Back To Chicago

Tina's flight back to the UK was scheduled for the afternoon of January 12, out of Chicago. It's about a 5-hour drive from Detroit to Chicago. Sounds routine enough, right?

So, there we were tooling along somewhere between the two on January 11th, under a bright blue winter sky, when we suddenly heard a little "clunk" from somewhere in the engine. However, everything seemed to be working properly, so we drove on. A little while later, I tried to clean the windshield, and the wipers were in ultra-slow motion. That's when I realized that something had happened to the alternator system (which is connected to the electrical system). So, we turned off everything electrical on the car, and drove on.

The idea is that we didn't have much further to go (we had a reservation at the Red Roof Inn in Willowbrook, Illinois) , so hopefully we would make it. That was a great plan... except that the car decided not to cooperate. It finally died about 8 miles short of our destination. After waiting in a cold car for about 90 minutes, we got towed. Luckily, we were able to get towed to a garage right next door to the Red Roof Inn.

The next morning, it turned out that the car had a broken belt pulley. Luckily, the belt was still there, and not damaged. So, 300 dollars would take care of it. The bad news was that it wouldn't be ready in time to get Tina to the airport, so I had to send her via taxi.

The car wasn't done until about 7 in the evening. By that time, I had already paid for another night at the Red Roof. However, the news was saying that a blizzard was coming in overnight, and I had no intention in spending a couple more days in Willowbrook, so I quickly packed up my things and hit the road.

I got home about 3 in the morning. It felt good to be home, and in my own bed.

Engage!

So, it was Christmas morning. It was the middle of Tina's visit to the the U.S. My son Ryan was up from South Carolina for a few days. The traditional gift-giving ritual was over with.

I asked Tina to follow me into the bedroom. This song was playing on the computer...

... and I knelt down on one knee, and asked her to marry me. (I had hidden the ring beforehand.)

Thankfully, she said YES!!!

---

Actually, the title probably should've been "Engaged!"... but then I wouldn't have had a good excuse to use a photo of Captain Picard.

;-]

Tina Was Here!!!

I drove to Chicago on December 10, to pick Tina up from O'Hare Airport. She was here for a 33-day visit.

Oh my God, how could she stand me for so long???

Just kidding, everything went fine.

Before we came back to the Detroit area, we checked out a couple of Chicago landmarks:

** The tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower;

** Ed Debevic's, a 1950's-style diner where the wait staff is rude to you (intentionally, but all in good fun). My brother recommended this place to me, and I was not disappointed. Tina was not aware of what lie in store... but she picked up on the gag immediately (did I already mention that she's one smart cookie?). The wait staff also dances on the counters every so often... You can see videos of it here (not mine, but they'll give you the general vibe of the place).

As if the U.S. was not enough, she also got to spend a day in Canada. A 2-for-1 deal, you might say.

In addition, she also got to take a ride in Santa's sleigh...


Actually, that was in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn... and that was me, not the Jolly Old Elf, though I can see how one might make such a mistake (and I've trimmed the beard back down to a goatee).

Election Results !!!

(Not EVERYBODY'S election results, just mine... Duh...)

I waited in a hellaciously long line to vote... After all that, I was feeling kinda cranky and snarky, and I didn't want my ballot to look like everyone else's ballot. So, I decided to make some changes. (That's my right as an American, isn't it?)

Anyway, I voted for John McCain and Barack Obama to be co-presidents. They can hash it out amongst themselves as to who runs what. As a starting point, I'm thinkin' McCain for Department of Defense, and Obama for Department of Cool Public Speaking. But, that's just a thought.

Whatever Sarah Palin does next, I hope it involves guns, cuz, hey... chicks with guns are HOT. (Why do you think I watched "Alias" for so many years?)

Speaking of guns... I wrote in Ted Nugent's name for Governor. Yes, I realize that we don't even have a gubernatorial election this year in Michigan. But, y'know, he keeps threatening to run, so I decided to just go for it. (Am I the only one who giggles my ass off every time I say "gubernatorial"?)

I also voted for "none of the above" for all the judge positions (holy crap, don't we already have PLENTY of judges?), and I voted for myself for Register of Deeds, because I don't believe that anyone should run unopposed. (So, if I should somehow win, and the incumbent Register of Deeds dude has me whacked, you'll know that I at least died for a good cause.)

Finally, I voted to allow discarded embryos to use medical marijuana. (Where's the harm?) Amazing what you can accomplish with a big red magic marker, a full pad of Post-It notes, and a bottle of extra-strength cough syrup.

It's good to be the Jim.

