We rented a van so we could drive down to Kilkenny Castle, Waterford, and see the Irish coast. Unfortunately, about 30km outside of Dublin, this happened to us (and I swear I had a premonition just moments before):
Yep, the tire just decided to separate from the rim. And to add insult to injury, we were in the middle of nowhere on the M7, kind of an Irish autobahn. Luckily, we happened to pull over near an SOS terminal, where all of us could hide behind a guardrail while we waited for help. To be clear, this sucked.
Our rental company, Sixt, was unbelievably unhelpful - when I called them, they just told me to change the tire. Problem was, cars were hurtling by, and more importantly, our little Ford Max didn't come with a spare tire -- just a "tire inflation kit", which is useless when the tire is off the rim! Where's a Chevy when you need one???
Luckily, American Express came to the rescue (I could get used to this concierge service!) and called out a truck to help us. The driver was the nicest guy. He loaded up the car on the truck, us into the car (!), and drove us to Naas, where the really nice folks at the tire store stayed open to put a new tire on the van, for the low low price of EUR 167. Wyatt thought it was so cool that I could drive without touching the steering wheel.
So, we didn't get to Kilkenny, but we had a decent dinner in Naas at Winning Post:
We limped back to Dublin, and will try again tomorrow, vacation gods willing.
Three cheers for Amex, and a pox on Sixt car rental (I can't wait to battle it out with them for the new tire I bought them).
6 comments:
Well David, this is what to much Guinness do !
What a good story teller you are, you are like your father !
You made my evening and I will go to bed smiling with great admiration to Sharon & the Kiddies and the Irish people.
Go back to either Diet Coke or Kronenbourg. We love you all !
Awful! Not surprising though - driving on the left on those narrow Irish country roads seemed to cause lots of problems with that left front tire...We got a small "bruise" on ours when we were driving there and had to pay Avis for a new tire[and AMEX coverage doesn't cover this in Ireland, for the reason above.] Whoever rented your car before you must have knocked it good... Glad "concierge" paid off at last - wise counsel from Doug. And especially glad all OK!
this is day 4th, you are late in your report by 21', unacceptable ! Please more & more stories & pictures.
Are you heading off to Edimburgh demain ?
Today, I went shopping for "The Sunday after", and tomorrow I will avoid the banks.. We are getting more and more exited, tell the Kiddies it's going to be "mad house in Machault" free every thing for them here !!!
Put your awesome letter-writing skills to the test, just like when you had to take our college landlord to task for his various shenanigans.
no blog & no pictures this morning ? maybe this evening, but it's already 11PM, 1 hour to go...
Left you a message earlier at the Prices suites, pas d'urgence, just to find out how things were.
Enjoy the day tomorow and have a safe train trip to London.
PS: are you meeting Doms &/or Chris while in London ?
Love from La France !
We are all waiting for the latest update to your travels! Looking forward to seeing more pictures.
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