Life at Willis Creek Ranch: Our final day

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Let's start this day with our beautiful, calming, peaceful view from the apartment. It was a good way to start and end this day, let me just say right up front. :D

Ahhhhhh..... our morning view

Well, I suppose it could be considered humorously appropriate that our first day in Scotland AND our last day in Scotland were both 'less than anticipated'. :D I think the take-away is that we just don't do 'Thursdays' well in Scotland. :)

Mama and I decided to return the rental car to the airport this morning to save us from having that hassle and time-hog Friday morning (especially since we had an early flight out of Edinburgh). Boy, are we glad we did just that! Because, as it turned out, it took us 5 hours to get that car returned! ugh.

We left the apartment a little after 9:00 a.m. and began the easy drive to the airport. Our intention was to turn the rental car back in, then walk over to the Royal Highland Show which was less than a mile from the airport. Things were going just fine until suddenly traffic came to a halt. It was three more hours from that point until we got to the airport entrance. Cars around us were overheating all along the way, further blocking traffic. I have to say we were grateful for our little Hyundai that was designed to 'shut off' when you come to a halt with the brake applied for any length of time. I believe that saved us from the same fate. One chuckle during this period of time... we saw yet another car stopped, although this one had made it to a layby. As we passed (inching slowly by) we laughed out loud to see a dad pull first one boy (about 3) out of the car to pee on the side of the road, then a second boy (about 18 months) who he just held in a leaning-over position next to the car. Mama and I wondered if we might get away with the same thing? Probably not. We kept driving. ;) ha!!

We began to realize what was probably going on, and it was confirmed to us later by several locals. This was the first day of the Royal Highland Show. Remember I said the Royal Highland grounds were only about a mile away from the airport? Well, the road to the airport is the same road to the Royal Highland Show. And both the airport and the show traffic were being funneled onto the same road, sometimes from as many as 4 lanes down to only 1 lane! Plus, the airport only has 1 entrance to the entire facility! In addition, a rail strike was going on so more vehicle traffic was on the road than normal. It was an absolute nightmare!

We finally got inside the airport but were funneled into a lane leading only to paid short term parking. We just went with it and found a parking space then ran into the airport to find a bathroom! The airport was absolutely packed! Quite different from the day we arrived in Edinburgh. As we were making our way to the bathroom we heard many announcements over the speaker saying that flights were being canceled. We later learned that there were air traffic controller strikes happening elsewhere in Europe causing many flights to simply be canceled.

We were so tired and weren't really sure, because of the crazy traffic, how we could get the car from the short term lot over to the rental return area, so we went to the Enterprise desk in the airport to appeal for help. :) The nice young man at the counter said, 'Sure! he would be happy to come drive the car over for us. It would only take 2 minutes!' By the time we made our way back to the car (after having paid the 7 pound 90 pence parking ticket for less than 30 minutes parking!) he was muttering about the crazy traffic. It took him almost 30 minutes to get that car moved and he knew where he was going! :D But he was kind and funny and we enjoyed our time with him. He also gave us a tip about using the airport shuttle to get as close as possible to the Royal Highland Show grounds, which we appreciated.

He finally got us parked at the car return area and sprinted back toward his desk in the airport. Mama and I were told to wait by the car for an available agent to check us in. As we stood there we watched one of the agents checking in the car of a nice looking couple across from us. It was horrible. He was walking around the car with a magnifying glass and then pointing out 'scars' to the poor couple. We heard him say, "I'll make a deal with you, yeah? 100 pounds, yeah?" Totally sounded like extortion. Finally the couple agreed to the 100 pounds, but the man pulled out his own camera and was taking photos of the car, I imagine to try to fight the claim later. We just felt sick and braced ourselves for similar treatment.

But then, another wonderful miracle happened. A girl with a clipboard appeared and asked if we were ready to check out. She took just a few minutes then declared that everything was 'perfect' and even gave us a bit of a refund for turning the car in early! Amazing!

