Great Scots, they're English

February 02, 2010

Coming from the backwoods of Minnesota near the very wide open (read flat as a pancake) spaces of North Dakota and Iowa, distance seems a concept easily defined. It seems no great enterprise to jump in your car and travel three hours to see someone, spend the afternoon and return home in the same day. It wouldn't be polite to impose upon anybody by actually asking to stay at their place. Heaven forbid if the drive is less than six hours you even think of staying in a hotel. Distance and travel here seems to be a slightly slippery idea which I fail to grasp. Talking to a people is part and parcel of what I do for a living. Discovering where people are from, why they are here and where they are going while making small talk also comes from growing up a mid-western kid.
Most people travel by car here on road systems designed for horse travel in the early 1500's. You might think I jest in this, but I do not. English roads are classified as M for motorway, A roads which are the primary roads, B roads being the secondary roads and unclassified roads. Now an American's take on their classification system is simple. The motorways which should be equivalent to our interstates are more like highways. The A roads are what I would classify as our county roads and heaven forbid you travel on a B road which have blind corners single lanes and all sorts of other bits of fun. The unclassified roads are normally single lane (8 - 10 feet wide) with areas every so often where a car can pull into the ditch to allow the oncoming car to get around. Did I mention they like to drive somewhat fast on these roads. Now you understand why I normally take the train. Although, now I am digressing.
It seems to most English, the idea of a long drive is construed as slightly more than about one hour. Anything beyond this distance may require rest breaks or overnight stays. Of course, much like LA because of the road system English measure their drives not in miles or kilometers but time it takes to get somewhere in "normal" driving conditions.
One of the staff asked for a few days off to go and visit their relatives. They calmly explained they would need at least four days. If they could get five, they would be happy. I gave them their days off on the schedule. Asking the question, "Where are you going?" The response I got was they were traveling to Scotland. They figured a day to travel there and they would be exhausted by the drive. Three days to visit and the final day to return back.
"Where are you going in Scotland? Way up into the Highlands?"
"Oh no. But the drive will take about four or five hours." They seriously didn't know if they could make the drive in a single day.
I was told by a friend, it takes about eight hours to drive from the south shore of England to the north of Scotland. I think back and remember I could just make it to either the northern or southern border of Minnesota from my home in that same amount of time.