a priest's musings on the journey

Today was a travel day. The coach met us at our hotel in central Glasgow in the morning to drive us to Oban, where we were to catch the ferry to Craignure- then take a bus to Fionnphort, where we would catch a ferry to Iona. Because of high winds the Fionnphort ferry to Iona had been cancelled earlier, and an unexpected snow worried the driver that the road might be closed en route to Oban. However, after a few calls the driver believed we could make it to Oban with no problem and that the ferry to Iona would run. And indeed, we had a safe and beautiful drive to Oban, where we boarded the ferry and enjoyed a beautiful trip to Craignure. //
We exited the ferry to discover that the bus to Fionnphort had left us- and to make things worse that was the last bus of the day, and the ferry to Iona scheduled to leave in an hour was also the last ferry of the day. I was about to call a taxi when two women came up to us and asked if we needed help. We expalined our problem and she mentioned that her brother-in-law had a minibus and he could drive us to Fionnphort for 80 pounds. It seemed like we had no choice, so we hired the minibus. and the driver called the ferry to see if it would wait for us. The ferry driver agreed to wait 10 minutes, and our coach driver began to race across the Isle of Mull in order to get us to the terminal in time. There were a few moments when I thought we were going to plunge into the sea, and a few sheep and chickens narrowly escaped an untimely end... but he got us to the terminal in 40 minutes.... a drive that should have taken an hour mind you... ;)

We arrived on Iona in darkness... hungry and ready to eat. We knew that we would have to get groceries and prepare our own dinner- so we sent a few on to the hostel with the baggage, and the rest of us walked to the Spar to buy groceries- only to find that it had closed at 3 PM, and that all of the restaraunts had closed. Some of us had bought shortbread and crisps at the The Green Welly en route, and a few others had brought snacks from the States- so we combined all of our snacks together and *enjoyed* a rather unusual supper- and an even better lesson in sharing bread and offering thanks that our hunger was only temporary, unlike thousands who spend all of their days hungry and without food and potable water. We offered our hunger and dismay to God as a prayer that we would not forget how our stomachs felt as they rumbled, so that thsoe hunger pangs would remind us to work to eradicate poverty and hunger in our community and throughout the world.

Thanks for posting, Rob, I have been hoping for a report and am enjoying these posts very much. Quite an adventure there - and bless you for your priestly and pastoral way of addressing the food situation...

Well it was Lent - the joys of travel in Britain!

Now I know why the Archbishop of York cut up his dogcollar! I just laughed over you with the coach!