My Trip to Scotland

So that you don't have to read about my trip in reverse order, I'm posting this as a "sticky post", meaning it will stay at the top for a while. It will serve as an index to the various chapters of my story, each of which will bear the date/time stamp of when the events actually occurred (as originally hand-written in my journal... well, many of them, anyway).

So, check back here regularly, as I publish my trip journal in cereal form (OK, it's really "serial"... but I thought "cereal" would be more fun...)

Chapter 1: Communication Breakdown
Chapter 2: Terminal Boredom
Chapter 3: Change Is Inevitable...
Chapter 4: Postponed
Chapter 5: Departure, Redux
Chapter 6: On The Tarmac
Chapter 7: Airborne
Chapter 8: Philadelphia Freedom
Chapter 9: The Plot Thickens...
Chapter 10: Terminal Hell
Chapter 11: Have I Ever Told You How Much I *LOVE* The Airport in Philadelphia?
Chapter 12: Escape Velocity
Chapter 13: Restless
Chapter 14: Really, Really Green
Chapter 15: ... And Then She Kissed Me
Chapter 16: Glasgow
Chapter 17: Stalker
Chapter 18: Free-Range Goats
Chapter 19: Laggan Behind
Chapter 20: Inverness
Chapter 21: Fort William
Chapter 22: Stuff That I Took Pictures Of On July 6th and 7th
Chapter 23: Loch Ness, Glenurquhart Castle, Loch Lochy, and the Nevis Range
Chapter 24: Seal Island, Old Inverlochy Castle, Neptune's Staircase, Lord of the Glens, and the Commando Memorial
Chapter 25: A 220-Year-Old Poem and A 5,000-Year-Old Tree
Chapter 26: The Falkirk Wheel
Chapter 27: Leaving Scotland
Chapter 28: Home

Home

So, what did I learn on my trip to Scotland?

** Scotland is one of the greenest place on Earth (and I don't mean "green" as in all this "save the planet" mumbo-jumbo, either), and one of the most beautiful, as well.

** Scottish people are warm and friendly (but sometimes a bit hard to understand, especially when alcohol is involved).

** Smoking in bars in Scotland is prohibited by law. (Ha-ha!)

** There's a certain British lady living in Scotland that I absolutely cannot live without.

Leaving Scotland

Finally, all the sightseeing was done, so it was off to Glasgow Airport. I checked in at the US Airways counter... which turned out to take a little while, because, lo and behold, I'm on a terrorist watch list!

Lil ol' me! Who'da thunk it?

Actually, it turned out to be someone else named Jim McKee (maybe a leftover IRA guy?). So, it was all cleared up, because obviously, I'd never hurt a fly. (OK, I take that back, I would just as soon KILL flies as look at them, but you get my drift.)

After that little delay, we had lunch at a nice restaurant in the airport. (Well, maybe about Applebee's nice, make your own judgments.)

Finally, it was time for Tina and I to say goodbye. It wasn't easy, and I'd be lying if I said my eyes stayed completely dry.

Of course, once I saw this...
I knew Tina would be safe as she left the airport.

On the way home, I took some lovely in-flight photos. If you look really close, I think you can see Greenland, or a polar bear, or something. You can see the slide show here.

(I'm no longer putting the slide shows inline, I've been told that some computers cannot handle them.)

The Falkirk Wheel

Today was the day I was to leave Scotland. But before I left, there was one more sight to see: The Falkirk Wheel.

I didn't even attempt to include captions, because it probably would've devolved into a bunch of technical jargon. So, I'll give you the Reader's Digest Condensed Version right here in the post.

Historically, when two waterways come together that are not at the same elevation, a series of locks is built to connect them (such as Neptune's Staircase a couple of days ago, or the Soo Locks here in Michigan), locks being more or less like the water version of steps. Well, in this case, they decided to do something different. The result of that idea is the Falkirk Wheel, which is a technological marvel. It's a rotating boatlift, which is to say that it's almost like a gargantuan ferris wheel; only instead of seats, it has what amounts to two large swimming pools, mounted diametrically opposite each other. The concept is that a small boat would come to the wheel, go into one of these swimming-pool-like chambers, and be raised to the other waterway (or lowered, as the case may be).

So, they have boat tours of this whole trip. You start out on the lower waterway, get raised via the Wheel up to the upper waterway, go through this very old tunnel (built by the Romans), turn around and come back to the bottom. The description of it doesn't make it sound very exciting, but trust me -- it was VERY cool.

You can see the slide show here.

(I'm no longer putting the slide shows inline, I've been told that some computers cannot handle them.)

