May 22, 2008 – I’m looking forward to starting my 10-day tour of Scotland. As an avid golfer, I’ve always wanted to find an excuse to play at St. Andrews, so when I was contacted by BMI Airlines and encouraged to visit Scotland, I felt that was incentive enough to visit the beautiful country! There’s a lot that Scotland has to offer and it’ll be especially fun now that my dad, Harold is joining my brother Jed and I on our trip. James MacDonald from Las Vegas, is also tagging along. Jed is our cameraman on the tour, while I will be writing a daily blog from across the Atlantic!

We started our trip to Scotland flying in style on BMI Airlines, the second largest airline in the United Kingdom. We flew from Chicago O’Hare airport, connecting in Manchester, England before reaching our destination in Edinburgh. The long flight was made short by the hot meals (airplane food isn’t so bad these days!), personal TV in my seat, and the GPS telling me where the airplane is at all times. When I am flying to Europe, I like to use the European airlines because they usually provide better services and amenities- it is a good tip to search for these flights if you are considering taking a trip overseas, because the service is unique on international airlines!

Our first stop when we arrived in Edinburg was a two-hour drive to Kirkcudbright to meet John Denerly, who owns the Galloway Wildlife Conservation Park. Things literally didn’t get off on the right foot when I went to the wrong side of our van to drive. No matter how often I travel, I still need to remind myself to flip my head and get on the right side of the car. They do it opposite overseas, driving on the left side of the road. Fortunately that was our only misstep, as our trusty GPS led the way to the Galloway wildlife park located in the southern center of Scotland close to the shore.

We arrived to meet a joyous and friendly John Denerely, who is profoundly deaf and fluent in international sign language. He gave us the grand tour and we had a great time communicating with him as we understood each other very well. Denerely founded the wildlife park with the stated mission of breeding small animals, conserving wildlife, wildlife habitats and sites of geological importance, and providing opportunities for the public to enjoy and learn about the area they live in. He has succeeded in doing so, providing a home to over 100 animals and more than 50 species which he cares for across 27 acres.

The tour was amazing, and we were able to see and handle many animals up close for several hours before our time was up. We had another two hour drive according to our GPS to Glasgow, where we will spend our first night in Scotland. Maybe it was a good thing that the Starbucks in Kirkcudbright closed early that night, as I needed to allow myself to get a true taste of the Scottish culture. And I spent the night without a decent coffee.