After the goodbyes at the Gathering, we went on to Darvel, a small vilage outside Glasgow--about a 4 hour and arrived at Gowanbank just in time to get ready and go to church at Darvel Gospel Hall. It was great to be reunited with our friends and our "Scottish family" the Smiths there. We got a great surprise when Jimmy & Janet Milne showed up at church, having driven in from Ayr to have dinner afterwards at Gowanbank.
01/02/10
After a lazy day around the fire catching up with the Smiths, we drove the rental into Glasgow to meet up with my friend Anne. I met Anne at a car show in North Carolina a few years ago and when I heard her Glasgwegian accent, we talked about her hometown a bit. Kind of random, huh? Anyway, we've kept in touch and she has since moved back to Scotland. We met up at the Universal where I pigged out on this creamy pasta with lots of bacon and Randy had a few pints. It was gloomy and rainy just like you'd expect from Glasgow and we were happy to see that we hadn't lost our downtown Glasgow sense of direction. In fact, I think I might do better than here in Denver sometimes.
When we got back to Darvel, I got a headache and Randy went to the next village of Newmilns to reconnect with our friend Mathew Smith (not related to the Smiths of Gowanbank). Since we last saw Mathew, he has gotten married and become a father. For his honeymoon, he and his wife went to see U2. He's pretty fanatical about U2 and we can't wait to take him to Red Rocks. They are saving up to get here.
02/02
Another great laid back day at Gowanbank. Randy went back to see Mathew and he discovered that our rental car had a dent on the driver's side--something that might have happened while we were parked in the busy Glasgow streets the day prior? We were not happy as we did not have the full coverage and worried that it would cost us a small fortune despite it being very hard to see.
In the evening, we went over to Chris & Elaine Smith's (the oldest Smith son) home for dinner with the "kids." Chris & Elaine have continued to have kids since we left, and the house is now full of laughter and toys. Callum and his wife Zara have gotten married and taken a year to travel the world since we were last here, and we gave them endless grief for driving through Utah rather than Colorado. They didn't really know their geography enough to realize how close they were to us. :( Lorraine has also married since we were last in Scotland. She & her husband Al (who we knew before) were also at dinner playing aunt & uncle to the little ones. It was so fun to see how time has marched on in such good directions for all of them.
03/02
The last remaining Smith child at home is Kellianne and we got more time to see her at the house since we were staying there. She has started working at a cafe in Kilmarnock (15 minutes away) and we got to stop in and see her the next day on our way out of town.
We woke up to a bit of snow and the reality that our rental car was being turned in and we'd have to see what the damages came to. Those of you who know me know that I am a fastidious budgeter so going over budget on vacation was not in my plan and I didn't like it at all.
When we got to Prestwick Airport, I grabbed the paperwork to turn the car in and noticed that there was a pen mark right where the damage was! Maybe it wasn't us after all... The agent informed us after an inspection that the damage had indeed been there prior to our posession of the teeny weeny rental car, and we were in the clear. Hooray.
We left the airport and spent the afternoon in Ayr with Jimmy & Janet Milne who stuffed us with a great meal and good Scotch. Janet gave me a lesson on how to cook salmon and helped Randy to rearrange his carry-on situation to comply with the strict Ryanair regulations. Jimmy dropped us at the airport and we took the late night flight to Dublin. For some reason, we failed to take a picture of them. Here is a "stock photo" of Jimmy & Janet from a previous trip.
Before catching the flight, we spotted our favorite beer at the airport bar. It was more like a convenience store with restaurant seating just around the corner, and we were charged €3 extra to "sit in" despite there really being no other option. Still, worth it. Innis & Gunn is fantastic.
Our first Ryanair experience was just fine thanks to our studious reading of the fine print. I know people have had nightmares on the airline so I just want to say we had an ontime flight and managed to avoid the extra fees. I was not happy with all the advertising on the plane--scratch and win tickets, overpriced food, and more were peddled to us while we sat there trapped and helpless thousands of feet above the ground (or sea).
We picked up a rental car in Dublin, which I spent extra on to spring for TOTAL coverage and an automatic transmission. Randy heartily approved of this budget deviation since I would be doing all the driving for the next week. After nearly getting hit by a semi for driving on the wrong side of the road (there's my investment paying off!) I got the hang of the thing, and got us safely to the Travelodge where we booked two nights at €19 a night.
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