Taking a Stand at Stirling

A year after I married my lovely wife, my family decided to take a trip to Scotland.  It was my wife and I, my parents, my sister and my cousin.  Why Scotland? Because we have some Scottish ancestry. My sister is great at being interested in our family history.  It was her job to do the research and to figure out what clan we were from.  It was my job to be psyched that we came from a clan with a history of being cattle thieves and general trouble-makers

The trip was an educational tour that included another larger group.  The larger group had a leader of their own, and we were all on a bus together.  He was one of those annoying know it all guys who tried to become the leader of the entire group.  The guide would say something like, “When does everyone want to meet for dinner?”  Then the guy would say, “Well, I think that we would all prefer to meet at five, everyone will have the chicken dinner, and then it would be great if you could get us all some chocolate cake.  Everyone loves chocolate cake.  Then the whole group should take a walk so we can see the sunset over the loch. It really is quite spectacular.”  Then, if I was paying attention, I would say, “Wow, that guy is a tool.”

We toured Loch Ness, the Isle of Skye, Glencoe, and Inverness.  We finally made our way to Stirling castle and the battlefield where the Scots, led by William Wallace, defeated the English on September 11^th, 1297.  After touring the medieval castle and having lunch, the guide asked us if we wanted to walk to the top of the William Wallace monument, or continue to Edinburgh.  The leader of the other group said, “I think we all would like to continue on.  Some of us have a train to catch this evening.”  My sister and cousin wanted to climb the tower, though, and my dad was thoroughly tired of this guy.  So, our family took a stand.  My dad informed the guide that we most certainly would like to climb to the top of the monument.  This took the guide by surprise, in fact I think he said that we were the first people he had on a tour that actually wanted to go up the thing.  I really hadn’t been looking forward to climbing the 246 steps, but if we were doing it partially out of spite, I was in.  We got off that bus and took our time exploring the monument.  I’m glad we did.  No one told me Braveheart’s sword was in there, and the view from the top was beautiful.

Remember.   My family will walk miles just to spite you.