Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. – Benjamin Franklin

PICTURE OF THE DAY: A mature, gentleman in full dress at the Scottish Games

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death. – Omar N. Bradley

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Jamie/Sam talks on How LOVE Makes the Difference

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We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill

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Presented for you to consider for an adventure

BLENNERHASSETT ISLAND

Historical State Park

137 Juliana Street

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304-420-4800

www.blennerhassettislandstatepark.com

The island has been visited by the likes of George Roger Clark, Johnny Appleseed, Henry Clay, Walt Whitman and Gore Vidal.

The island is named for Harman Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish aristocrat and his wife, Margaret who had a magnificent mansion and estate here in the late 18th and early 19th century, but Blennerhassett became involved with Aaron Burr (1806) in a mysterious military enterprise and was accused of attempting to establish an empire in the Southwest. He fled but was captured and imprisoned until Burr was tried and acquitted and then he was released. Both men were largely ruined. The mansion burned to the ground. But it has been recreated from the original foundations. The interior is furnished with some of the original pieces owned by the Blennerhassetts and other period piece.

Museum contains many artifacts and tools dating back to the Ice Age.

The Putnam-Houser House: Brought to the island by barge in 1986, from a bluff in Ohio. The 1802 two-story house is now completely restored.

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. – Robin Williams

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I thought today I’d introduce you to my trip plans as while I’m on the trip I plan to highlight it on this blog.

Duration will be 49 days and will involve England (including Cornwall) and Scotland. I will post announcements for the Blog on Face Book and the like but I will only do the narrative and the pictures here…so stay signed up.

And any enterprising crooks out there I have a roomie who’s an old, tough country boy who isn’t leaving the homestead…so don’t bother to go into too much of a stress to get the details of my absence.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. – Thomas Edison

This is going to be a two part adventure involving planes and trains and probably some tour buses and local buses.

The first part is 19 days and involves me and my friend SUSI….we will fly into the UK (an overnight flight is what I recommend–we get to get at least some sleep and when we get there we take a train into London and check into a hotel (walking distance from the depot and within a block or so of a Starbucks) and then we hit the road running…that is how we’ve found to best avoid Jet lag…we spend the whole day out and about and have an early (5ish) dinner–go back to room, do a few things–like write my blog–and then get to bed around 9 ish and that works to help transplant our time into theirs w/o a serious down time

Our hotel is booked and our first day will include a tour of Westminster (which includes the tombs of the next to the last Anglo-Saxon and early Normans kings and a couple queens), as well as a Jewel Tower and lunch in what use to be a basement storage area for the monks (remember that the monks that once claimed the small Abbey, that grew into an institution for the city, have been at this location since sometime in the 9th century). We’ll probably take a bus or subways to and fro—London’ s subways are so much cleaner and safer than the ones in NYC. Buses are easy to negotiate too.

Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese proverb

The second part is me alone….my friend leaves London one day and I leave the next…but she is going to the USA by plane while I’m taking a train to Cornwall where I have a hotel reserved (in a very old town right on the coast–the hotel isn’t on the water but right downtown). I used Booking.Com as they have a program where you don’t have to pay them any fees and you pay the hotel when you get there and they usually can get me a decent price (well most of the time–the hotel in London had a great special going, but you don’t have the long time to cancel w/o a penalty and you did have to pay that one in advance, but I saved 20% so I can live with it.

The stay in the Cornish town allows me to explore the area of my novel (or at least what I’ve been working on for a while) and the birthplace of my Arthur, who is based loosely on the Celtic legends and largely on my (which means always a bit more than a small bit off center) interpretation of it all. I can wander about and take buses or whatever to Glastonbury and the Tor which always gives me chills seeing it set above the plains below, with a Christian Church (I believe a monastery that fell victim to Henry eight) on top of its wild pagan elegance.

The hotel has a restaurant and a pub which will allow me to seek out food and dink and maybe some friendly talk on evenings when I do not wish to stay alone completing my blog (though the inn is old the Wifi is new) or watching TV which I also have.

Life is ambiguous. – Keith Richards

I will up date you on our progress on the whole affair and our reservations–like I can’t get reservations on the train from the airport yet as they’re not open to reservations this early. And you can’t pre-book the tour at Westminster Abbey and there are no set times so we just have to check when we get there as to tour times and any openings left and then plan our meal and the Jewel tower (The Jewel Tower dates back almost 650 years and is an intriguing visitor attraction in the heart of Westminster. It was built around 1365 to house Edward III’s treasures and was known as the ‘King’s Privy Wardrobe’. Oh and by the way Edward III is the son of the gay prince in Brave Heart and his French wife–the King being Edward I, the Prince became Edward II-duh) visit around that and in fact since we can’t get here till afternoon we may not be able to do a tour that day at all…but there will be other days in London.

Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. – Steve Jobs