone else to surface.  Eventually my full bladder got the better of me and I got up and that inevitably woke up everyone else.  It was Stephen’s 13th birthday today so we now not only have a teenager on the house, we also have one in the motorhome!  The first order of business was for Stephen to get his presents we had brought with us (one very heavy one of an ESV Study Bible which we brought all the way from CT!).

We then started our day off with the usual breakfast – Shreddie’s for everyone except Helen who has found some kind of cinnamon cereal that she loves.  I think if we let her she would eat for it lunch and supper as well.  We didn’t really know what to do today as we had considered going to Isle of Skye or otherwise skipping it and heading further south.  We settled on driving to at least Kyle of Lochalsh which we have been to previously and is just before the bridge to cross over to Skye.  Unfortunately the further we drove south the worse the weather became and within 30 minutes of driving it was already raining.  It rained on and off while we drove.  A fairly large section of the road was single track again and as we were now nearing more civilisation than the North West section, it meant regularly stopping and pulling off again as we passed cars in the opposite direction.  Fairly tedious and tiring driving.  We got to Kyle of Lochalsh at 11:30am and as the weather wasn’t good we decide not to spoil our memories of Skye in the sun and rather to keep heading south.  We did some shopping in Kyle for lunch and also for cakes/pastries to celebrate Stephen’s birthday.

We then headed off south again and after about 10 miles we pulled over to eat our lunch.  Michael remarked how much he likes the motorhome because you have everything you need onboard – toilet, food & beds.  What more could you need especially if all the caravan parks had Wifi (like last night and again tonight).  After lunch we continued to head south as Helen and I had agreed that we would try for Glencoe for the evening.  The criteria was that we wanted a caravan park in or very near the town so that we could eat supper at a restuarant tonight to celebrate Stephen’s birthday.  It has to be in or near because once we have a stand we can’t give it up or someone else might take it.  So it has to be in walking distance so that we can leave the motorhome in its stand.

Shortly after we pulled off after lunch, the conversation with Helen started to dwindle and eventually when she didn’t answer at all I realised that either our marriage had hit a low point or she had simply fallen asleep.  Fortunately it turned out to be the latter as I could hear her snore shortly after.  Given the bumpy nature of the road, stopping and pulling off a few times (one ways due to roadworks) and even stopping to refuel, she slept on.  She told me this evening that she didn’t really have a good sleep though!?!  Fortunately the SPG was set and so I simply followed it until we actually hit Glencoe and then just as I was pulling into the Caravan site, Helen woke up.  We got here at 3pm so we had a lot more time just to unwind.  My back is really sore either from the bed or the driving (not sure which).  Michael (our commentator) said I must be getting old (he has the gift of encouragement).  Unfortunately it is really hurting and so I am going to take an anti-inflamatory just before I go to sleep and after I have finished typing this update.  Besides that, we are all well and enjoying the holiday – we have far more to be thankful for than to complain about.

Glencoe is a Scottish town with a lot of history.  Due to Helen’s guidebook reading we have discovered it was the place that the McDonalds while hosting the Campbells, ended up being slaughtered by the Campbells after a signal was given by the Campbell leader.  The whole McDonald clan in the area was wiped out.  The restuarant that we went to tonight (the only one in town) had a poem about the slaughter on the back of the menu.

The caravan park is a 5-star park.  Still haven’t figured out what gets the 5-stars but they have a small shop, toilet facilities are nice and clean and they have Wifi.  Their Wifi is a little more sophisticated than last nights (we paid £3 and all used the code). It cost £5 tonight and you get a unique code so that if someone else logs in, it kicks the other person out.  I didn’t like us sharing 1 between 4 of us so we bought 2 and I used one exclusively so I could catch up on some CBD work (Janet is sending me threatening emails so I need to make sure I get some of the work done).  Chloe, Michael and Stephen did some spying on the other people in the park.  Chloe was in search of TV sets (she counted 11 satellite dishes) and Michael/Stephen were looking for good looking girls (they found 2 according to their criteria).

We went to dinner at 6:30pm and walked about ½ mile before we realised that the restaurant wasn’t in that direction and so had to double back.  We got to the restaurant just before the heavens opened again and we left after it had finished raining so we really timed it well.  There is only one restaurant in town and they also do takeaways.  When we arrived there was no table free but the waitress kindly asked 2 men to move so we could have a table for the 5 of us.  They agreed and got to share with another couple – we thanked them profusely.  It was a quaint restaurant which seated about 20 people.  It was packed full and 2 sets of people also came in for takeaways.  Stephen and I had starters (Tomato and Basil soup).  There wasn’t a huge selection for the main courses – only 5 items on the menu but you could also chose from the takeaway menu.  I had pork loin, Stephen &  Michael had Chicken Breast, Chloe had a Cheese Burger and Helen had Salmon Quiche.  The food was very nice and everyone enjoyed their meals.

Stephen and Michael played outside for about an hour when we got back and Chloe cleaned the motorhome, made coffee for Helen and I and just generally entertained us with her antics.  When the boys came back, Stephen started messing around with his one birthday present – Adobe Photoshop which Grandpa had given him.  He tried to put Helen’s face onto Angelina Jolie’s body.  It was quite funny because the proportions never worked out so Helen’s head dwarfed Angelina’s body or she ended up with Angelina’s hair which looked even funnier.  It did amuse everyone though and so Michael and Chloe only ended up going to bed at 10:45pm.  Stephen played on until 11:30pm and finally fell asleep at 11:45pm.  Helen has just gone to sleep (12:15am) and I will shortly.  It isn’t really totally dark outside even though it is 12:25am at the moment – it still amazes me!

As the motorhome is definitely at a downward sloping angle tonight, Michael is likely to roll onto Chloe, I am likely to roll into the crack and hopefully Helen doesn’t roll off the top bunk.  Only Stephen (the birthday boy) gets to sleep with his feet below his head and seems comfortably asleep.

Well that’s it for tonight, sleep tonight, I hope the bed bugs don’t (or didn’t) bite.

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