We stayed up far too late and slept poorly before our trip today. Steve drove the whole way through thick fog from home to Erie, then heavy rain through all of Pennsylvania and most of West Virginia. Half of New York was driving south today and the other half will travel tomorrow. He had to concentrate so hard to keep us safe.
My job is to navigate, provide snacks and entertain the troops. I started out with information on Scotland from two new guidebooks that arrived on Wednesday. We've been counting on this trip with Mary for over a year, but we have thought very little about what sites we'll visit. The anecdotes and attractions in The Lonely Planet guide were too distracting during the rainstorm. All our concentration had to be on the roads. The temperature stayed at 53 degrees for most of the day till we drove out of the storm near Birch River on rt. 19. Then, zip, it shot up to 70. That's where we finally spotted fruit trees in full flower, daffodils and forsythia. Glorious!
Expenses in Scotland will be very high because of the exchange rate. Each pound is equal to $1.67. An average dinner is 30£ and a cab can run 25£! I guess six days will be plenty. One of the interesting things we'll have to contend with are midges. Like black flies, they will devour any uncovered body parts. The guides also said we don't have to worry about what we wear cause it's a very casual country.
We're camped out in a Best Western in Wytheville, Va and had a very mundane Chinese dinner. It's ok, cause we're free. Except, of course, from phone calls from fire squads complaining about ambulance drivers and parents who just realized the kids need to rent backpacks or they have soccer games or still need a physical. It's been six months! Shouldn't this have been taken care of sooner?
I am still trying to figure out how to get photos emailed from my phone to upload to the blog. I downloaded the camera photos to the iPad, but I don't know how to access them yet. This week, I shall conquer that detail!
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