On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

06-04-2005 Glasgow Highland Games

For $15.00 each we get an all-day wristband into the Games. St. Andrews Field is the main site of the games and entertainment. The field is surrounded by thirty or more brightly colored tents representing different Clans. Later in the afternoon I find the tent for Campbell of Argyll Clan, which I believe is our Elgin neighbor, Steve's, clan. I will have to ask him again. Bob and I decided we should join the Clan MacBubba! As we arrive on the field there are two competitions for amateurs going on; stone toss (clachneart), and caber toss. As near as I can tell the requirements are that you have to be a really big guy with a full beard and a brightly colored skirt. We didn't see any of them successfully flip the caber (a 100-pound, 19-foot-long wooden pole, similar to a telephone pole) end over end, but one guy did it on his third attempt.

It was blazing hot in the sun so we made our way to the tents and exhibits under the shade trees back by the 12th hole on the golf course where we saw everyone gathering the other night when we took our golf cart ride through the fairways. On the way we saw the Battle Ax Practice Throwing. Some huge lady was a terror tossing those things. There was a young lassie dance competition going on under a back pavilion (officially called The Society for Creative Anachronism Highland Dance.) Those little girls danced continuous jigs in those wool skirts, long sleeves and wool knee socks. I was hot just watching them. We finally saw the lion in a big cage behind Strathbarren Field. He was huge and looked very hot in that small cage. We never did see any event or reason for him to be there. We saw two sheepdogs and some sheep but we missed the Sheepdog Demonstration at 9:00 before we arrived.

The funniest thing we saw was when the Golf Scramble players got to the 12th tee and found the Pipe & Drum Bands practicing on the tee box and in the surrounding woods. Everywhere you looked there were bagpipe players facing into the woods and warming up their instruments. The noise was unbelievable. Bob and I busted a gut laughing. We were such wimps yesterday, one little marshal driving by while we were trying to tee off bugged us. We couldn't even imagine what we would have thought if we had come to play this course today, having no idea the Highland Games were going on. When we rounded that turn and came to the 12th tee box we would have been astounding. No way either of us would have hit that green on the 150 yard Par 3 with 1,000 people watching!

We walked back over to St. Andrews Field for the Opening Ceremonies at noon. The hammer toss, a challenging and perilous competition, was just ending. The announcer pointed out that the hammer had separated from the long handle on one toss. Spectators need to be aware of what's going it. It's essentially a cannon on the end of a stick. The contestants wear spike-nosed boots. They stick the 4-inch spikes into the ground and swing the long-handled 22-pound hammer several times before launching it over their shoulder with a growling roar. One guy, Ryan Viera of California, set the field record in 1999 with a throw of 118 feet. Today he only made 111 feet. We found a seat on the bleachers under the pavilion in the shade and ended up right next to where they marched in Chief and Lord Lyon King of Arms, the visiting royalty from Scotland. All of the bands presented themselves before the dignitaries. It was quite a sight to see them in their finery and hear the cacophony of the pipes and drums. The local Glasgow High School Marching Band, The Scotties, played "Scotland the Brave," "The Star Spangled Banner", and a medley of our Armed Services songs.

After all of that pomp we were thirsty again and walked over near Strathbarren Field where we had seen a vendor selling homemade root beer. For $3.00 we got a cobalt blue bottle the size of a wine bottle, filled from a wooden keg with ice cold root beer. You could bring it back for a refill for a dollar! We were surprised that is was not carbonated but it had a very strong root beer flavor. It reminded me of the root beer barrel hard candies we had as kids. We wandered around for a while and listened to the musical acts at the smaller pavilions. Then we scoped out juicy hamburgers at one of the vendors out in the hot sun. We passed on the Haggis and Eggs. We got our root beer refilled and found a shady pavilion to enjoy our lunch.

Off and on during the afternoon we came back to a pavilion near there and listened to music acts who rotated on to the stage. One group of three guys had t-shirts that said "You can't go wrong with a man in a skirt!" After lunch we wandered by St. Andrews Field again where Greg Hadley of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a member of the Macneil Clan, and other professional atheletes were throwing a 20-pound sheaf off the end of a pitchfork at a 22-foot high horizontal pole. We did see one of them make a successful toss over the pole. By this time the Pipe & Drum Bank Competition was in full swing. Click here for Movie Clip of Pipe & Drum Band! Turn your sound up to hear the sweet sounds. We heard eight bands in the Group V division and about half that many in the Group IV division; medley only and medley and march where they had to march in while playing. It was as much fun to see and hear them warming up amongst the trees on the fairways as it was to watch them compete. They all took it very seriously and looked quite authentic in their matching tartans. The Chattanooga Pipe & Drum Band one the best band in the highest division there for the day. This was my favorite event of the day. I could have listened to them play forever. But, alas, we were standing and our feet were singing a different tune. We resisted the Strawberries & Cream on Scones on the way out the gate and walked back to the camp area. At the office we stopped and paid for two more nights since we haven't even taken in Mammoth Cave yet. We got a paper out of the vending machine at the bath house in spite of having to go past our camp site and circle back. But once home we cranked up the AC, mercifully, and read the paper. There are tenters all around us and I sure feel sorry for them in this heat.

Our first Scottish Games were quite a wonderful experience. The only disappointment was that the organizers chose to not allow pets. I was thinking there would be Scotties and Westies everywhere. We are hot, tired and wiped out. We watch The General's Daughter on the tube and crash for the evening. I have to get my pictures off my Memory Card so I can take more photos tomorrow at the cave.