Well, here we go with the dreaded I'm Back Message. I have just
returned from a two-week vacation, in which Margaret and I drove (towing
our little 2-berth caravan) some 540 miles to the beautiful Isle of
Skye, in North-West Scotland. Margaret took care of a fair share of the
Motorway driving, but I had to take over when we got to the famous
single-track roads, still covering a lot of the north of Scotland. If
you Americans can imagine this, they consist of roads about 8 feet wide,
which may have a peat bog at the side, or a vertical drop, but certainly
no place for a car to go. To allow traffic to flow (that's not quite the
right word) in both directions, 'Passing places' are provided, which are
bulges in the road of about 15, even 20 feet, where one of the oncoming
drivers (usually the first to arrive), stops in the bulge while the
other vehicle slides carefully by. Most of these passing places are
located so that you can see the next point from the one you are in.
However, in some cases you just have to set off not knowing if there is
an oncoming vehicle on the road, until you meet! Now one of you has to
gracefully reverse down the road to the passing point which you just
left. No problem, I hear you say, but suppose that coming towards you is
a 50-passenger tour bus, and you are towing a caravan !!! Somehow, it
all works out, and we had a most relaxing 2 weeks (even though I never
quite got as comfortable as I get at home in my own bed).
Well, I hope that you have found some of that interesting, and with
any luck, you may have been distracted from the three standard responses
to an I'm Back! message, which are:-
I'm sorry, what was your name again?
Oh, have you been away ?
Brian who ?
Regards,
--
Brian Collins <[log in to unmask]>
