Rocks & tires

...the kindness of strangers

Morning rolled around, sun peeking over the horizon and coloring the sky. An airport morning... First stop, immigrations. First dumb Denise move? Not bringing a copy of my itinerary showing my return flight. It never occurred to me to bring a printed copy of my flights since I know I can easily access them online. Oops. Luckily, , the receipt for my photography seminar showing the end date served as a somewhat odd substitute. I realized the reason that I didn't run into this problem when I was in Ireland - during my last flying international trip - was that I had a paper ticket for that trip. This one? Electronic only. Next time I suppose I'd better bring a copy of my itinerary.

After waiting and waiting and waiting for luggage, I finally collected my bag and walked outside and into the car rental office. Paperwork done, I headed into the garage to find my car for the week. And - in the spot where my car was supposed to be waiting for me, there was a large van. Yikes! I'm driving on the opposite side of the road from my driving comfort factor, and the car waiting was huge. I went back to the rental office, and the agent said (again) that the car was a small Ford Focus. Hmm... I headed back to the garage once more and discovered that the car in the spot noted on my rental envelope did not match the license number on my contract. Time for a car hunt... Yes, there really was a small Ford Focus waiting for me. And yes, it was an automatic. It was enough to focus on driving on the left without needed to remember to shift with my left hand.

Finally, I was on the road, rolling north, driving on a high-speed road and trying to keep pace with the other cars. There was no posted speed limit - I suppose you're just supposed to know what the speed limit is on a motorway. I thought it was a bit odd.

I stopped at a couple of service stops to get food, to rest. And then my route to Glenridding veered off of the high-speed roads & took me on a series of very narrow two-lane roads. Not only was there no shoulder, the road was lined with walls made of stones. All of a sudden I heard bang! Somehow, I must have clipped a rock or hit a hole with a tire (in a very strange way). Somehow it was clipped seriously enough that there was a hole in the tire. Not what I needed today, a rental car, a flat tire on a lightly traveled very narrow road. Ouch. Bad luck, but good luck too. A cyclist heading uphill added to his workout by helping me change the tire, and three women from Australia stopped to help too. It took all of us to figure out how to get the last (trick) nut off of the wheel. It needed a funny extra attachment for to the wrench. Very odd.

My thanks go out to the strangers who helped me on the road today with a promise to (continue to) help people I meet along the way.

Tire changed, I finished the uphill climb and started the long down into Glenridding. I checked in to the hotel, then walked back to the car to get my bags. As I was walking down the hall to my room, Caroline opened her door to say hello. Finally, an in person meeting! Tea and conversations were a good relaxation. Ah, I'm really here!