Floribama Riders

Trust me, there is bike stuff in here, but, her view on our trip to the 101st running of the Isle is worth the read.  Enjoy...

Per Bekay Calhoun:

2:15 pm - Pussycat, Pussycat, where have you been?

I'm back from the best vacation ever! We had such a wonderful time that it's hard to put into words but you know me, so I will try....

We struck out with the Yankees (if you'll pardon the pun) Our tickets had the time as "TBA", and Greggers looked on-line and it said 7:00....welllll, it wasn't 7:00 it was 1:00!!! We got down to the subway and there was nobody around....Greg says that it's odd because usually on a game day the subway is packed. Then some guy sees us in our Yankees hats and says "Who won the game?" NOOOOOOOOooooooOOOoooooooOOOOOOO!

Well, we went over to the stadium anyway and took some pictures. The new stadium will be nicely done when it's finished and is a larger version (on the outside anyway) of the old House that Ruth Built....New Yorkers are serious about their baseball and it just wouldn't do to mess with success! We did go to a tavern across the street and ate a hotdog. Ya gotta do what you gotta do.

London: Day one was rainy and cold (imagine that!) so we bought a 24-hour pass for the double decker tourist bus and got the lay of the land, so to speak. Saw Big Ben (set my watch by him so if you need the correct time, let me know) and all the spots where Shakespeare did this and Churchill did that. Jumped off to eat fish 'n chips for lunch...and peas. Dear God they serve peas everywhere you go! Day two we were at Buckingham Palace (Liz says hey!) at 10:15 for the changing of the guard at 11:30....we were right at the gate and got some awesome pictures. Then we scooted off to the British National Museum of Art. I have never in my life seen this kind of artwork. I was stunned not to be looking at these pieces that were 100s of years old, but Picasso's Sunflowers was arm's length from me. Picasso!!! The original oil! And Degas....and Rembrandt.....AWEsome!

After 3 hours in the museum (and we just barely got started!) we walked over to the Royal Albert Hall to see if there were any tickets left for the Mark Knopfler show and there were a few so we snapped up two and saw an amazing musician! Our seats were so close I could see the seam down the side of his jeans! If you are a fan or know a fan of a good guitar lick, try to get to one of his concerts !

It was so late when we left and it was Monday and a Bank holiday so little was open for dinner...we ate "bar food" at the Hilton and hit the bed.....up to Scotland tomorrow!

Day two to follow!

 

 

2:17 pm - More Calhouns in the graveyard than in the phone book....

Part II of the continuing saga of :

Bekay and Big Daddy descend upon the Ancestral Home!

Two days in London was wonderful and I was ready to head to Scotland, but had plans changed, I could certainly have stayed another week! So much history! So much art! So much yet to see and do!

As it were, we got up early and passed on the "proper English breakfast", having a $5 can of coke from the gift shop and good old Kellogg's breakfast bars from my private stash instead! We packed while Greg made his obligatory rant about how come I buy so much crap that has to be packed!! (He does this whether we go to Chattanooga for the weekend or New York for a week) Anyhoooo, we headed for Heathrow Airport and the Enterprise Car Rental lot.

Greg is a good driver....on the right (read: correct) side of the road. Roundabouts. Roundabouts are circled off-ramps with 2 to 5 "spokes " like a wagon wheel that take you to your selected highway. They are confusing enough without having to drive a left-handed stick-shift on the wrong side of the road. In the interest of brevity, let's just say that we circled Heathrow Airport four times, and it took us ten hours to make what should have been a six hour drive. As for ME, being on the left side of the car, and us driving on very, very narrow roads, I did my part to remind Big Daddy of how cringingly close we got to the WALL!! WALLL! and the CURB! CUUUURRRBBBBB! GEEEZ! SHEEP IN THE ROAD! SHEEP IN THE.....WALLLLLL! To which my beloved replied in his sweetest tone, "Darling, do you hear metal scraping? Is the rear view mirror still attached? Well when the mirror falls off, LET ME FREAKIN' KNOW!" He is so sensitive. He still did a better job than I would have! LOL!

