From Sagebrush to Heather Kindle Edition

In this book, I tell a story of playing tunes, sampling whisky, beer, & haggis, and touring castles in Edinburgh, Islay, Stirling, Kilmartin, and the Western Isles of Scotland, with ideas to help plan your trip. The western Isles, particularly Lewis, reminded me of growing up in Modoc County, California, in the early 1960s, which turned my mind towards the concept of home, society, and one's sense of belonging.Note: This eBook is in a fixed-layout format. That means you will not be able to change the font size. Please look at the sample on your device to see how it works there.About the BookTwo married couples from Idaho, sharing a rental sedan with luggage and musical instruments, toured select areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in late summer of 2022. Whisky distilleries, medieval castles and chapels, a towering broch, Neolithic standing stones, Lewis chessmen, and Dolly the Sheep were among the sites they saw. As American musicians, they played Scottish tunes outdoors in Fort William, in a guest house on Skye, around a fire-pit on the Isle of Lewis, and, perhaps mistakenly, in the carpark at Stirling Castle, where they were caught on film by a local photographer. The next day, they were barred from entering Edinburgh Castle by the British Government. Shortly before returning to the US, they were also caught on film by a Norwegian Public Broadcasting (NRK) news crew on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh outside St. Giles Cathedral, though without instruments in hand. Is the culture in Idaho so different from that in Scotland? Perhaps. This book is an attempt to explain those events from the travelers' perspective.Contents --AcknowledgmentsMapIntroduction to the Electronic VersionIntroductionPrologueDay 1 & 2, Nampa to EdinburghDay 3, Edinburgh to Tarbert (Kintyre)Day 4, Tarbert to IslayDay 5, Islay, morningDay 5, Islay, afternoon & eveningDay 6, Islay to Ft. WilliamDay 7, Ft. William to SkyeDay 8, Isle of SkyeDay 9, Skye to LewisDay 10, Isle of LewisDay 11, StornowayDay 12, Lewis to Tyndrum (Glencoe)Day 13, Tyndrum to StirlingDay 14, Stirling to EdinburghDay 15, Edinburgh to LondonDay 16, London to NampaEpilogueBibliography, Music, BeersSpreadsheet Plans for the TripAbout the AuthorI studied physics at the University of Utah, earning a B.S. in 1984 and an M.S. in 1987. I studied medical imaging in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Washington, earning a Ph.D. in 1994. My dissertation title was: Correction for Compton Scatter in Iodine-131 Gamma Camera Images. I then walked away from that path to mess about with fiddles.I’ve operated the Owyhee Mountain Fiddle Shop in Nampa, Idaho, since 1996. I have a web-page — www.owyheemountainfiddle.com — where you can find a few more details there.I have three adult children and five grandchildren, so far. The kids live a day’s drive away, each one in a different direction.This is my first book, aside from my doctoral dissertation, and I’m not sure anyone actually read that — maybe one person on my committee. I hope this book is more fun. And not as quickly out of date.Cheers,Ken Read more