@pfooti · 2026-06-28 · travel

June 26th: Iron Horse Water Spirit

Today's the day we turn the RV in. First thing, we drove to Falkirk, which is more or less on the way. The day started out drizzly, so we decided to not walk around the grounds of the Wallace monument in Stirling, but it cleared up by the time we got to Falkirk. Falkirk is home to two (probably more, but we saw two) points of interest, the Kelpies and the Wheel. Kelpies first.

Kelpies are horse spirits that live in rivers. These ones are statues, not the real thing. There's a river and canal system here that meets the river Carron that exits into the Firth of Forth (half of the place names around here sound like they were the result of a dare). I suspect at one point this was a very active trade route, linking the highlands to the North Sea. Probably how all that stuff they found in the Crannogs got there from the middle east and beyond.

I shot a video as well, but you don't need a two minute thing of this slowly rotating and I don't feel like uploading it on mobile data rn, so you get the still.

After that, we visited the Wheel. It's a Ferris wheel but for boats. You could just put a series of locks in over a long stretch of space, but then the canal is a lot longer and who wants switchbacks in their canal. Sort of wonder what they did with river traffic before the wheel, but not enough to look it up. If anyone wants to tell me, I give you permission this one time.

Jeff of the day is this family of mute swans. I assume they are quieter than trumpeters.

The RV was turned in and had a small list of damages after the final inspection. To be expected, there some wear and tear here. I did this calculation as to whether we should get the extra insurance or not, based on the assumption that they turn a profit or at least break even on it, with the premium and deductible, and decided it was worth paying for some repairs out of pocket. Let's hope I'm right there.

We spent a few hours at a legit pub (I had another session ale, they claim it was a session IPA, but how do you make an ipa with 3.5% abv? Tasted like just a plain old pale ale. There was also music and drunk people shouting and some people playing darts poorly. There was no ruckus, nor a rumble.

In the pub, waiting for music to play. The din of conversation a constant, broken occasionally by the shout or thump of emphasis. This is confirmation that I am not and never have nor will be, normal. What do all these humans talk about? What information is sailing the choppy seas of the noise in here, within, through and around the music? I have no idea. All I can do is sit quietly, hope nobody talks to me, and listen to the noise. And think. Think. Think about all this.

Dinner was at the Rhubarb at Prestonfield House restaurant, which was super fancy in one way (the setting felt like we were eating in a manor home), and had this bimodal menu. Half of it was quite photogenic, and the other half was labeled “comforting classics”, so you can see Chrissy’s trout crudo appetizer, but my bisque (while delicious) was just a crock of soup with cheese in it (the photo didn't turn out all that well). Overall, quite nice, and would recommend for the ambiance if nothing else, but the food was solid.

The filet was great, but it was also served with onion rings and chips, as opposed to my fancier stuffed courgette flower (they put a clam in there) with a tiny amount of monkfish (delicious though) on the side.

The King is visiting on Saturday, to open Scottish Parliament, and there are going to be parades, so a lot of roads are closed and traffic was awful. Super glad we got rid of the RV; we had considered driving to the hotel to drop off our bags, so we could then take public transit from the RV dropoff, but ultimately decided to just taxi from the RV to the hotel. This was the correct decision.

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