By this time it was almost 2:00 pm. We had left the apartment a little after 9:00 am. We were exhausted. But we didn't want to give up on going to the Royal Highland Show, as that had been something Mama and I were both really looking forward to. We began looking for the shuttle to take us to the NCP car park. We walked the entire length of the outside of the airport reading every stinking sign we saw. Nothing. Until the literal very last sign at the airport finally said NCP car park #8. We looked around and all we saw were letters... F, G, H... Just then an airport employee came by with a woman in a wheelchair and dropped her off. We asked him where to find #8 for NCP car park. He said "Follow me, I'll take you there." We got about 10 steps when he turned around and looked back at Mama and said, "Get in," motioning to the wheelchair. Well, Big Sue was pretty hot and exhausted and she climbed right in. I was thankful. We then were walked back the entire length of the airport, back in front of everyone who had watched us walk by the first time reading every sign. Good grief... I am going to have SO MUCH empathy for international visitors from this point forward! I hope you all will do the same in our honor!! We truly looked like idiotic Americans for a good portion of this trip! Humbling.

Sure enough, he walked us back to the opposite end where we had first looked. THIS time we saw the sign. The ONE sign that said NCP car park. It was on a low wall and had been covered by a crowd of people standing there our first time around. ugh. However, we were now in the right place to get the shuttle to a closer point to the Royal Highland Show. It was about 2:45 pm.

When we got off at the NCP car park we asked the attendant which way to walk to the RHS. He directed us and we set off. It was a narrow grassy area alongside a road with a lot of traffic, including buses. The ground was quite uneven and Mama took a spill. My heart about stopped, but she was okay. At this point I believe we were both quite done with it all. But, we had no option but to go on.

We finally made our way into the gate of the RHS and were not in the best of moods, to be frank. We found something to eat and tried to discern information from the free map we had received at the gate. We were looking for the International Visitors Center that had been touted on their website. We couldn't locate it on the map and no one that we asked had any idea what on earth we were talking about. Finally, we spotted it across the main ring and set out to walk to it. When we finally got there we were met by a guard at the door who didn't seem very keen on letting us in. But, by this point we were both more than a little tired and grouchy and we (smilingly, I assure you) weren't going to take no for an answer. (The website had made NO distinction about it only being for 'special' international visitors. It had stated it was open to ALL international visitors. Even international visitors who looked like WE did at this point in the day.) We did realize, in passing many buildings that had bouncer type guards at the doors, that much of the RHS grounds were for VIP's and not 'commoners'. I think our American mentality just hadn't figured that whole thing out.

We made it inside, signed a guest book, were given a REAL map (which had actual information on it, not like the free map at the gate... grrrrr) and used their bathroom. We sat there for a bit to try to get our breath and then we both decided we had had enough of this day and we just wanted to get back to the apartment.

A few photos I took as we made our way through the Royal Highland Show. So similar to our Missouri State Fair, and yet so very different...

in one of the shopping pavilions

there were surreal feelings of things being so
very similar, and yet so very, very different

when we spotted the international visitors center -
see it over the top of the riders in the center?

tractor display, again, so similar, and yet...

photo for Marvin - stall mats :D

taken from the International Visitors Center

I am afraid our feelings about the Royal Highland Show were tainted by the events of the day as much as by the strong feeling put out of 'VIP' versus 'commoner'. It left a bad taste in both our mouths. We spent a lot of time talking about how our beloved Missouri State Fair does things and we agree that we much prefer the openness and welcoming spirit that is found there. Hands down. I am sorry that we didn't have a better experience at the RHS, but that is that.

We made our way to the main gate and waited our turn for a cabbie. Ours was wonderfully chatty and friendly and improved our mood. :D This was the day of the BREXIT vote and many were talking about the future of their country, including our cabbie. We hired him to come back in the morning and pick us up at 5:15 a.m. for our ride to the airport.

We were happy to be back at the apartment and sat with our feet up enjoying the view for a bit before we started packing to fly home the next morning. Shortly, Jennifer arrived from her day working at school, followed soon after by Julie who had an absolutely marvelous day attending a conference at the University of Edinburgh. By this time we could laugh about our ridiculous day and we shared some good time together - our last night together with Jennifer in the apartment.