Skip to main content

Walking the John Muir Way: Getting There


 At the bus station in Portland and the airport in Boston people, 2 men, commented positively on my shirt.


At 5:00, 3 state police & 2 immigration police were at the gate. 2 state cops went away with a guy, but others went on the plane.  We boarded soon after for our 5:45 departure. Gate agents seem unperturbed.  The police disappeared & the guy returned. 

Travel was uneventful. The Dublin to Edinburgh flight was just long enough for a quick drinks service. Then a tram and a train 

 

and a cab, and we left our bags with the desk agent at The Coachman Inn before checkOUT time to walk around town. 

 

People have been super nice to us, from George the taxi driver to a kid at the train station, the conductor who backtracked to be sure we knew to transfer at Linlithgow, to the librarian, shop workers, and folks in the park (one recommended The Scarecrow Pub). Today is the kickoff of a town festival, they have a kind of fair going on in the park, and a parade went past the Inn just after we checked in at 1:00. Bagpipes, of course.  

 

A town green

 

 features a bandstand from 1910, 

 

and a memorial to dead from “The Great Wars.”  

 

220 men from here died in WW1. It’s not that big a place! I find it overwhelmingly sad. 

 

The park features a “traffic school” where little kids ride bikes with training wheels around a marked course, a trampoline park, clay tennis courts, and a green space with a basketball hoop on it

 

—here’s why you’ve never heard of any Scottish basketball players—that turned out to be a putting/mini-golf space. We’ve played golf at golf’s birthplace!😂⛳️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

 

Jan & Bruce had nowhere near our good fortune. They were 3 hours late leaving Atlanta, and landed at Edinburgh as I was typing the above. Now Meg says a beer, either here at the Coachman Inn or at the Scarecrow, is calling our name. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Racial Injustice: The Case of Walter Lett Inspired Harper Lee

Chronology: The case of Walter Lett influenced Harper Lee in writing To Kill a Mockingbird. Here are the events of the case, and its connection to Harper Lee. The case began in November 1933.  "On Thursday, November 9, 1933, the Monroeville Journal reported that Noami Lowery told authorities that Walter Lett had raped her the previous Thursday.” ( "Lee, Harper: 1926 - 2016").  Just as in To Kill a Mockingbird , the accusation alone was enough for most citizens to assume guilt.  Writing for Time magazine, Daniel Levy asserts,   “Such an accusation was a death sentence for an African American man. ‘Rape was the central drama of the white psyche,’ says Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.”   Lett was captured on Saturday and jailed in another town out of fear he’d be lynched. The legal system operated quickly. “On March 16, 1934, Lett was arraigned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pease Air Show - Wings of Hope

I'm getting excited about the Wings of Hope show, and thought that, even though it is nominally off-topic, I wanted to blog about it. First, here's the web address: http://www.peaseairshow.com/ And here's the schedule: 9:00-11:00 Civilian Air Craft Rides (limited) 11:00 Opening Ceremonies (Saturday Only) 11:35 Flag Drop "Silver Wings" US Army Jump Team 11:45 American Air Power B-25, P-40, P47, TBM Avenger Noon Jet Car and Rob Holland Act 12:15 L-39 Demonstration - Dan McCue 12:30 Red Star Formation Team 12:45 B-2 Flyover (August 18th Only!) 1:00 Carol Pilon Wing Walker (Rob Holland / Pilot) 1:30 Jim Parker Salto H101 Sailplane 1:45 F4U Corsair (Dan McCue / Pilot) 2:00 U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet Demo Team East 2:15 Legacy Formation / F-18/F4U 2:30 P-40 Warhawk Demonstration 2:45 NH Army Guard Helicopter Ground Assault Demo 3:00 Rob Holland Airshows / Ultimate 20-300s N8UB 3:15 Lockheed T-33 "Shooting Star" 3:30 F-86 Demonstration (Ed Shipley / Pilot) 3:45 U...
25 comments
Read more

Anti-Wal-Mart essay

This isn't really the place for this, but I spent two+ hours writing it today, and I thought it might serve as thought-fodder and talking points for some other people. Why Not Shop at Wal-Mart? I felt it was wrong to shop at Wal-Mart, but when my thinking was challenged I realized the main reasons I had for it were that other people whose opinions I respect were anti-Wal-Mart, and it just seems too big. The too-big argument works a little bit; small and local is better in general than big and international. Udder Place preferred to Starbucks, Siano's or GLB to Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday, Geary's to A-B, etc. It's consistent with slow-food, locavore-type thinking. Even though Hannaford is owned by a multi-national conglomerate, they have a local distribution center, and buy produce from local suppliers, and contribute to local charities, and support local causes. Wal-Mart is the opposite. Still, I felt the need to research and articulate other reasons not to ...
9 comments
Read more