Potholes--1 Stevie--0

Today was shall we say, an unexpected adventure. The kind you really are not thinking you are going to have, nor do you really want to have. However, in the end the kind that ends up OK and a story to tell everybody.

We left the little Isle of Iona today right on time on the passenger ferry and picked up our car on the other side where we had left it. We then headed across the island toward the last ferry we needed to take over to the mainland before heading to Glasgow to catch our flight to Belfast. 

It was rainy but overall things were going well, except we had just commented on the fact that people didn't seem to be using the "pull over places" and "giving way" as well as normal today. You see over here the roads are all pretty much one lane and then there are pull over places where you give way when you see someone coming. Today however oncoming traffic just kept coming which left you going off the side of the road....often into...potholes.

Well...after dodging potholes in good ole' WV for 55 years Stevie had to come to good ole' Scotland to have one take her out. Stevie went to give way to someone who didn't pull over and well...meet the pot hole who gave us a flat tire!

It doesn't even look that big compared to some I have seen in Preston County!

So there we were in the absolute middle of nowhere getting ready to change a flat and GUESS WHAT? Rentals in Scotland don't have spare tires due to liability issues! Ugh! We had a ferry to catch! Well thank goodness I had cell service so I called the Enterprise Roadside Service.  She asked where I was and I did the best I could to explain where I was. She said that it wasn't good enough she needed a landmark.....a landmark? Well, there is the ocean on one side of me and a field of sheep on the other. I haven't seen any other landmark in miles. I was finally able to tell her the last "village" we had passed through 5 miles before.

She was sending someone but at this point we both knew that our hopes of catching the ferry and thus our flight were pretty much zero. (At this point I would like to throw in here that I did NOT have a breakdown as I am sure 99% of you are thinking happened. However, I did tell Stevie I needed her to just "be quiet" so I could think.) I called the ferry and got us re-booked on a later ferry and called the airline and got us re-booked on the first flight out tomorrow. All was well, except we were waiting and hoping that they would be able to fix our tire. 

That is when we met Stuart....

Stuart came with his flatbed and saved the day!!! He threw that car up on the back an off we went. First let me tell you Stuart doesn't "give way" for anyone! Stevie and I learned a lot about Stuart's auto shop on our ride. Like it is owned by his 80 year old father and he carries over 100 tires because well busted tires are a thing here!

 

See what fun we are having?

We got back to the garage (which was about as out in the middle of nowhere as we were when we hit the pothole).

Then Stuart fixed the tire in no time at all! Then we were off again!

We made it to ferry with so much time to spare that we had ourselves an impromptu picnic!

Then our ferry was insight and coming for us!

We loaded and were on our way!

It was an exciting adventure, but we are hoping for less excitement tomorrow!