We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast overlooking the shores of Loch Lomand around 8:30 Wednesday night. It was still daylight and the view was something out of a book. The village of Luss is the ancestral home of the Clan Calhoun (Colquhoun). They started a church on the loch in 1489. I could spend a day telling stories about the Clan----if you're really curious, look up the story of Rob Roy McGregor. The Colquhouns were responsible for the McGregor's losing their tartan and Rob Roy becoming an outlaw. Go figure. After getting settled in a reallllly neat little house built in 1904 with rhododendrons 12 feet high and a darling garden, we walked down to the village for a pint at the "Calhoun Arms Pub" and to survey our surroundings. WHY would anyone leave such a beautiful place?!? We would find out later!

We wandered around what could have been a movie set and sat out on the dock for a while; then wandered over to the church. Quaint little church with graveyards on either side! And Calhouns planted all over the place......We took some pictures of a few headstones and went back to the house to chat with our engaging hostess and her hubby the gardener. She is a professional portrait painter, and he is a retired entrepreneur and now gardener. They were on the board that established the first National Park in Scotland in 2002. Trosachs National Park....right there in Loch Lomand! Wow! Very interesting folks and lovely, just lovely!

Okay.
This is the good part!
The next day was our anniversary #32....

After our hearty (meaty) breakfast, Greg wanted to go back over to the church and take more pictures of headstones. We took pictures and wandered around and commented on how neat the old church was and....Lord have Mercy, son, how many pictures are you going to TAKE!? After more wandering around the church graveyard (which was starting to get me a little creeped out) I finally told him I was ready to go, but....

He took me by the hand and pulled me up on the front church steps and said, " I don't think the minister is coming. Maybe he didn't get my email." Then he pulled a little silver box out of his pocket with two silver bands engraved with Celtic crosses and said, "I want us to renew our vows." I haven't cried like that in years! So we had the most private, intimate, sweet little ceremony and boo-hooed all the way back to the car.......

Anniversary dinner and Friday's events will have to come later.....Stay tuned! Sniff

 

8:38 am - Eh! Not so much.....

Americans are spoiled, I've decided. We have such an abundance and variety of affordable food at our fingertips! If I lived in the UK, I would weigh 85 lbs.

In London we ate fish & chips and the ubiquitous peas....then ate at the bar Monday night. Breakfast is a big deal over there. I guess it should be for all of us. We mostly had sandwiches for lunch in London & Scotland, but our anniversary was Thursday night and we wanted something special, so we inquired of our hostess. She recommended the Loch Fyne Oyster House up the road from Inverarry and Argyll where we would be spending the day. She even offered to make us a reservation because it is a popular place and one of the nicest in the area.

Off we drove. Beee-youtiful countryside. We stopped at the overlook called "Rest and be Thankful"...appropriately named! Then over to Inverary where the old jail was located....now a very touristy side show aimed at the children. Cute, though. Then over to Argyll to tour the Duke of Argyll's castle. The Duke and his family live in one part of the castle, and they sell tours of the rest of it. It was full of antiques and Scottish history. I loved the dining room and the display cases of old china from all over the world....gifts to the previous Dukes and Duchesses. Our host at the B&B told us that the current Duke's mother was a Colquhoun, so we looked them up on the family tree and sure enough, Greg Calhoun is the 5th cousin, seven times removed of the reigning Duke of Argyll! Whooo-Hooo! (I'm sure we'll get an invitation to the next family reunion....I'll bring the potato salad!)

We went over to the Oyster House since they have a garden shop next door and "pottered around" as they say. At 5:00 we went on in for our dinner. The menu looked wonderful! We order the seafood sampler as an appetizer....I argued with Greg a little to get the dozen raw oysters but he loves the mussels and clams, so we got the platter. Bleh. Their oysters were small and briny and tasted like seaweed. Their idea of shrimp are these little bland limp things about the size of quarter. And they call them crevetes. Greg had the smoked salmon. He said it was delicious, but there wasn't much to it. There is very little in the way of fresh vegetables. Their weather is cool and rainy most of the time, so I'm sure it's difficult ot grow things and anything they can't grow has to come over by boat, making it very expensive. I cannot rave about the food anywhere or anytime on our trip...when I say the food on the plane was better than anything I ate in the UK, you know it was bad!! I would have given my eye teeth for a MickeyD's about then! At any rate, we buzzed on back to the B&B and sat up with our hosts and talked for several hours.

