[JimC64]

I was pleasantly surprised when Rich (Ashanti) made good on his long time threat to revisit Scotland, only been threatening for the past 2 years or so lol

It gets better as Martyn (Flatcap), Jim (JimboV8 ) and Steve (#Steve) decided they'd come along too, coupled to this Colin (Coling) and Danny (Pegasus3710) said they'd come too, should be quite a few days.
Ashanti, Flatcap, JimboV8 and #Steve are coming up on the Friday late afternoon, looking to arrive around 5pm maybe there or thereabouts and staying at The Premier Inn Cumbernauld G67 1AX

Plan is unless anyone has any other ideas to have a dinner at The local Stonehouse Pizza and carvery in Cumbernauld, around a mile away from the premier inn, called Broadwood Farm G68 9AD around 6.30pm

Congregate at mine on Sat morning say around 8.30am for a cooked breakfast ( bacon, egg and tattie scone rolls or full Scottish lol ) then go for a run through the Scottish countryside, keeping fingers crossed for the weather of course.

Looks like we'll have a good cross section of XJ's and a lone XKR in attendance
JimC64 - 2016 XJ X351 Portfolio LWB 3.0D
Ashanti - 2006 XJ X350 Super V8
Flatcap - XJ X350 Super V8
#Steve - 2010 XJ X351 V8 Portfolio
JimboV8 - 2012 XKR V8
Coling - 2011 XJ X351 5.0 V8
Pegasus3710 - 2014 XJ X351 Portfolio 3.0D

After breakfast I thought about a run if everyone's up for it, a few miles under the belt and see some beautiful Scottish scenery (weather permitting)
Option 1
Leave home and head for Glen turret distillery, a nice place for a quick pit stop, photo opportunities, comfort break etc. Afterwards head along the A85 St Fillans to Lochearnhead, then down through Strathyre and into Callander, perhaps a quick pit stop there. Then onwards and back via the outskirts of Stirling and home, probably around 4 hours, dependent.



Option 2
After breakfast, leave and head for Glen turret distillery, a nice place for a quick pit stop, photo opportunities, comfort break etc. Afterwards head along the A85 St Fillans to Lochearnhead, then head for
the Green welly stop, turn around and head back down via Crianlarich and down to Luss, by Loch Lomond and have a stop at the Duck Bay Marina for a coffee etc. Once done take the A82 down through Dumbarton and onto Glasgow and home.
This would be a wee bit longer, perhaps 5 hours or so dependent on stops etc with some fun roads



Saturday evening open to any ideas or suggestions
Either find a local hostelry for food and ale etc, or back to my house and order a large Chinese / Indian etc. There's more beer, wine and spirits than you could shake at stick at and it's all free. I'm around 2 miles or so from the hotel and 10 minutes £3 in a taxi.

Sunday, meet for coffee / chat etc and then disperse.

If anyone has any particular ideas / suggestions etc please feel free to chime in

4 weeks yesterday

Jim

 

[#steve]

Going to work now Jim, I will read this properly later.

 

[FlatCap]

Lets not have a Repeat of the Langley Castle drive and let Ashanti the Navigator head up the Tour

#atourwithoutdetour

 

[FlatCap]

The longer route of the two would be the one i would go for, simply as i have already mentioned i like to spend a few minutes at the Commando Memorial, I have no pressing need to do so as i have visited this spot many time in the past when returning from Scapa Flow.

 

[Ashanti]

Option 2 any day of the week and there's bound to be a butchers somewhere on route.

I need to ask for and buy my Haggis in my own dialect :mrgreen:

I'd also like to pay my respects to the Commando Memorial.

On to a correction,

My BFAM has been and is the one that's been blathering on about me heading back to Scotland and should make a weekend of it.

On to a technicality,

Don't be fooled by his blather, note the number of V8's, only last evening he admitted to feeling the weight of the V8's visiting him.

He's after support at the gathering, wuss.

On to a point of order,

Breakfast, he's tried to fob Coilin, Steve, Flatcap, Jimbo and I off wi bacon butties on the Saturday morning.

Fine brother, go ahead we'll still eat em, it'll even stop the V8 wind ups, but expect a forum post on the fayre offered, with pictures by lunchtime :-D

It remains to be seen just what he's capable of or persuades the lovely Tress to prepare.

4 weeks, canny wait.

Rich

 

[Glenn65]

Hi Jim, this looks a good catch up, might need to miss the latter section, but would defo be up for the run.

 

[#steve]

Jim, I like option 2 as well, the drive along side Loch Lomond is lovely.

As for Saturday night I'm up for a Chinese /Indian but obviously I will just go with the flow.

Whatever we do it will be great.

Cheers Steve.

 

[JimC64]

The longer route of the two would be the one i would go for, simply as i have already mentioned i like to spend a few minutes at the Commando Memorial, I have no pressing need to do so as i have visited this spot many time in the past when returning from Scapa Flow.
Hey Martin, I wouldn't mind revisiting the Commando memorial myself, but.....a group decision I think and definitely dependent on weather
Using route 2 as a base, the memorial would be a further 57 miles and approximately 1 and a half hours each way, so adding around up to 4 hours onto the day. IF the weather is half way decent it's a beautiful run through some stunning scenery and great driving roads. Assuming we leave around 10am after breakfast, I'd say we'd be looking to be back around 7pm by the time you add a few stops in here n there.

