RT11: Glencoe and Glenfinnan

Cast of characters:

Sharan
trusty (and affordable) Volkswagon minivan

Liz

intermediary with the "woodland creatures," diplomat with local scottish musicians, and cage fighter (read on)

Mike

Co-pilot, resident taylor swift expert and baby-bird impersonator.

Brenna

voice of reason and flexibility specialist

Michelle
Scottish snake "expert" and sandwich maker

Me

Driver, arbiter of all bathroom stops and fielder of all "are we there yet?" questions.

I think its only appropriate to begin this story from the beginning. It all started when I was going to bed on Saturday night. It was about 12:20am and I had just brushed my teeth when the shrill of death came from outside my bathroom: fire drill. Really? But it wasn't just a drill, there was actually a fire in one of the New Hall kitchens. While I might have enjoyed this on another night (actually I'd never really enjoy this), i had to wake up at 8:30 am the next morning to begin our road trip. So I was pissed. And by the time we finally got let back into the building, it was pushing 3am. Needless to say, I was exhausted when I woke up the next morning.

After a quick pitstop at the dining hall and the St. A's Shell station, we headed out on our road trip to Glencoe.

Our first stop was at some random loch on the side of the road. Beach/bathroom break. After a series of obligatory beach pictures, I turned around to find Liz in a broken metal garbage can, throwing "punches" at Mike. She brought new meaning to the term, "cage fighter."

Watch out Sasha, we are Scotland Fierce!

the rumble: jets v sharks

Cage fighting...literally.

After about an hour, we finally got to Glencoe. We stopped at a waterfall and climbed to the top. I think this was the last point in the trip where I had dry feet. The grass looked deceivingly dry until you stepped on it and your foot sunk six inches into murky water. But we managed a pretty spectacular boy band album cover photo shoot. And Mike managed to keep himself out of the waterfall, so that was positive.

Don't go chasing waterfalls. (Sorry, I got desperate and just finished watching "The Other Guys")

Our Boy-band's Album Cover

Awkward

talking him down from the ledge.

We attempted to find Glencoe Village (apparently a hot tourist destination), but after "passing" it twice, we decided it wasn't worth the time. Next stop, the Harry Potter Bridge.

Doesn't get much more Scottish than this.

Bacon Rolls!

I feel like this bridge probably has a formal name, but I can't be asked to look it up, so I'll continually refer to it as the HPB (Harry Potter Bridge), not to be confused with HPV which is a whole different animal. There was some talk about whether or not the trains ran on the HPB at this time of year. Brenna told us that she saw the last train of the season in the fall, and we all figured that the trains probably wouldn't start running for a few more weeks at least. Bummer.

Screw Harry Potter World, its the HPB!

After seeing it from afar, we decided to get a little more intimate with HPB. Our little "scenic look-out" wasn't doing much for us, so we crossed the field, up the mountain, to the railroad, and walk on the HPB. I was a little worried about snakes in the tall grass (its my parental instinct), but Michelle insisted that there were no snakes in Scotland...none! So we trekked on. Unfortunately, what we thought was a field turned out to be more like a bog. Every stop was precarious. Even the "solid" patches of grass seemed to sink in. Needless to say, we were all soaking wet. But we managed to get all the way to the bridge and get some pretty cool pics from the center. We even got the obligatory "damsel in distress" picture.

On the top of the world!

Liz was Simba, because she was the smallest.

Lion King or King of the World?

This is safe.

Harry Potter Bridge.

Group Picture.

Behind us.

At this point, we were all exhausted and making our way back to the car, when Brenna directed our attention back to the bridge. And what do you know, good ol' Harry and his Hogwarts clan were chugging along on the very bridge we were just on. So much for the train not running. And remember that thing about there being no snakes in Scotland...turns out that was also incorrect.

Remember that time when the trains weren't running?

...And there weren't any snakes in Scotland?

But we made it back safely and that's all that matters. Right?