On My Way To Budapest

Gill and I planned to go to Budapest for a mutual birthday celebration.  Since I've had a couple of issues meeting up with Gill, I planned to fly down the night before we leave, just in case.  Unfortunately, I forgot to block out my calendar for Tuesday afternoon to take into account the drive to Inverness, a more reliable airport versus Wick.  So I had this meeting with the regulators from 1 to 1430.  My flight was at 1745 and Inverness is a 2 - 2.5 hour drive depending on traffic.  I tried to move it, but they couldn't so we shortened the meeting by 30 minutes. Since I was at the Site, I would have to drive back to town and then head on.  Town was the wrong direction, I'd heard there was an alternate route.  I tried to look it up on mapquest but I wasn't really clear.  So I decided I would just see what the SatNav proposed - I have been borrowing Jason's Garmen for a very long time.   Well sure enough, it said turn right from the Site instead of left toward town.  Considering I was leaving at 1415, I decided to go for it.  It said 7 miles west - that seemed like a lot.  I want to go South, but 7 miles later, it says turn south onto the A897. Surprise, it was a single track road - like room for one car.  I had to travel 28 miles on it.  I really weighed my options, feeling quite anxious about it, but then I said heck I'm kind of committed - time was ticking away.  So I channelled my inner Cumbrian and I went for it.  I watched the miles go by and drove as fast as I could.  I am driving a late model Mitsubishi shogun - its like a little jeep. I passed a couple of cars, going my direction.  They were pretty good about getting out of my way.  I passed a couple others coming toward me, but they all pulled off the road and gave me the right of way - lucky. What's on this road you are thinking.  The answer, not much really.  I got to a place that said there was a school with a flashing 20 mph sign, but I could not identify this school.  I also got to a train crossing that had a hotel at it - a bit like the Bates motel. I did see lots of fishermen.  There was this group of 3 with these enormous poles - like twice their height.  One of the fishermen had a shit eating grin on his face - I returned his grin in kind. Well, finally I've eaten up the 28 miles and the SatNav says take Craggie.  And I think huh? But I do it, like what are you going to do at this point? Well, there is a sign on Craggie that says its limited to 17 ton, and I think the A897 didn't have a weight limit.  Then about 1/4 mile later the weight limit went to 7 ton - hmm... Jason's SatNav said I had to travel 28 MILES on Craggie.  I screamed 28 [expletive] miles!  I am FREAKED! I have no idea where I am or where I am going and turning back means I miss the flight for certain.  So I keep going.   At some point in it's history, Craggie was paved.  Now it has paving in places with a fairly consistent hump of grass in the middle, and it's quite and consistent crumbly in places; there a many places with little no discernible pavement. To say the width of Craggie is narrow is a bit of an understatement - there were NO passing places.  I did pass a few cars coming my way. One lady backed up the hill onto my side of the road - stupid American.   I passed another lady in a big van.  Although I had the right of way going up hill, I pulled onto the 'grass' in area that didn't have an immediate ditch on both side of the road.  She kept coming, and as our mirror touch, she looked me in the eye and winked and mouth - go. So I went. I finally crested a hill and could see the north sea gleaming ahead of me.  A few more miles and I was dropped onto the A9 at Brora.  2 hours and 26 minutes after leaving the Site, I arrived at the Inverness Airport.  It was my fastest trip to Inverness.   My flight departure was delayed 4 hours.