You can read more about the Falkirk Wheel at:
Wikipedia
and
Undiscovered Scotland

A 220-Year-Old Poem and A 5,000-Year-Old Tree

July 10th was my last full day in Scotland, and there were still some sights to see, which you can also see on the slide show (linked below). Instead of trying to squeeze website links into the photo captions, I enclosed them at the bottom of this post, for those who would like some more information.

Also, this was the day I got to meet Tina's friends, Colin and Barbara. Lovely folks, loads of fun, and I am proud to call them my friends as well. I had the best time at their flat. Imagine a Brit, a Yank, and two Scots, all under the influence of alcohol to one degree or another, singing Garth Brooks songs! How can you miss with a combination like that?

See the slide show here.

---

Robert Burns poem, Verses Written With A Pencil Over the Chimney-piece in the Parlour of the Inn at Kenmore, Taymouth:
http://www.robertburns.org/works/181.shtml

Fortingall Yew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortingall_Yew

Gleneagles: http://www.gleneagles.com/home.aspx

Seal Island, Old Inverlochy Castle, Neptune's Staircase, Lord of the Glens, and the Commando Memorial

Wow.

I got wiped out just typing the title... hope you have enough energy to actually check it out.

July 9th was a VERY busy day. My vacation was nearing the end and there was still a lot of stuff to see... so we saw:

1. Seal Island (yes, there are REAL seals living there, although it's not much of an island, as islands go... really more like a hunk of mud in the middle of the loch... but I guess the seals like it OK).
2. Old Inverlochy Castle (which is actually a ruin from hundreds of years ago... There is also a New Inverlochy Castle, which is a really ritzy resort hotel, and which is NOT a ruin).
3. Neptune's Staircase (this is a series of locks on the Caledonian Canal. If you're into that kind of thing, you can read more about it here).
4. The Lord of the Glens (A luxury cruiser, built specially to navigate the canals of Scotland).
5. The Commando Memorial.

You can check out all the photos in the slideshow here... Remember, Tina wrote most of the captions (although I had to edit some of them down, Slide.com only gives you so much room).

Loch Ness, Glenurquhart Castle, Loch Lochy, and the Nevis Range

We saw a LOT of stuff on July 8th... So I'll just let the captions do the talking (again, mostly provided by Tina, with a wee bit of tweaking by me).

You can see the slide show here.

Stuff That I Took Pictures Of On July 6th and 7th

(Insert snappy introductory paragraph HERE)


390-412: Views from the road (B862) Fort August to Inverness via Whitebridge where General Wade's bridge still stands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebridge,_Scotland. This road is the not so traveled road, taking you up over the mountains to the east side of Loch Ness.
413-417: My continuing fascination with yet more livestock roaming wild (according to Tina).
418-425: Loch Ness as we descend into the village of Dores. Across the other side of the water the main trunk road from Fort William to Inverness (A82) runs alongside the waters edge via Invergarry, Invermoriston, Fort Augustus, Drumnadrochit.
427: A local cop car in Inverness.
428-433: Views back across Loch Ness from the A82 to Dores.
434-438: Glenurquhart Castle.
439-440: View alongside Loch Ness.
446: Sample of the road signs in town - all are bilungual, the roads department are required to show the Gaelic translations.
448-451: Fun food in the UK!!! Tina says, "Us Brits can handle the joke!!!! By the way, faggots are soft meatballs made from offal (kidney, liver etc) and are lovely - not a Scottish delicacy per se, more a northern English one."

Fort William

Fort William is the town that Tina lives in. It's a lovely little town, somewhat touristy. It sits in the shadow of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. You can read more about Fort William here.

(NOTE: The music used for the slideshow is in NO WAY indicative of my feelings towards Fort William or its inhabitants. It just happened to be almost exactly the right length to fit the slideshow, and I like it... and I find slideshows are much more palatable when accompanied by music... even when the music makes no sense whatsoever. I thought Fort William was great, and I'd be there now if I could.)


380: The Granite House, giftmongers. The company has been there quite a while and the building itself was built as a Temperance hotel in the early 19th century. The Temperance movement was the anti-alcohol group of the day. The present owners (the Ness family) of the gift shop have been trading since 1977. (I found this interesting because I'm used to the term "-monger" having a negative connotation, as in "fearmonger" or "warmonger", but here, it was obiously not negative at all.)
381: Mairi MacIntyre - a touristy type of kilt and woollens shop.
382: St Andrews, Episcopal church. Known as the English church because it belongs to the Church of England rather than the Church of Scotland - Church of England trades as Episcopal in Scotland.
383: The Parade, showing the Duncasnburgh Church (Church of Scotland), the War Memorials and the Alexandra Hotel. Behind the Church tower in the distance is Ben Nevis.
384-385: Cow Hill, overlooking the town of Fort William.
386-388: Duncansburgh Church, the main focus of events in the town - Remembrance Day, college graduations, etc., are held here.
389: The Belford Hospital - two small wards (medical and surgical) and some day cases. There is also a small maternity unit. For any major stuff, though, patients are referred to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, or relevant specialist hospitals in Glasgow or Aberdeen.
441-442: Walking from Tina's apartment, down the hill into town.
443: Leave it to the British to find new uses for a pay phone!
444: More along my trip into town.
445: A memorial to the men from the Fort William area who fought and died in World War II.

