Fore!

"Scotland. St. Andrews. Two weeks." Those answers to questions from my golfing friends about where we'll be spending the first two weeks of our vacation bring a look of well... jealousy. Somehow it's difficult for these folks to believe that I, a non-golfer, would go to Scotland and not covet tee time on the famous St. Andrews golf course.

I admit, I'll drop by, take a look, snap some photos and fill the shopping requests of my friends. After all, Scotland is the birthplace of golf as we know it, at least the rules of golf as we know it. Although some form of golf was played in Roman times, the Scots are credited with, of course, organizing the game and crafting the clubs and courses.

I've found some interesting snippets about the origination of the term "fore". Some say it's from "forewarned" some say, "forward looking". The origin of the term can be debated but "fore" means ahead and is used to warn those golfing ahead that they are about the be harmed, particularly if I'm out on the course!

It seems that all the royalty played the sport. Mary Queen of Scots played a round, much to the dismay of her subjects shortly after her husband had been murdered. I suppose that was before the restrictions of the the Royal Troon forbidding "ladies" from playing the championship courses! "FORE!"

Travel well!

Departure details

Planning a trip can be overwhelming sometimes. It's necessary to complete a lot of the details prior to departure.

Aside from the clothes and travel guides, there is that tiny detail of driving on the other side of the road. I was pretty confident until I looked at the round abouts sign on the www.highwaycode.gov.uk. They go counterclockwise! Oh my...

Here is a photo taken in London on our last visit. I think that goes with me and hangs from the mirror in the car until, I don't think that looks unusual. Travel well!

Lynette

www.awellravledpath.com

Trip Planning

The number of tasks that must be completed before we leave for a month is amazing. As departure nears, the things that we've put off for the last 11 months now all have to be completed in the next two weeks. Lists are an important part of our lives. We live by them and no matter how hard we try, we will forget something. My anxiety over driving in Scotland, Wales and Ireland isn't keeping me up at night, but it could.

Now we are gathering all the electronic equipment, chargers, batteries, clocks, adapters and replacing the old (slightly charred) with updated efficient and lighter models. I learned the hard way about currents in Europe on a previous trip when I plugged in my camera charger and started to leave the room. Luckily, the smell of smoke caught my attention. I was able to unplug and stamp out the fire without damage to me or the unit. The charger ... well it's being replaced. Unfortunately, the new charger will not accept the current abroad. The alternatives are a rather heavy converter that will step down the current. However, weight is a consideration. A great alternative is a charger that plugs into the car lighter outlet. As we drive around,the battery charges. I have two batteries so it works well for me.

We pack two cameras because we know better than to try and share that item. I have a light weight but great older version Fuji FinePix 4800Z 4.3 mega pixel and my partner has a light weight DiMage Z3 4.0 mega pixel camera. With the flash cards and rechargeable batteries we are picture taking fools!

Later...

UK Driving

Preparing for departure from the U.S. to the UK for four weeks is a task. Preparing to drive in the UK for three of the four weeks is, a little intimidating. I thought I had all of the apprehension under control until I actually started to "study" the rules of the road for the UK.

There is a useful ink at www.highwaycode.gov.uk that is full of explanations and pictures to assist the novice diver. I've printed out the pages and will take them with me. In the meantime, I'll review them everyday and each night, I'll tuck them under my pillow and sleep on the information.

I would like to practice driving on that side of the road before I land in Scotland and have to drive myself and three other passengers from the Edinburgh airport to our resort, but that doesn't seem practical. Although, I am considering constructing a small highway replica with my riding lawnmower in my front lawn. Maybe a few turns UK style with the John Deere in our lawn will enable me to be in the right mindset to drive us safely away in Edinburgh!

The life of a tourist is difficult!

Travel well.

Travel Tunes

The most difficult part of traveling is the getting there. Getting to the airport isn't too difficult, it's getting to your plane on time that is often the problem. Most trips are characterized by hurry up and wait. I hurry up and they have me wait. It's times like these that a good handle on meditation is helpful. I try to just be there then.

It definitely helps to have a great book that you are in love with to read and I definitely love having my SanDisk Sansa e14o player. It's only a 2 gig capacity but that's plenty of music and audio books to get through airport layovers and long flights. It's way less expensive than other players so if it's "lost" in another country, my trip isn't ruined by regrets. I've changed out the headphones that came with it for a dandy pair of Sony Noise Reduction headphones. These too are considerably less expensive than the great Bose headphones.

These serve me well at a price I can afford and a price that if dinged or "lost" doesn't blow the trip. If you haven't tried the noise reduction headphones, you don't know what you're missing. I can finally hear the movies and my music and not the kid behind me who is learning his ABC's loudly or is crying for six straight hours or is reading the same story aloud to his mom for a 1000 miles.

I'm off for a visit to my favorite online store, http://www.ladyslipper.org/ to select some great Celtic music to listen to on the flight that will get me prepared to land in Edinburg airport and drive a car on a highway, on a side of the road that will be a great new view for me!

Keep traveling!