So(ul)journ!

Our next Souljourn will take the better part of forty-plus days and will encompass travel through six European countries. Our first stop is the Isle of Iona, a small island off the coast of Scotland. Traveling to Iona involves multiple forms of transportation.

We departed from our home at 4:00 PM and headed to pick up Jack and Jane (my in-laws) at their place, where we left our car and took an Uber to the airport.

Our flight departed later that evening with a stop in Iceland (our first country). After spending several hours waiting for our connecting flight, we flew to Glasgow, Scotland (our second country). From the airport, I took a taxi to the in-town rental car dealer, then returned to the airport to collect Jacki and her folks. From there, we drove to Oban (pronounced with a long ‘O’ and a short ‘a’). We spent the night in a lovely apartment where our daughter, her husband, and our two grandsons joined us.

The next morning, our journey continued as we took a car/passenger ferry from Oban to Craignure, which is located on the Isle of Mull. We then drove to the other end of Mull (sounds like a book title) to Fionnphort, where we caught a passenger ferry to Iona. We arrived on Iona nearly a full two days after stepping out of our front door.

The drive from Craignure to Fionnphort takes a little more than an hour — if you drive straight through. However, the beautiful mountains and dales, where waterfalls cascade down and lakes rest in the valleys, are worth the extra time.

I’ve driven this road two other times, and each time I’ve had more time to enjoy the scenery. If you plan to drive this route, you’ll want to leave yourself plenty of time to take in the broad vistas and small villages along the way.

The area is quite remote, and the roads are mostly single-lane with generously spaced passing areas. These allow you to pull over so oncoming traffic can pass and impatient drivers behind you can overtake. The success of such a road system depends on everyone sharing the resource equally.

This can serve as a metaphor for life—though if I felt like philosophizing, I could ramble on about it. Perhaps the best thought to consider is this: while on this singular journey of life, how open are we to pausing in the passing places to allow others easier access to the road we’ve traveled? Or will we allow another to pass, which still requires us to pause in a passing place, so that we can each continue to travel our road at our own pace?