A curious mind

Tracey went off doing some shopping and picked up a few things she had been thinking about getting.

Meanwhile, I had a real treat: a brand new golf course (opened July 10) that's already ranked in the top 25 of the world (http://www.castlestuartgolf.com/).

The fellow whose mom's funeral was last week offered to take Jim and me to his course on Monday. On the weekend, Dave phoned and changed the offer from his course to the one where his son is head greens keeper. So, rather than having to cough up the £150 to play, we were comped and got a real golf adventure.

The course is along the firth and it's "possible" to hit the water from every hole (you'd really need to shank it bad), only 7 holes are right on the water. Castle Stuart is on one hole and the kirk (church or private chapel) and graveyard is on another hole.

We started off playing in about a 30 mile wind. Pretty stiff. It calmed down by the time we were done. One of the holes was a 325 par 4. I knocked it to about 10 feet from the flag and made the putt for a smooth eagle. Ended up banging out a smooth 43 / 40 with one lost ball (in the North Sea).

R made a terrific spaghetti dinner for us. Played some cards and called it a night.

The warehouses are big enough to stack barrels 9 high (the small warehouse - 3 high). The barrels hold a couple of hundred bottles of whisky. There were 5 special barrels sitting in the warehouse where we were that were put in a few minutes after midnight, jan 1 2000. You can bet that they'll sell THAT for a lot of money.

John's dad and grandad used to work there, he found a photo in the visitor center with the 2 of them on it. The distillery will copy the photo and get a copy to John. So, I bought a couple of bottles just on principle.

After the tour when they were getting ready to give us a taste, Tracey was signing the guestbook when they said "don't gulp it". So, once she was done signing: gulp. The lady who had given us instructions just looked at her and said, "there she goes doing what I said not to do." Tracey goes "huh?" They gave us a taste of pure whiskey and then put a bit of water in it because it's supposed to make it better. I liked it more without the water.

From there, we were off to the Falls of Shin up past Dornoch. We actually got to see the salmon trying to jump up the falls (got a couple of pictures of that). There's a center at the Falls owned by the dad of the guy who died with Princess Diana (owns Herods (sp?)).

The way home was over the strui and through the million dollar view. I think it's probably worth it. Normally, the good highways are along the coast. This one through the hills was a bit exciting because it gets VERY narrow in places (Picture below is us meeting a truck at one of the "Passing Places"). By exciting, I mean "listen to Ryan squeel like a little girl 'cause it's narrow").

For dinner, we went up to Tolloch Castle (http://www.tullochcastle.co.uk/) which is supposed to be haunted. Jim and I snooped around a bit for the painting of the "green lady" who is supposed to be the one haunting the place.

We're going to a soccer game today! that should be a blast.... I'm up and writing about the last couple of days while everyone else gets functional. I thought Tracey died 'cause she slept an extra hour after i was up.

Michelle and John will head home, clean up, and then come get us for the game. i suspect there may be a nap in my future.

We stopped at a pub for lunch on the way. I had the roast pork with fries, mashed potatoes, and baked potato (for real).

The football game was a blast, I really enjoyed it. We had sun, rain, wind, and more sun. I was disappointed that there was no hooliganism.

In fact, this was the first rain we were in while we were here. Took us a week to get into rain.

After the game, we swung past the region for a pint and then off for dinner.

Tracey and Rande went off to bingo (she won about £25, Jim and I watched a movie and hung out. I was asleep and then at about 1AM (I was wearing my goggles 'cause I figured she'd turn on the light) ... at 1 AM I woke up with my goggle being pealed up over my eyes with Tracey saying "are you awake?"

Apparently, after the bingo, they went dancing and supposedly invited ALL the guys over to visit in Canada.

Another long day (they all seem to be).

Had a great breakfast at the Campanile Hotel and then WE were off shopping. All of us made purchases of one type or another.

There was a "living statue" on the street in front of the shops. A couple of girls were watching him. I threw a coin in his bin and he said 'thank you' and they freaked out 'cause they weren't sure what was going on (You can just see them poking out behind him).

I bought a lotto ticket for the 85 Million £ lotto. I suspect i know where this is going...

The train left at 4:11 for Dingwall. We played cards (ride the bus) and generally made fools of ourselves. The original conductor on the train sounded pretty drunk (he only lasted 2 stops). J started to impersonate him at which point people wouldn't sit with him. They didn't like it when i won 2 of the 3 games of cards.

Once we returned to J + R's we played poker. Their son Doug was here waiting for us (he set everything up). I only lasted until midnight before i couldn't function any more. Card wise, i stopped functioning much earlier than that and was the first one out of the game (after winning some decent pots the first few hands). Tracey was in bed for hours by the time I got there. Michelle eventually won the game.

J was off to a funeral at Tain today. I was going to golf there, but they were having a tourney so I went back to Dornoch. As luck would have it, I was in the SAME sand trap as 2 years ago. I think they're erecting a sign...

Got paired up with a couple from Windsor and a single from Ohio. Pretty uneventful game, 40 / 46. The lads at the air force base were busy in their Tornadoes though, I counted 27 going over. Many more that I couldn't count.

The round was so slow that when we were done I asked J if Christ came back while I was gone.

Turns out that J's friend isn't going to host me on Tuesday after all. His SON is going to host me and we're going to Castle Stuart! Ranked in the top 25 in the world! Score.

http://www.castlestuartgolf.com/

Got up today and golfed at Nairn. 43 / 39 for an 82. NEAT old course. Right along the water for the first 7 holes. Shot one into the North Sea on principle! J came along and carried the umbrella for me. Great weather; about 30 seconds of drizzle followed by low clouds. No wind. I was smacking the ball pretty good.

Again, had to learn the lesson of "stay out of the gorse" the hard way.

It was a pretty quiet day; mostly getting over travel time adjustment.

We went for a hike up a hill to the Fyrish monument. A bit of a hike; about 2 miles through the heather and rocks. The monument was built by some landholder in 1783 who would rather hire people to build a monument rather than give money to the people (he didn't want people on his land).

Got a great photo of a big red mushroom with white spots on it. Found out it's a hallucinogenic. Fish and chips for dinner.

You can almost hear the warriors run through the forest with their swords:

On the drive back we saw some seals in the Moray Firth (for those of you who don't know, a firth is like an inlet that's open to the sea. A Lock is like a lake and is landbound).

J+B's son Doug told me about the Brahan Seer who was from the Dingwall area who had premonitions about Scotland. An interesting read: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/8287/brahan.html