Sweet home, California…

After 26 hours of traveling yesterday, I finally walked in the front door of my home last night at midnight.  I love travel, adventure, and meeting new people (and this secret mission was exceptional in all three areas), and I always love coming home.    Last night was no exception.

International travel and big time changes can be challenging, and it’s always more of a challenge traveling east.   When I’m off to China or Thailand, I travel west and I’m fine with the time change the next day.   The same thing is true returning home from the UK; that’s westward travel and after catching 7 hours of sleep last night, I’m back on California time.

Going the opposite direction is tough, though.   Eastward travel just takes forever when big time changes are part of the adventure.   When I come home from Asia, it takes a good week for me to get on California time.   Going to Europe is the same…it’s eastward travel.   When I went to Scotland two weeks ago, it was a solid week before my internal clocks adjusted.   I think the next time I have to travel overseas, I’ll travel three-quarters of the way around the world if I have to on both the inbound and outbound portions so I will always travel in a westward direction.

When I travel internationally, I’ll always wear my Citizen Blue Angels watch.  I’ve showed it to you before…

What’s great about that watch is it shows two time zones simultaneously….the big white hands show the time where you are, and the digital display shows the time in any other part of the world you want.   If you press a button, the two times switch (what was on the digital display is displayed on the hands, and vice versa).   It makes it real easy to prevent calling someone at the wrong time.   I’ve owned that watch for 20 years and it’s still a favorite.

Okay, enough time travel stuff.   As you know from last two or three blogs, the destination this time was Scotland.   Folks, it was awesome.   I felt like I was in a movie the entire time I was over there.   The scenery, the culture, and the people were most impressive.   I made many new friends and I had a tonne of fun (that’s the UK spelling, actually).

We had great weather, and my Scottish hosts thought I brought it with me from California.  It rained a lot (compared to what we see here in our irrigated So Cal desert), but my friends over there told me it was very little rainfall compared to what they normally experience.   They thought it was due to me…and hey, I’ll take the credit for it.

One of the things that surprised me was how very few motorcycles and scooters I saw.   The bikes tended to be big street bikes (including a Pro-One V-twin, which really surprised me).  I only saw two step-through scooters the entire time I was there.   I grabbed a couple of moto photos…including a cool shot of a modern Triumph Bonneville in Edinburgh…

That first shot is not as crisp as I would like (I grabbed it on the fly in low light level conditions), but hey…what could be cooler than riding a Triumph Bonneville in Edinburgh?   Wait…I know the answer to that…and it’s spelled CSC!

The reason for the low bike concentration, I think, is the weather.   From what my Scottish friends tell me, the winters are brutal, and in the summer, it rains essentially every day.  Still, the Scottish countryside is amazing…narrow, twisty roads, incredible scenery…you get the picture.   Perfect CSC country, in my opinion.

The guys over there were keenly interested in our CSC adventures, especially the Baja ride.   And when I showed them this photo of my CSC motorcycle, well, trust me on this folks, they loved it.   Try to imagine lots of “oohs” and “ahs” with a Scottish accent….

Something else that was interesting…I saw lots of cool cars in Scotland, many of which are not available in the US.   I’d spot the odd Bentley, Rolls, and Aston Martin, but the ones that stood out were the Alfas and the A-class Mercedes…

There was something about seeing a small Mercedes sports sedan in Subaru rally blue that just seemed to work, and the front end on those Alfas was mesmerizing….

They say the Alfas will be in the US in another year or two.  Maybe Mercedes will bring that little blue sports sedan over, too.   I hope they both make it to the US.

While I was in Scotland, I stayed in an old hotel in Bothwell.  Bothwell is a famous town.   There was a battle of Bothwell Bridge when England and Scotland were at war in the 1600s.   Bothwell Bridge spans the River Clyde…it’s been rebuilt, and here’s the bridge that stands there now…

The Scots erected a monument to the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, and that was most interesting, too…

The town of Bothwell was something right out of a Harry Potter novel.   A beautiful Church of Scotland structure dominates the town, and I took several photos of it and the adjacent cemetery.   Here are a just a few…

You might remember from my blog a few days ago that I learned about Scotch (the whisky), and I mentioned that I wanted to learn about Scottish beer, too.   The Douglas Arms is a pub across the street from the hotel (it’s right next to the church), so I stopped in one evening.

Folks, here’s the secret password:  John Smith beer.   It’s awesome.   If you ever have an opportunity to try John Smith, don’t let it get away from you.  Trust me on this…

On Friday night my Scottish friend Gary took me into Edinburgh for dinner and sightseeing.

Folks, Edinburgh is amazing, including the ride over the Forth bridge to get there.   It’s not the fourth bridge; it’s the Forth bridge.

Ever hear of the Firth of Forth?   Well, that’s what the Forth bridge spans…

You can get an idea of the weather from the cloud cover you see in the photo above.  Even when it was not raining, the sky looked like that much of the time.   I liked it.

Edinburgh (they pronounce it “Edinburra”) was a high point for me.   So was making new friends in Scotland.   And, of course, I enjoyed grabbing lots of cool photos everywhere I went.

So, regarding Edinburgh…here we go…

Scotland was grand fun, and as secret missions go, it just doesn’t get much better than this.  But now I’m back in the US, and you can probably guess what’s coming next.

Yep, you got it…time to fire up the Baja Blaster and get out for a ride!

Later, my friends.