Earlier in the day, Greg and I had driven over to Rossdhu, the ancestral home of the Colquhouns. It is now a private golf club where they hold the Scottish Open every year. There were gates at every entrance with guards who had no sense of family heritage, much less a sense of humor! They just told us over and over that it's a private club and unless we have a membership ($120,000 US) we could not be allowed on the grounds even just to take pictures. Whilst telling our disappointing tale to Jack, our host, he says, "Oh I know ol' Jimmy Cronie over there! We grew up together! I'll make a call in the morning!" We thanked him profusely but weren't sure whether it was Jack talking or the scotch!

Friday morning would be busy...packing up to take the train to Heysham on the western side of Scotland and get the ferry over to Douglas on the Isle of Man....Big Daddy's Spiritual home!

 

9:45 am - Big Daddy's Home!

 

Friday morning we said our good-byes to our new Scottish friends and found that Jack HAD made the call and his friend Jimmy was waiting on us at the North Gate! When we arrived, Jimmy was waiting on us and we jumped into his car and he took us to the house (now the clubhouse). Then he asked us if we wanted to go in! YES we want to go in! He showed us around what was the original old manor home and what had been added and regaled us with dozens of stories about the grounds and the Colquhouns. (Let me tell you, these people KNOW their Scottish history!) He showed us an 800-year-old yew tree that one of the young Colquhouns and Jack Bisset had set fire to when they were 8 years old...(Jack didn't tell us that part!) We walked over to the family chapel (I expected a Hobbit to step out from behind the trees any time!) and the remaining walls of the original home built in the 1400's....and the gardens! Oh my the gardens! They had a huge (bigger than my house) greenhouse where they would grow "exotic" foods like oranges that were brought over by the Spaniards. Greg Calhoun was overcome. His Family...HIS family had been standing on that very soil hundreds of years ago. HIS family!! It was overwhelming. Jimmy drove us around the golf course then bid us adieu. What a nice man. He could have told Jack he was busy. But he took time out to show us around and entertain us at the same time! I love Scotland. Except for the food.

After our emotional morning, we were glad to just be driving on the "motorway" for a little while...just letting the last two days sink in. We went back down to Heysham where we turned in that damn car and went into the Steam Packet office to check our luggage on the ferry for the ride to the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man is the location of the TT Road Race.  Last year was the 100th anniversary. Greg has talked about going over to the Isle of Man with his buddies for years! So while I was recovering in the hospital from one surgery or another, I told him he was going....I was counting on being well enough for him to be gone, and even if I wasn't, I was gonna fake it so he'd go! LOL! He had such a wonderful time and enjoyed his host family so much, that we made the plans to go back this year.....via London and Loch Lomand! The ferry was huge....a floating rest stop with a bar, sandwich shop, magazine & souvenir store, etc. I was almost disappointed to make shore! Greg's friend Martin was there to pick us up and take us up the hill to Onchan to meet his family and have some Chinese food delivered~~oh, thank you, Jesus!

The Manx people are very proud. They are part of the UK, but have their own parliament and their own currency. When you refer to the "mainland" they think you mean them!! LOL!! They are also gracious and accommodating. Greg loves this island. He is HOME!

 

10:21 am - Don't forget to say hello to the faeries!

We were exhausted Friday night, but after our Chinese meal we were revived and sat up until midnight chatting with our hosts. Soon Martin's brother, Gordon and several other motorcycle nuts arrived and the guys sat at the dining room table talking about the racers, their bikes and Joey Dunlop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Dunlop Martin's wife Sue and I went to the living room. Their two-year-old son, David was having no part of bedtime~~not with all the attention and activity going on. He finally passed out on the sofa and Sue and I "chatted it up" about kids and home and life. She is a hoot-and-a-half!! Instant friendship!

