Chasing Shiny Pennies

Puffin Lodge. That’s why I rented this Airbnb. Puffins. I was certain that we would see them. 2 days before we were due to arrive, I found an article that laid out recent (?, to me at least) findings about puffin behavior. Apparently, everyone (I’m very certain all of you have been wondering) was curious about where the puffins disappeared to in the winter. It turns out that (off the coast of Maine at least) they disappear for 8 months a year and go ride the waves and rest 800 miles off shore in an area with an abundance of one of their favorite fishes, cod. Needless to say, we saw no puffins. We had an excellent time nonetheless.

Puffin Lodge. It’s a wonderful stay. Even without Puffins.

We did little or nothing here. We got to experience more frightening roads. We searched (in vain) for a laundry. Not really in vain, we found it, but we were on a street (alley?) that was home to many hidden shops and numerous vehicles parked in a higgeldy-piggledy fashion. And I wasn’t completely sure that I wasn’t driving the wrong way on a one-way street. At one point I said to Liz, “You get out, take the laundry, do you have cash, and I’ll park somewhere up there and wait.”. At that point, I had backed up several hundred feet from the laundry to allow another car to escaped the quagmire we had ventured into. “Ok”, she started to get out; “Not here, I’ll pull up.” So I pull up and we notice that there are bags of laundry (maybe?) in front of the door. We bailed. Then we moved on to the grocery store…….

Our hostess, Tina, was delightful and fun. Her father, Thomas J. Ford, is why we are here. I didn’t know that when I booked but… His J is for Joseph though.

I had a list of things to do. We didn’t do any of them. We ran into a neighbor couple while out walking one morning. They were putting out their trash and recycling and we got to talking. Liz asked if we could walk “..down there.” pointing to a hill to the right of an intersection we were at. The lady looked at Liz and said “Well, you can if you want to…..” (in an Irish accent!!). That was delivered with a backward step and a clutch of her husband’s arm (not really, but kinda). Her husband suggested going to Slieve League. It was on our list. He said “You’d be a fool to come here and not visit Slieve League.”. Count us as fools. It was my plan for the next day but that evening I began getting second-hand badgering about blog updates. I knew I’d been absent. I was having such an excellent time driving though. So I was up until 3 am updating the blog. I had the damn page created and edited in short order. I spent a lot of time getting it published. There’s a publish button, you click it, it says published. But, no. There is an arcane series of other buttons that you have to click (in the correct order) so it actually gets published. It’s a touch hard at 3 am to retain that knowledge. I’m certain that next time, the same thing will happen. I’m counting on muscle memory taking over at some point. I went to bed. Liz got up. She was certain her contacts were in. She struggled for some time trying to get them out. Then she gave up and came to bed.

It turns out that Liz’s contacts were not in, she just thought that she was seeing too well and assumed that they were. The accomplishment I felt after finally figuring out how to allow comments on the blog was quickly extinguished by Denis when he was unable to post a comment So I fixed it. But only after we both rolled out at 1 pm. It’s a little hard to get much accomplished after that. So that’s what we got done. Zip.

We went and had a nice dinner for Valentines Day and then went back home and sat in front of a fire. Tomorrow we leave for Burren in County Clare. The county is important because there are 3 towns named Burren here. Fortunately, not all in the same county.

We hit the road by 11 am, stopped at a gas station with outdoor washers and dryers. When we finished some of the clothes weren’t completely dry so we draped them over the back seat. Then we hit the road again. We had about 3 1/2 hours to our next destination. I was not at all enthused about this drive. I mean the roads are one thing, however, here is what I discovered last night…….

It’s a long story. Sorry. When we arrived at the airport in Dublin, we sat for a minute while I looked at rental car prices. I hadn’t made a reservation before we left because it irritates me that everyone is offering non-refundable prices slightly cheaper than partially or fully refundable prices. Like Larry, Darrell and Darrell said, anything for a buck. Well, that and the ear thing. So anyway, I’m checking prices, Liz is wondering why we’re not on the road yet, and I found pricing from Expedia. Normally I don’t use org’s like that. If something goes south, with either your schedule, or flights, or really anything. you’re dealing with Expedia and not the company providing the product or service. Good luck with that. I figured I’m two steps from the Avis counter, what can go wrong between here and there. So I pulled the trigger, rented from Expedia, and go to the Avis counter to score my most excellent deal. The rental agent finds the reservation and that’s when I asked him about the insurance that I’d purchased as part of the excellent (no longer most) deal. I asked what the liability was for the car. 27,000 euros. If the car gets totaled we get hit for 27K and then we wrangle with the second party insurer for reimbursement. You know as well as I do how fun that would be. I thought about the hours of entertainment we’d have….. so I chatted with the rental agent a bit more, exploring options. I decided to rent from Avis, Buy the insurance AND excess coverage insurance (for a lot more) then I’d cancel the Expedia order (it actually was refundable, I’m not sure how that one slipped through the cracks). So I rented the car, went and woke Liz and then wandered around the rental lot for a good half hour to work the kinks out from the long flight.

When we got to Ballyliffin that afternoon, got unloaded and checked in, ate and had a drink in hand, I checked the credit card, sure enough, the Avis charge is pending but nothing from Expedia. I thought maybe the Avis charge preempted the Expedia charge. But the insurance through Expedia was also pending. I thought “I’ll give it a couple days to work itself out.”. There’s that eternal spring of hope again. At some point that’ll dry up, I’m pretty sure. Not that day though. Then we got busy (see previous postings). See how professional this has become. I’m providing written links to previous posts (I haven’t figured out how to do embedded links yet). It’s all about driving the traffic folks. I’ll be on easy street tomorrow.

So anyway, we got busy and I didn’t check again until the morning we were leaving Ballyliffin for Puffin Lodge. That’s when I discovered that the pending Avis charges had magically disappeared. I was driving, so I couldn’t deal with it on the way to see the puffins. Liz gets in the cargo compartment and sleeps the whole way. It’s got an automatic cover so she’s not disturbed at all, it’s like blackout curtains for your luggage (or Liz). We arrived at Puffin Lodge, got unloaded, and settled in. Then I forgot about the whole mess again. Until this morning. I think it’s a whole subconscious avoidance thing. Liz was no help with counseling either, she’s in back sleeping. The only charge on the card is for the 2nd party insurance policy.

My guess at this point is that we’re been driving a car that has been reported as stolen, missing, the disappearance is still being investigated, or Avis provided it gratis due to my charming ways. Whatever, we’re covered insurance wise (it’ll just require many, many phone hours). I’m thinking our best move is to hope we don’t damage this most faithful car, do what we have planned down south, abandon the car in Cork, and take the train back to Dublin for the Lucinda Williams concert. Then blow town.

Published, and it’s only 12:45. Sweet.