Off the beaten path...

“If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.” Anatole France

I'm sure you have all been wondering about the header I have posted on my blog. I bet it's been keeping you up at night.

The header is a picture of a "C" road we were traveling in Scotland this past summer. Britain has a letter and numbering system to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. "A" roads are the main roads or motorways (i.e. interstates in the U.S.), "B" roads are numbered local routes (i.e. state highways in U.S) and "C" and subsequent letters are for lower density roads that are unclassified. Many of the roads in Scotland are "C" roads or lesser. Needless to say, we were definitely on a "C" road for this journey. The GPS unit in our car (who we named "Beatrice"- that's a whole other story) did not even register this road on the unit!

We were staying in a lovely bed and breakfast near Perth, Scotland owned by friends of my parents. My parents have been travelling to Scotland for many years and have made friends with this charming English couple who retired to Scotland. So, when we decided to make the somewhat long journey to Loch Ness, Tony (the owner of the B&B and historian of all things British) asked us if we wanted to take the short way or the "scenic" route. We (meaning my mom and I) jumped at the chance for the scenic route. Scott, the driver, felt differently, but the women prevailed and we were off on our little adventure. An otherwise 4 hour trip took us over 6 hours, but we enjoyed every minute of it. At every twist and turn in the road was another glimpse of God's creation and the unique beauty that is Scotland. One minute it was lush and green with highland coos (Scottish cows) grazing, and the next minute we were in the highlands of Scotland with the mountains covered with the purple majesty of heather. Here are some images of that trip from Perth to Loch Ness.

Notice the purple heather, the one lane road and the beautiful castle that awaited us near the end of the journey. What I learned most about this adventure is that sometimes it's important to get off the beaten path and enjoy the journey. If we had chosen to take the "A" road that day, we would have arrived at Loch Ness far sooner, but we would have missed the beauty along the way. It's important to not forget the journey on our way to the destination...I think we often forget that in the hustle and bustle of our American lives.