Saturday morning, Greg got up early. Last year when he was on the Isle, the guys got up looking for the coffee pot. Coffee pot? No. Cup of tea? Imagine four large and very ummmm...."tired" American men with no coffee in sight. Grump! When Greg got home, he had a UK coffee maker and a variety pack of Starbucks shipped over. I told you Americans were spoiled!

So he got up, and since he'd brought another surprise pack of Starbucks, everyone in the kitchen was very happy. Sue had some errands to run that morning, and so I blissfully slept in and had the loo all to myself for a hot shower. Then Sue, David and I went sight-seeing. We crossed the infamous "Fairy Bridge". They always always ALWAYS say hello and good-bye to the fairies...in Gaelic! The Isle of Man fairies are supposedly a foot or so high, either blue or green with pointed red hats and they do not not not have wings! They can be spiteful or helpful, depending on their mood and are easily offended, especially if you do not speak to them when you cross the bridge. Sue says people blame everything from illness to the recession to car trouble on the fairies! She told me a story about her grandfather who herded his sheep over the bridge, but forgot to say hello to the fairies, so he turned his herd around and went back over the bridge to speak to them. Then BACK over to his grazing field! This is serious stuff! We had lunch with Sue's older boy who is working at the golf course this summer. We ate at the pub. People in the UK take their kids and babies to the pub. It's nothing to walk into a pub and see families playing pool and eating and (mom and dad) drinking it up! Anyway, we ate in the pub I ordered a hamburger~~nice and safe! It came with cheese and cucumber slices...not pickled cucumbers...just cucumbers...and fries (Chips) and you guessed it. PEAS.

When we got home, the guys were back and Big Daddy went to the store to get stuff to grill out and some VEGETABLES, thankyou! He cooked his famous "marinated veggies" in a foil bag on the grill. They were devine! Then he did hamburgers, steaks, chicken and swordfish for 12 people...we sat out in the "garden" (backyard) and stayed up til midnight again~~just shortly after the sun went down. You can read a book outdoors at 11:00 at night. Then the sun comes backup at 4:00 AM. I am glad to be a spoiled rotten Southern American WASP. Where the sun comes and goes properly! LOL! I needed to get my sleep....tomorrow Greg and Martin are taking me to the TT Race!

9:36 am - Manx Cheese

Well, I have to tell on Big Daddy. You may remember that Greg's dad was in the dairy and cheese business for about 100 years. He and both our kids are cheese snobs. When our daughter was 3, I gave her a piece of American cheese and she handed it back to me with her nose in the air and said, "This isn't cheese....it's cheese 'product' " Now, I KNOW where she heard that!!

When Greg was at the Isle of Man last year, he and Lloyd raved and raved about the Manx cheeses...the best in the world! So on this trip, Martin packs a Tupperware picnic for the boys to take to the races....crackers, pickled onions, lots of different cheeses, tomatoes. Well, Greg takes a Ritz cracker and digs into a little tub of what he thought was soft cheese....loads that cracker up and takes a big ol' bite! BLEH! "What kind of cheese is this?" he sputtered....Martin replies, "It's not cheese, man, it's BUTTER!" Yack! So for the rest of eternity, butter is now known as Manx cheese!! LOL!! Poor baby!

9:47 am - Churches, Pubs, Snowfall Mountain and Purple Helmets

The day didn't start too early. Sue was coming down with a good case of bronchitis, and we had all been up pretty late the night before, so everyone was moving kinda slow. The six of us took turns in the ONE bathroom. Then Martin, Greg and I piled into his car and went over to the Church at Sulby Straight to grab a seat on the stone wall and watch the racers come by. Sulby is a quaint little spot. They have a church on one corner and a general store on the other corner and they make ManX Spirits there...the Isle of Man equivalent to White Lightning. Most of he churches on the Isle open up their kitchens during race week and serve sandwiches and coffee and have port-a-loos so we found a spot and "made camp". People (and their dogs!) line up on the street behind a little rope to see motorcycle riders come by at 130-200 mph....a few years ago a biker was clocked at 206 mph through the straights. We didn't get very many pictures because by the time the camera shutter closed, the biker was gone. I'm not kidding. I have never been so physically close to anything going so fast! If the riders had made one bad judgment call, he could have wiped out fifty people in the blink of an eye. Amazing. Crazy. Amazing.