Inverness

Friday, the 4th of July, was an unusual day for me. I didn't spend it the way most Americans did: eating food cooked outside on a grill, drinking some brews, watching fireworks, and so on. That's because I was far from America.

On this particular Friday, Tina had to work at both of her jobs, so I decided to catch a bus to Inverness (about 60 miles away), and be the brave and brilliant traveler for the day.

I thought it would bother me that I wasn't home for the 4th of July, but it didn't. I'm not sure why. It could have been because I'm part Scottish, so there was a heritage thing for me. Or, it simply could've been that I was having such an interesting time that I just didn't think about it. Who knows, and really, who cares?

To me, nothing says Scotland like kilts and bagpipes, and I was lucky enough to observe both.

Anyway, here's the slideshow, with descriptions following (you ought to know the routine by now)...


342-344: High Street, looking out from the Eastgate Shopping Mall.
345: A young bagpiper, busking in High Street. I gave him a pound for his performance. He was quite good, didn't appear to be more than 18 or 19 years old.
347-349: Hector Russell, Kiltmaker, a well known kiltmaker in the highlands of scotland.
350: C'mon lads!!! Join up, join up!!!! Yep, a recruitment centre in Inverness town centre. (I found the color scheme interesting... that purple would NEVER fly at a recruiting station in the US!!!)
351-352: Inverness Town Centre.
353: No, I'm not trying to be the shock-jock of the blogosphere. Read it again, it's FCUK - yes, an actual name of a clothing store chain... French Connection UK - a bright spark in the marketing department though this one up several years ago - caused a lot of commotion back then, too!!!!
354-358: The Birds of Prey Rescue people had some HUGE owls on display. This particular one was over two feet tall. Simply amazing!
359-377: Views of Inverness Castle, the River Ness (extremely pretty but dangerous, it is only thigh high but extremely fast - too fast for swimming) and Inverness Cathedral. Also, one photo of a sign pointing the way to Loch Ness (in the literary world, they call this foreshadowing).
378: YES!!!! Even here... F.W. Woolworth & Co!!!!! (There used to be lots of Woolworth's in the States when I was a kid; now, pretty much gone, as far as I know.)
379: Poundland £1 - yes, everything for a pound, and usually everything is pretty cheap and nasty, too......yeuch. (I didn't have the heart to tell her that dollar stores are really quite popular over here... But, since I didn't actually go into Poundland, maybe our dollar stores are a lot better? We shall see...)

Laggan Behind

(Please... don't give me grief for the title. These titles can be SOOOOO hard to come up with, when you visit many different places in one day.)


307-310: Laggan Dam.
311-316: The A86 road from Spean Bridge (ten miles north of Fort William) to Laggan, which is the route to either Aviemore or Perth.
317-320: Ardverikie House (www.ardverikie.com) built 1870 on the shores of Loch Laggan. Loch Laggan is a man-made loch, created as a reservoir for the British Alcan Aluminium Company for their plant in Fort William. Ardverikie Estate was the setting for the BBC drama, Monarch of the Glen.
321-323: This is the beach at the east end of the Loch near the gatelodge for the Ardverikie Estate. At this time, the beach was huge due to a relatively dry spell; however, when Scotland's weather does its famous wet spells, there is NO beach visible and the land will be flooded up to the road edge.
324-326: More scenery on the A86 to Laggan.
328-330: The railway level crossing in Kingussie, the trains run from Perth to Inverness along this line.
331: It's a lucky lad who's got a lovely lass for a chauffeur!
333-335: Ruthven Barracks. (http://tinyurl.com/ruthven) Built in 1719 by the Hanoverian troops in the hope of quelling the imminent Jacobite uprising - the barracks were eventually taken by Prince Charles Stewart in 1746 by the said Jacobite army and razed to the ground.
337-339: View of Kingussie village in the bacground, looking back from Ruthven Barracks.
341: A recurring theme - yet more farm animals roaming freely!