Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Some important things I forgot:

– In Scotland, we were lucky enough to witness a 46% solar eclipse. Yes, we were careful. I don’t think I ever saw such a big chunk out of the sun before.

– In Hitchin, Talitha, Pete and I went to the local pub for an evening of amateur music and poetry. All the music was good, but some was better than most. The last guy was really passionate about his music, and drew you in along with him. It’s been a long time since I went out to “do” live music, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Got me thinking about a book launch for “A Little Twist” - how nice it would be to do a reading, then some music, then a reading…

http://www.johnjamesnewman.co.uk

Pictures taken while on snarfari in Ipswich with

Ipswich is a lovely old market town and has a rich variety of architecture and exciting blue plaques that I can spot from a mile off, because I’m like that. ;-)

After Hitchin, I hopped on a train and went to Ipswich. I had to change at Cambridge. At Cambridge, the train filled up with teenaged school children. One of the girls decided that emitting bloodcurdling screams was a really fun way to pass the time, until a woman got up, tracked her down to her lair, gave her a severe telling-off, and got a round of applause.

Yay for British people.

In the meantime, reading a Book Crossing book (i.e. covered in stickers), I was discovered by another Book Crosser (bookgroupman) and we chatted on and off for the whole journey. I got a kick out of that.

I spent the next few days meeting with my friends in Ipswich: I stayed with and her beloved, and also got to play with , who came over on his new motorcycle and positively glows because he’s like me, the helmet comes with a smile attachment.

There were many hugs and lots of laughs and conversations and wonderfulnesses. SG gave me a guided tour of Ipswich where we did snarfing and Book Crossing. It was a wonderful few days.

From Scotland, I flew to Luton, and my friend Tali picked me up and we enjoyed two utterly reprehensible and amusing days together. ;-) She had the gutrot from hell (just don’t ask), so we had a very low key visit, which was exactly what we both needed, since my parents wore me out :: chuckle ::

Tali is one of those rare people with whom you can be exactly yourself, so I turned off the last vestiges of PC and had a good time. A bottle of wine, Chinese from the back door of the restaurant downstairs (discounted heavily since they knew Tali was in the same building), a walk around town. The only bummer was that I wasn’t able to hook up with my friend Malcolm, we missed one another by a hair.

I borrowed free wireless from somewhere, read, chatted, ate, laughed, and traded insults with her roomie Pete and Tali. Sophie was in France, still travelling, still recovering from the tragic loss of her partner, Phill. They waved me off last time I was here, but I never knew that “see you next time” meant “next lifetime” for Phill.

(1) Big leaves

(2) Don’t believe they’re big leaves? I’m 5′3″ tall.

(3) In Scotland, we make our own fun. (With a nod to Barbara in Alaska: M&D say hi.)

(4) The view I saw last November, with sunlight on it.

(1) A moody view

(2) Achnasheen railway station - can you imagine riding on a train through this kind of scenery?

(3) Vroom! Duck!

(4) Loch Maree, a classic view that everyone gets when they do this road. The road used to be single track, i.e. one lane for both directions, but it’s been/being widened to two lanes, which is just as well.

Loch Maree used to be Loch Ewe, but the name was changed to honour a local saint.

(5) Rowan berries - the rowan is in berrying mode and the vivid red fruits are all over the place.

(1) A moody view

(2) Achnasheen railway station - can you imagine riding on a train through this kind of scenery?

(3) Vroom! Duck!

(4) Loch Maree, a classic view that everyone gets when they do this road. The road used to be single track, i.e. one lane for both directions, but it’s been/being widened to two lanes, which is just as well.

Loch Maree used to be Loch Ewe, but the name was changed to honour a local saint.

(5) Rowan berries - the rowan is in berrying mode and the vivid red fruits are all over the place.

Forgot the Loch Maree one.

2nd October was another family day, with the addition of my sister in law’s mother, whom I hadn’t seen in well over ten years. It was nice. We all ate too much. I got Christmas pudding because I won’t be around at Christmas pudding time. If I’m any better fed, I’ll start to resemble one. ;-)

3rd October, Monday - my last day in Scotland. We drove out around some of the west coast wiggles. Gorgeous scenery, and we had fish and chips along the way. Mmm. They offered deep fried Mars Bars in the shop, but I refrained. I suspect they would be just as nasty as deep fried Twinkies, and I haven’t tried those, either.

We spent some time walking around Inverewe Gardens. As I recall, there was someone who had the land, planted a bunch of wind-shielding trees, then proceeded to create a garden with plants that nobody else in the British Isles could grow. We didn’t find “America”, but we did find “Japan”. It was a cold day and somewhat windy, but I really enjoyed the walk around. I came across a place we visited last November.

I have done three international flights in the last twelve months and I’m feeling a bit conflicted and strange about it. On the one had I really know what I am doing with travel now, on the other, I feel very unsettled and ungrounded, but it is my choice and it is the right one. I feel a touch, if not guilty, then strange to admit that it is in fact possible to spend too much time travelling, and that I overdid it last year with five major trips over a period of 12 months - the three internationals, the two bike rides. It is the most incredible privilege, and somewhat necessary for me to visit Britain as often as I can…but it’s absolutely knackering, and can be very disorienting too.

I am not complaining; just observing.

Anyhow, I digress.

We were in the Gairloch area and this time we weren’t blowing away, and the sun was out a little, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I’ll post some pictures in a wee while. It is just that stumbling across that place, I realised that I was settling in here as well, becoming familiar with the terrain, and it caused me a pang or two, because I cannot be in two places at once.

It took me longer to tie up my loose ends back home, so I didn’t rejoin my parents until nine at night, and our last evening together was somewhat truncated. :: sigh ::

I am now safely in Ipswich, and now know that I must indeed write a Book Crossing article about this entire trip, which has been very BX-a-licious. However I will wait until the frenzy in London, and try to recount the stuff in vague order. Anyway, I’m safe, full of soup and chocolate. Life is very good.