Love from Scotland!

It’s taken me a week to get myself together. The trip was long and would have taken me a minute to get my bearings either way it went. Heathrow airport can strongly suck it. My biggest flaw was over packing. I kinda knew I was doing it but didn’t think it would be that bad. Then a couple of days before I left, I had some weird body thing happen with my shoulder/arm/hand. I described it as lethargic. Basically it was a pinched nerve. I didn’t really let it register in my brain. I just thought I slept weird and it would go away after a day or two. Well, it didn’t. I continued to downplay it and went on my merry way. The first flight was a dream. Plenty of room thanks to Kristin’s gift of a good seat and it was short and sweet. The transfer was swift and not too bad even though the seat on the next flight was a little more cramped it still went well. I tried to sleep but didn’t really pull that off. That’s fine until the Heathrow airport and the fact that I had to go through customs. I knew it was going to be stupid and it really was. I could not get on the train to go to the part of the airport that I needed to go to. Like, I couldn’t get on the train. It was so full every time. I knew I was running out of time so I walked. I thought something was better than nothing. I just barely made it through and onto my flight. By then I had fully gotten myself upset. I was dropping stuff and bumping into people. Everyone was looking at me. It was messy. No one was unkind. In fact, they were lovely. The lady sitting next to me was super sweet and the flight attendant got the drift of what was going on and brought me extra water. I knew I was just tired and said so. Everyone was very patient. I still hate feeling that way. I got to my hotel in Glasgow and checked in early and crashed. All my foolish plans of staying up went out the window. I figured they would and I didn’t really care. After sleeping I felt a little better and it was off to my next stop and my first train ride. Wouldn’t ya know, I missed my first train. 😆 Even though I showed up early, I didn’t really get how it was working so I sat there while it pulled away. No worries. There was another in 30 minutes but I had to let the guy who was picking me up know. His name was Tom and he was the son in law of the people that owned the house I was sitting for. He was very kind and helpful showing me the ropes around the house and what to do with the dogs including the route to take them to walk. The place is so beautiful and magical that its not even real so I guess my brain thought I’d be fine. This is where I went wrong. I should have just said, hey I can’t do this right now. I did tell him about my knee but apparently not enough because he seemed to think that I could still take an actual hike up and down these big hills. To him it was a long walk in the Scottish hills. To my knee, it was where I would die. 😂 I made it through but not without re-injuring my knee and setting me back probably a year in my healing. I did so well until then. Even after that long trip. Now I am going to have to rearrange how I’m going to do this trip. The knee and the dead shoulder/arm/hand thing set me on a depression that lasted the first couple of days at the new place. I managed to work out enough of the kink in my shoulder to get the ability to draw back. That alone was freaking me out. I really thought I was screwed. It’s still not 100% but it’s better enough that I’m not in a tailspin about it. I went through my stuff and pulled out anything I could to make things easier. Hopefully it’s enough to help. My knee is still pretty unhappy but the people that I’m staying with on the next part of my trip are going to come and pick me up. I didn’t even ask them to. They offered when I told them about my knee. They are really kind and I appreciate it. That has kind of been the theme so far. I end up being a clumsy mess and people are kind and help me out. 😆 I don’t really know what this trip will look like now. If my knee stays like this I may have to just hang out in Scotland and not do the Euro hop around that I had in mind. It’s fine. I’m used to life throwing curveballs. I’m still a bit discouraged but the people around me are being wonderful so it’s kept me going. Just say no to hikes in the “hills”. They are bigass hills, ya’ll. We’ll see what I’m able to pull off with this body that is trying to bum me out. It’s not as bad as I’m sure this post comes across. Say some words to the sky for me. More soon.

Oh on a more positive note, I totally drive on the wrong side of the road now. I’m such a world traveler. 😎