Chapter Seven: Taymouth Castle, Hotel/Secret Service Headquarters

I looked at her with astonishment, "You just got a castle and you want to go to Thailand?!" She looked at me and replied, "I'll show ya around, but it's cold here in November and I want to warm up." I looked at her with my sad face and sad, "You know, I still feel bad about Botswana. I've been dying to go there since I read Alexander McCall-Smith's series, The First Ladies Detective Agency, in 2005, and I didn't even get to shop or visit my friends there I met online or enjoy the Okavango Delta. I hate the fact I was there and held hostage by Mr. WOW. Being kidnapped stinks." Brenda took my hand, "I know. I hate it when that happens." The float-plane came to a stop and Nicky, Micky, Ricky, and Kimo hopped out and grabbed our gear. The long black limousine looked out of place at the end of the tiny dock of Kenmore Scotland. "Hey Gretch, you'll love this, look." I looked past her and up close I could see the top of the limo was covered in sleek form-fitting solar panels. Kimo held the back door for me and then piled in with his brothers. As we slowly pulled out I could hear heavy breathing. Brenda started laughing, "It's a giant pedal car! 100% environmentally correct." Sure enough, when I looked over the last seat, I could see the huge Samoans pedaling like crazy to get the car up the hill. "That was pretty smart of Lord and Franklin Automobiles to retrofit all the cars and SUVS as pedal cars but I guess when gas hit $20.00 a gallon in 2015 they didn't have much choice. But I didn't know they retrofitted limos too!" I said. Brenda looked at the cute shop windows as we went by. "And what about when President Washington gave everyone that got fixed a thousand dollars each back in 2016? Our population stabilized in a heartbeat and when she made guns illegal everyone felt safe enough to go walk around again." I nodded my head in agreement, "Yes, but when she ended the space program and had the NASA team work on solar and wind power, it cut everyone's taxes in half. I think that was what made her most popular. Plus, did you ever think we'd see a woman president in our lifetime? Especially a black woman?" Brenda looked at me and smiled, "No, but I'm glad we did. Now that we are down to our last five years on the planet I won't feel so bad when we check out." I didn't hear what she had said because the huge Taymouth castle had come into view and I was in a total frenzy to explore it. I began bouncing up and down in my seat and Brenny's crew looked back at me with amusement. "Look!" I shouted as the deer placidly ate the grass on what looked like a golf course. "You have deer in your front yard! How can people play golf?" She looked out her side window and said, "Golf is so bor-ing. I took that out and made the golf cart road a bike path. The paving crew will be in next week to install the roller skate path next to it. Do you think I need a moat?" I shook my head, "The Secret Service will never pick up that tab Brenny and you know it!" She just laughed, "They don't have to. My book, Two Hundred and Fifty Steps to Reach Your Inner Kumbaya is in it's seventeenth printing. I'm having the castle remodeled next week for a RIK250 conference center. People from all over the world want to reach their inner kumbaya Gretch. Especially the baby boomers like us that want to hedge their bets besides Jesus." I shook my head, "Man, when you learned how to keep secrets you didn't mess around! I'm so proud of you." The limo stopped and I ran up the stairs to find a tuxedoed butler with a tolerant smile greeting me. "Mrs. Nixon, I presume?" He said with an English accent. Brenda bounded up next to me. "This is Alistair. He came over from London to run the house. Nice huh?" I looked up at the older gentleman and smiled, "Yes, I'm Mrs. Nixon. Nice to meet you."