August 3 – 9, 2012 – Somewhere near Newcastle, England to Moffat, Scotland.

When you read this posting, you might think that the reason we’ve been off the air the past few days is that we’ve been partying too much.  Actually, the real reason is that we’ve been without a WiFi connection for a few days.  Honest.  We have been partying, but only in the interests of sustaining Anglo-American relations.   As you may know, we aren’t really the partying type, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to leave a good impression. 



St. Mary's Lighthouse
near Newcastle

We spent four delightful days with Lady Ann & Dr. George – including a reunion with Iain and Alex; a reunion with Tony and Sally; meeting new friends Harry and Ann; and enough touring in Northeastern England to make your head swim.  But the sea was far too cold for us to actually swim in it, so we learned that in England if the water is too cold, you just go “paddling” (immersing yourself in the water up to your knees).  When I was a teenager, we called it petting – you know, when you kind of start, but you just don’t go all the way.  But whatever you call it, we didn’t even get our feet wet.

Then, Janet and I headed north to Scotland.  Last year, when George & Ann kicked me out of their home, they sent me into the northern moors at Hadrian’s Wall, from which I passed through Bellingham, Byrness, Jedburgh and Melrose.  This year, we’ll be visiting Jedburgh and Melrose later when we walk the St. Cuthbert’s Way, so there was no reason for Janet and me to see them now; Bellingham and Byrness are primarily points along the Pennine Way, so there wasn't any compelling reason for us to visit them. 

Therefore, we diverted from last year’s route to go to Moffat, Scotland, for a reunion with Kenny and Joyce, Becky and Elliot, and Ann.  You may remember them from last year as persons I met on the West Highland Way.  Kenny was the driver while the others walked.  More specifically, you may remember Kenny as the one who kept buying me beers, and the others as the dancers outside the Rowardennan B&B while host Neil played his accordion.

Becky, Lost-a-lot, Janet, Peter,
Ann, Joyce, Kenny and Elliot

And what a reunion it was!  We all met at Becky’s and Elliot’s home, where I showed my world-famous slide show of My 1200 Mile Summer.  Then we all went to a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner.  Unbeknownst to us, Becky had arranged for a local newspaper to run a story about our reunion, and after dinner, the photographer took a group picture to accompany the article.  Apparently there isn’t a lot of crime in small-town Scotland, so two Americans visiting with locals is quite a scoop.  That’s what makes Scotland so charming.  The article will be published a week from today, and Becky promised to send me a copy.  Stay tuned, because I’ll post a copy here.

Peter (center) with the other
 Moffat singers

The following day, Janet and I went walking along the Southern Upland Way, at least until we realized that we were getting too far from the pub, so we turned around.  That evening, we were invited by the Moffat group to join them at a local pub, where Peter (Ann’s friend who we met the previous evening) and several other locals were singing Scottish, Irish, and American folk tunes until 2:00 AM.  Everybody who’s anybody in Moffat was there – and since we were soon to have our picture and story in the local paper, we are now among Moffat’s movers and shakers.  We had a great time meeting everybody and singing along with the music.  And we hardly even slurred our words – but with our accents, nobody could tell.

 (c) 2012 Ken Klug