May 23, 2008 – I couldn’t even last a full day without Starbucks. I opened my day with my sorely needed Starbucks which was close to our tiny hotel, The Pypers’ Tryst. The hotel is well known as “the gathering place of pipers” and is adjacent to the National Piping Centre. With only seven rooms, we were happy to be able to spend the night there!

We met with the museum curator, Greig Canning, who is one of the top 50 pipers in Scotland. The National Piping Center not only provides historical information about piping, but it holds concerts and competitions where pipers compete in solo and band competitions. I had the chance to wear a Scottish kilt, which is a source of pride for the Scots. Kilts are made of different colors and stripes which represent their family clan, which is similar to a “coat of arms” back in Medieval times. No matter how much historical significance there is behind the kilt, I still felt like I was wearing a skirt, and as an American I can’t help feeling that way!

The museum had plenty of art to see, and we were thrilled to learn that there was one well know piece by a deaf artist, Walter Geikie. It is a drawing rendition of the well known poem by John Skinner, “The Reel O’ Tullochgorum.” But we were disappointed to see that below the drawing was a label that said the artist was Deaf and mute. I pointed out to the curator that it was an inappropriate term and he agreed with me that was outdated. I wonder if he’d bring it up-to-date?

After our morning tour, we had the opportunity to meet with deaf business owner Joel Kellhofer. It was nice to meet someone with the same name, but the Joel I was meeting had some fascinating things going on! He has his hands full with a growing company, AC2.com, Access to Communication. With two offices in Glasgow and London, Kellhofer’s company provides media and consulting services called is Actual Signs in addition to deaf awareness, training sign and training professional interpreting services across the UK. With disability laws catching up speed in the UK, AC2.com is positioned for rapid growth in ensuring that companies and individuals have access to the training and information they need.

After our visit at AC2.com in Glasgow, we went to Fort Williams for some shopping before the stores closed at 5pm, and once again took out our reliable GPS and set it for our drive to our next destination on the Isle of Skye. Our GPS said it was just an hour and a half drive, and we followed our GPS blindly before we started to feel odd about the road we were on.

The GPS map was showing the road being surrounded in blue, and we were driving on a very windy one-lane road alongside the coast. This really didn’t feel like the right route. It was a little while before we realized that the GPS was directing us on a ferry lane, without the ferry! When we figured this out, we went to the ferry station only to find that the last ferry for the day had left just 20 minutes earlier! If only we had not
stopped in Fort Williams! Instead of beating ourselves (or the GPS) up over missing the ferry, we decided to make the best of it by spending the night in Mallaig, a small fishing town.

The great thing about Mallaig was that we had one of the best seafood meals ever, with huge prawn, lobster, and mussels that were freshly caught by the local fishermen. There were several inns and Bed and Breakfasts that really looked like a great place to spend the night, but our joy was short lived as we went from place to place finding them all full. We seriously thought we would have to spend the night in our van before visiting the last possible hotel in town. There were only two rooms available, and we happily took them both! Going to bed after a meal and scare like that was almost as good as a cup of Starbucks!