Day 3 Reminder: We did this trip four weeks ago. This day is when the vacation to Scotland became real. We were going to walk the mile to the National car rental place and were five steps from the hotel and my wife asked if I wanted to take a cab. I didn’t even answer. I asked the cabbie if he was waiting for someone and he said, get in. National, Budget, et al. are the same and in the parking garage of Waverly Station. A young Scot and a nice guy from Dumfries took care of us. He went over the car and reeeaaallly emphasized the tires. He talked a lot about scratches, gouges, and damaged rims. I didn’t think much of it until I hit my first curb. We weren’t a mile from the rental agency when I hit it. Driving on the left side isn’t a big deal as long as you keep saying, stay left, stay left. The problem is the curbs that out of nowhere, jump out and hit the left front tire. We made it out of Edinburgh and hit the motorway headed for the Isle of Skye. Piece of cake. I only hit one more curb getting out and was in for clear sailing until entering the Highlands. Or so I thought. I missed the turn and ended up in Perth. Perth is a nice town with narrow roads and lots of road signs. I needed to clear my head and fill up with petrol. The rental had only half a tank when we left. Stopped at a Shell station and couldn’t figure out why the gas wouldn’t go in. I went in to the man on duty, another nice guy, and without laughing told me to push the nozzle in all the way. No button to push or lever to flip. Just take the nozzle off and put it in. Petrol is sold by the liter so don’t rejoice when you see the low price. It actually was cheaper than I thought it would be. Californians would be jealous. We had to use the facilities which there were none. He let us use the employee toilet but said not to expect any standards meaning, it won’t be clean. It was actually cleaner than most fast food restaurant restrooms in the US. We chatted for a bit, bought coffee and snacks, and then hit the road without hitting a curb.
We found our way to the two lane road to and through the Highlands. It was another magnificent day weather wise. Clear and cool and just down right nice. The two lane roads were generally wide enough except for the bridges. The scenery was like nothing else. Mountains you can almost touch ending at a loch that looks pristine from the road. Since we topped off on fuel, when we stopped at two petrol stations, we just used the facilities and at one of them had the best meat pie on the planet. Wish we had bought all he had.
We headed for Loch Ness to look for the monster. One research find was to not plan your Scotland vacation around Loch Ness and I saw why. It’s a nice lake but not the nicest. There were several tourists, cars and vans, and plenty of souvenir shops, hotels, and restaurants. We got some pics and can now say we were there. We didn’t see Nessie so we got back on the road to the Isle of Skye.