Day #17 – Boats and Cars

Thank you Chris!  (this is in Manx in case you were confused)

We started today very early as we had to be on the very by 8:30.  We were able to pack all our things and Jagi things in the Jagus van, but not all the bodies.  So, I went with Nicola, and Steve and the kids went with Chris.  He ended up parking his car at his office and they taxied over to the boat, while Nicola and family drove right onto the boat!

We all met on the boat except for Chris.  When he had checked in, they had asked him if he was a doctor, as a doctor was needed on the boat.   He disappeared from us for awhile, and when he returned, he told us that they were giving us free upgrades to cabins on the boat!  I didn’t even know they HAD cabins!  Apparently, a woman had looked very ill, but after a blood pressure check and a look over her medications, he assured everyone she was fine but should take it slow.

Our cabin!

So, we picked everything up and headed to our two cabins.  They had beds, a shower and toilet and a TV.  We set our stuff down and went to the dining area to have breakfast, then went back to the cabins to chill.  Em took a shower, as she hadn’t gotten to do that at home in the early morning, and Andy slept.  Steve read and dozed a bit and I watched some really bad TV.  All in all, it was a great ferry ride in class!

Once landed, Pete and I went with Ncola back down to the car, and Steve, Isaac, Chris and the kids walked off the boat to look for the Enterprise-Rent-A-Car guy.  We went to a nearby pub for lunch, the Enterprise guy dropped off the other kids, and Steve and Chris went to fill out paperwork.  It turns out that the “mini” mini-van was unavailable, and so they upgraded us to a regular mini-van!  There would be plenty of room for our junk.

After lunch, we were on our way.  Steve did pretty well driving on the left side of the road while seated on the right.  We made really good time until we got north of Glasgow.  Apparently there had been a bad road accident and the main road north was entirely shut down…and had been that way for 3 hours already!  After sitting in some nasty traffic, Chris and I found a sneaky way over the mountain, and past the horrible backed up traffic.  It still took us two hours to maneuver around everything.  We had been only 30 miles away from our destination for TWO HOURS!! 

Our hotel for a night

Anyway, dinner because a stop at the Tesco express (much like a BP Amoco café).  We ate in the car, while trying to get up past Loch Lomond before the sun set.  So glad we got to see the beautiful drive.  We didn’t make it to the hotel until well after 9, but the sun doesn’t set until around 10:30 up here, so we still had plenty of time.  I only wish dinner had been at the Crainlarich Hotel and not the Tesco express.  Oh well, you can’t control the traffic.

Tomorrow, the Hogwarts Express!!