21 December 2003

 Stirling Services

The weather on the Saturday had been dreadful.  I don't think that it had stopped raining all day.  Surprisingly, Sunday morning although cold was quite nice.  However, snow was forecast on the hills.

Only four people in three cars turned up at Stirling, but another couple phoned to say that they would meet us at The Cross Keys, Kippen for lunch.  After a chat and a cup of coffee the three cars left Stirling heading north.  To be honest, since the weather was alright at Stirling, it wasn't until we saw the the hills and it started to snow passing through Callander that I remembered that we were climbing and getting higher every mile that passed.  Actually the roads were fine, but just to be on the safe side we drove sensibly. We continued on up through Strathyre and Glen Ogle, passed Lix Toll and along Glen Dochart.  At Crianlarich we turned down Glen Falloch, passing another of our favourite haunts (The Drovers) to Loch Lomond.  The idea was that we would cut over from Tarbet to Arrochar on Loch Long and go for a blast over "The Rollercoaster" but I thought that we might have trouble coming back over the hill to Duck Bay on Loch Lomond so we abandoned that idea.  Instead we continued right down the loch to Balloch and from there out past Drymen along the back of the Campsie Hills to meet the rest of the group at Kippen for lunch.

If you haven't been to this pub, you really should pay it a visit.  You get a lovely meal at a very reasonable price.  The only problem is that it's too close to Stirling (only about 10 miles from where we started).  Anyway, since this was a "Lunch Run" we spent the rest of the afternoon gabbing before heading our separate way about three o'clock

The three cars travelled exactly 100 miles to get to Kippen from Stirling and while none of us had our hoods down, the scenery was spectacular and the company was second to none.  Another great day had by all and not a bad end to 2003.

I suppose that I should mention the reason that Mr and Mrs Hiorns were late was that Gerry was finishing off "Golden Wheels" after her rebuild.  The car looks stunning and lots of pictures will be added to the site at a later date.

Snowy hills in the distance

Gordon Smith in his RV8

Looks worse, but actually the roads were fine

Railway viaduct at Glen Ogle

Stopped at Glen Falloch looking towards Loch Lomond

Gordon heats his "nether regions" at The Cross Keys, Kippin

And finally, Rosemary is always complaining that I never take a nice picture of her.  Pity Gerry spoiled this one.

Note - All the pictures taken on the move are by Karen Meldrum