8 days and counting...

Some 37 years ago, now, I first cast my imagination north. My first real jaunt away from home, I was living in London. My imagination became overpowered by the promise of a place soo far distant, north of Scotland even, a eyrie floating in the middle of the North Sea. Shetland. My imagination ran wild: an outpost cut-off except for weekly ferries from the mainland. sparsely populated, wind swept and wave assaulted.

I never made it, but the idea stuck.

Several years ago, I happened upon a BBC series of the same name.  While my mental image was off, the promise of the bleak, stark, distant place began to stir again.

As my son grew into a teenager, I began to cobble together a plan.  We would visit Scotland.  First to hike the 96 miles of the West Highland Way, from Glasgow up along the shores of Loch Lomond to Fort William.  A father-son trip to cap the half dozen jaunts we’d taken during his younger years.  A right-of-passage ritual, before he truly slipped beyond the familial everyday of childhood and the family home. Following the tribulations of this long hike, I pledged we’d make our way to Shetland. An exclamation point for me, and a launch into the wild, wide world for him.

I set about planning.

As the idea came together, the world was shut down by reach of the Rona.  Again, the cabosh! I began to fear that the universe was toying with me.  But, I knew the contagion would recede.

Friends grew taxed with all the dreaming and yarn-spinning until, one day, a buddy, made a kind gift.  He bought two tickets.   And like that, the balance tipped the idea off the drawing board and into the realm of real possibility.

In a little over a week,  now, I and my son will climb aboard a jet headed to Edinburgh. From there, Glasgow and the long trail.  Then — at long last — Shetland.

I hope you will join us for this 3-week adventure. I will post here regularly: images & thoughts. If you become a paid subscriber, upon our return, Riley & I will create a broadsheet of his visual art accompanied by a bit of my poetically-inclined noodlings.

We hope you’ll tag along…