After the 1000cc bikes ran, we took a break and went over to a pub called Ginger Hall (keep in mind that the Isle of Man is 14 miles wide and 32 miles long. It doesn't take very long to get ANYwhere!) Ginger Hall is exactly what you'd think of when you think of an English Pub. I looked at the menu. I didn't eat there. Instead Martin stopped at a little glen called "Tholt-y-Will" where there was a little creek and some picnic tables and a tea room. More Hobbits? Certainly fairies!! We opened our Tupperware picnic....Greg asked for clarification before he opened any cheese...and nibbled on cheese and crackers and the apple pie the boys bought in the tea room. Down the road was an adorable little chapel nestled into a little hillside. God's finest work right there. Then we plopped down~~again right on the road where they were racing~ to watch the 600cc bikes run...and then the side cars....Holey Pajamas, Batman. That takes some serious nerve and something else pretty serious that I don't have!! LOL!! We saw one of the side cars get a little airborn and sail up and into the wall, but the biker and the "monkey" in the side car hung on and got it straightened out and finished the race. Too much drama and dare-devilry for me!

From Ginger Hall we rode up and over to Snaefell Mountain (Gaelic for Snowfall Mountain). The mist was starting to come in and literally within 30 minutes the mountain was blanketed with thick white fog. They did not stop the race....they just raised a flag with a big "V" on it to let the riders know there was limited visibility. I was tired and cold, so I found a spot of grass, pulled the hood up on my jacket and laid down. The guys watched the racers for a long while, then decided they were tired too so we headed home. Sue's older boys wanted her to go down to the carnival rides on the promenade with them, so while they were gone, I laid down on the sofa with the baby. It took about two seconds for us both to be buzzing like a couple of 125cc scooters. By then the other guys were back and they were discussing the day and downloading and swapping photos on their laptops. I love geeks.

Around 6:30, we gathered up and walked a block to Onchan Park where they have a little mini-track. Steve Colley was the featured entertainment but we were there to see the "Purple Helmets"....about a dozen doctors, lawyers and butchers who do caaaa-razy stuff on motorcycles. I can't even explain it....it's nuts! http://www.sheepskullenduroriders.com/
Greg didn't stop laughing for the entire show....too much fun! After the show we walked back to the house and begged Martin to let us take them out to dinner, but he said it sounded like too much work, so we ate pork sandwiches (not BBQ~~but PORK on sliced white bread and butter) Oh yeah, they put butter on EVERYTHING. Again exhausted we went on up to bed so we could start packing. Martin would have to drive us over to the Steam Packet Company for our ferry ride to Liverpool....then the train to Heathrow and home.

Home.

Home!

10:56 am - Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Ferries, Subways and Trams We rode them all at one point or another~~and throw in a taxi or two for good measure! LOL!

We packed the night before and just threw our toiletry kits in our luggage after we got ready to go that morning. The ferry left Douglas on the Isle of Man at 9:30, so after our good-byes and hugs and a tear or two, Martin drove us over to the ferry and sent us on our way with the promise of seeing us in the States before we saw them again in the Isle of Man. The ferry took us to Liverpool this time, and we just grabbed a taxi to the Train Station. Virgin Train would take us right to Heathrow.

I had the most amazing trip~~better than anything I could have imagined. Like I have said many times, we cancer survivors know that "one of these days" is TO~DAY! Greg had planned the perfect trip for us....no travel agent! Some days we had a schedule; some days we flew by the seat of our pants~~and while everyday was amazing, those days were the most fun!

We had seats in the First Class car on the train. Now this is a civilized way to travel. We both read, had a muffin and some OJ and relaxed. We arrived at Heathrow where our hotel shuttle picked us up and took us to a hotel in the shadow of the airport. The first thing we did? Order a pizza. Ummmm-hmmmm! Greg fell asleep at the crack of 8:30 and I sat up and watched TV for a bit....the only thing worse than the food in the UK is the television. We were up and at 'em early the next morning and our trusty shuttle ran us to the Virgin Atlantic hub where we got checked-in to head to New York in the USofA!!!

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