Another dry morning but one where I was plagued with a very sore ankle so no run for me this morning. Instead we tried to muster the troops at a reasonable hour and then headed to get Grandma and assorted other in-laws to have a day out. Nine people don’t move very fast especially when one is in a wheel chair but the other Cannon family is much averse to early rising and we couldn’t get moving before noon.
But when we did, we headed to Strathclyde and visited “New Lanark” which is kinda funny since it’s a restored mill town. It was the largest cotton mill in Scotland, possibly Europe (didn’t pay *that* close attention!), during the early 19th century and the mill and supporting buildings have been restored as a historical site and a tribute to their founder Robert Owen. Apparently, he was quite ahead of his time in terms of providing for his 10-year-old employees and the other workers: schooling, subsidized food and groceries, one day off a week and only 10 1/2 hour days! The site is really quite neat and filled with lots of praise for and quotations by Robert Owen. He apparently also moved to the US for a while with his children and founded Harmony, Indiana – dedicated to communal living, etc. That didn’t work out so well so he headed back to Scotland. One of his sons, however, was apparently instrumental in the founding of the Smithsonian Institution! Of course this small fact was listed on one poster in the basement of his house – I guess it doesn’t merit much over here!
The sun peaked in and out all day but by the time we were covering the most ground (after endless video presentations of which such sites seem to be so fond) the sun was out in all it’s glory and we even snuck in a short walk to some of the smaller Falls of Clyde – little waterfalls! There were many more a mile or so upstream but not all in the party are quite as fond of walking – especially the one pushing the wheelchair! – so I’ll have to content myself with the shorter walk to the smaller falls.
Then it was time to face “rush hour” traffic back home. It wouldn’t have been bad except for the road works which had one lane closed on the only road in and out of town. I swear every road in Scotland is under construction. It makes the Mixing Bowl project we went through seem like an afternoon in the park!
And we ended with another quite night: take away eaten in the cottage then Frank went off with his pal Gilby for a pint and I settled in with my book (lent to me by Gilby’s wife many years ago coincidentally!) and the kids did their computer thing. Nothing all that exciting.
Oh, except that I got promoted… guess I should at least mention that… 😉
/san/
Pedometer: 10, 489 or about 9 miles.
The Cannon Family's travel blog 