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The judge will leave Sunday on a 10-day trip to Scotland with 30 other Texans and his wife, Jeanette, visiting the western coastal city of Oban for the first half of the trip and heading to the inland town of Stirling for the remaining days.
The judge first traveled overseas to celebrate graduating with a degree in business administration from the University of Texas in 1963. The trip lasted three months while he and his roommate, Robert Knight, of Austin, traveled through France, Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany.
“We traveled on $5 a day,” Stafford said. “There’s absolutely no way you could do that now.”
They lodged at pensions, small rooming houses, across Europe and bought food from grocery stores to make their meals instead of dining in restaurants.
“We ate lots of sandwiches on the road during that trip,” Stafford said.
For his trip to Scotland, the judge and Jeanette will fly into Edinburgh and head north and west to Oban, making a stop at the Laggan Locks en route, Stafford said.
He hopes to learn more of the Scottish regalia, authentic Scottish whiskey and modern culture, noting the dawn of Scotland’s Parliament in 2000.
To remember his visits to places off the well-trodden tourist’s path, Stafford collected beer coasters with the logos of the local brews.
But the most memorable parts of his trips were how the people he met and events he experienced changed his view of history, the judge said.
“The trips really made history come alive,” Stafford said.