Option 2 any day of the week and there's bound to be a butchers somewhere on route.
I need to ask for and buy my Haggis in my own dialect :mrgreen:
I'd also like to pay my respects to the Commando Memorial, On to a correction,
My BFAM has been and is the one that's been blathering on about me heading back to Scotland and should make a weekend of it.
On to a technicality,
Don't be fooled by his blather, note the number of V8's, only last evening he admitted to feeling the weight of the V8's visiting him.
He's after support at the gathering, wuss.
On to a point of order, Breakfast, he's tried to fob Coilin, Steve, Flatcap, Jimbo and I off wi bacon butties on the Saturday morning.
Fine brother, go ahead we'll still eat em, it'll even stop the V8 wind ups, but expect a forum post on the fayre offered, with pictures by lunchtime :-D
It remains to be seen just what he's capable of or persuades the lovely Tress to prepare.
4 weeks, canny wait. Rich

Absolutely and a definite possible maybe on some of those counts :lol::lol:

Hi Jim, this looks a good catch up, might need to miss the latter section, but would defo be up for the run.

Hey Glenn, cool, let me know

Jim, I like option 2 as well, the drive along side Loch Lomand is lovely.
As for Saturday night I'm up for a Chinese /Indian but obviously I will just go with the flow.
Whatever we do it will be great.
Cheers Steve.

I guess we can all play it by ear and see how we go

Cheers
Jim

 

[mac_doctor]

Hang a right at Tarbet and go through Arrochar, and you can see where I broke my wheel!

 

[8bit]

Stick me down as a maybe, I'll consult with the Home Office and The Treasury and see what's what...

 

[JimC64]

Stick me down as a maybe, I'll consult with the Home Office and The Treasury and see what's what...

That'd be great Niall, certainly add some firepower to the mix too

Jim

 

[Ashanti]

Breakfast @ Jim's - Another excuse to fob us off wi' Bacon Butties

Friday's allus sees us 'aving a chat, yesterday was no exception.

However,

When the subject of The Gathering was brought up, he let loose his new reason why we'd have to make do wi' butties.

Never in a Million Years would I have believed it, even with the weight of history, written or verbal, passed down through the generations, would I believe it!

Seems the Covid19 Coronavirus maybe coming into play :shock:

Why, what, etc I hear you ask?

The ongoing 2 year manor house revamp we've All heard about isn't quite finished :shock::shock:

To complete, it needs a Dining table and chairs.

They are on order but here's the rub,

They're coming from Italy or should I say were.

No matter was my shocked reply, I have 2 fold away tables and chairs, plus stools, etc.

Full Blown Scottish Breakfast it is

 

[FlatCap]

All this pressure, i shall be truly thankful for any breakfast recieved.

Premier inn do a bottomless breakfast deal from 7am, usually available in conjunction with an unfathomably complex evening meal/beverage/breakfast combo, terms and conditions apply,for the pre brekkie brekkie, a must for brawny V8 drivers.

 

[JimC64]

I did reply don't know what happened or where it went? lol

Coronavirus or not, dining table or not, breakfast of sorts will be available and plenty of it

Rich, you blow me away with you own inimitable wordsmithing efforts to make a mountain out of a molehill, I think the lack of oxygen at the top of your own little mountain is getting to you :mrgreen:

Might have to fine tune the drive portion, Glen Turret has been sold / taken over and currently being renovated / refurbished....

Seems like there's a lot of it about lol

Jim

 

[FlatCap]

I did reply don't know what happened or where it went? lol

Coronavirus or not, dining table or not, breakfast of sorts will be available and plenty of it

Rich, you blow me away with you own inimitable wordsmithing efforts to make a mountain out of a molehill, I think the lack of oxygen at the top of your own little mountain is getting to you :mrgreen:

Might have to fine tune the drive portion, Glen Turret has been sold / taken over and currently being renovated / refurbished....

Seems like there's a lot of it about lol

Jim

Good heavens, look at the time of this, are you Nocturnal?

 

[JimC64]

Good heavens, look at the time of this, are you Nocturnal?

Heyup Martyn lol

Yeah I am kinda nocturnal to be fair, a night owl and always have been

We faffed around yesterday and got a few things dealt with, then decided last minute to go out, met up with some of the kids at the local social club, played some pool and had "a few" drinks lol

This mornings early post was a slight drunken one ( spelling checked and mostly ok lol )

Jim

 

[FlatCap]

Hey up Jim, just the opposite here, 9pm is late but 5 am is standard.

 

[8bit]

So my plan (wife, weather and proper breakfast on the Saturday permitting ) is to head down on the Friday afternoon, stay over the Friday evening, come along for (most, if not all of) the run on the Saturday and head back up the road Saturday evening. I was politely but firmly reminded that the Sunday of that weekend is Mother's Day...

 

[FlatCap]

Just need a break in the weather:roll:

 

[mac_doctor]

OK - What is going on here - I have had fourteen (count 'em, fourteen) notifications that the laird has posted a weather forecast (and one that he has been trying to post SPAM), but the post doesn't seem to be here. Is the forum having a nervous breakdown, or am I?

-- in a related note, when I tried to post umpteen pictures in a post in my thread the forum told me that the post looked like SPAM and led me a merry dance with its of "posted too quickly, come back later" admonitions.