A little miscommunication can lead to misunderstandings. Some of those are serious. Some are funny in retrospect. Lucky for us it was the latter.
We were, as usual, a bit late getting underway for a busy day but what the heck. Olivia and I were by the car and Braden asked if I was ready to lock up and get going. Of course I was. I thought he had the key in his hand. He thought I'd already put it in my purse. So what? So he closed the door, locking it securely. The key was even more secure inside, on the kitchen counter. We were outside.
Just about the same time, our host/landlord came up to say hello. What do you say after you say "hello"? You say, we're locked out. John said it was no problem he'd just go and get the spare key. After bringing the wrong key first, he returned with the right one, but couldn't open the door.
This door has a Yale lock with a little "button" on the inside to insure that it stays either open or locked. I'm not sure how we managed to leave that button in the locked position, but we did.
Picture this - a cottage with one entrance. Keys are useless because of this lock. The only way in seemed to be to break a window to gain access. Before doing that, John decided to check the bedroom windows and fortunately mine was unlocked and could be opened from outside. Olivia was the only one small enough to get through and unlock the door from the inside. It was no small feat to get through a small opening, onto a windowsill, then lower herself to the floor which was approximately 5 feet below. She is 5 feet tall. I'll have to get a copy of the photographic evidence of the contortions.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly aside from a couple of wrong turns. The GPS voice was a bit late a couple of times, advising me when to turn. So, we ended up seeing streets we should never have even known about. These streets, mostly 2-way, are about wide enough for 1 1/2 cars. Along one side, you could usually find a row of parked cars. There was nothing to do but pretend I was threading a needle with a vehicle I've come to despise. It has too many darn fancy useless features.
The feature that has come to terrify me, is its insistence on determining when to put on the high beams. The low beams are not aligned, the left one illuminates about 40 feet ahead and the right one about 20 feet. Driving at night on the narrow twisting roads has become scary. There often seems to be no reason for the high beams to dim to a point where it's hard to see where we're going. It does dim the lights perfectly when a car is approaching head on. It is tardy, however, in returning to high beams. Sometimes it just doesn't do it. Sometimes it goes from high to low just to annoy me. Arrggh.
Tomorrow before leaving, we will have to search for a possible adjustment to the alignment. Fingers crossed that we can find the right button or knob. Otherwise our adventures will be limited to the daylight hours.
Oh yes, and we saw Kilkenny Castle, the Rock of Cashel and a bit of downtown Waterford. I have not checked the pedometer but if I didn't get in more than my 10K steps I'm going to assume it's out of order. At "the Rock" those steps were steeply uphill, followed of course by steeply down. I'm expecting great looking calf muscles by the weekend.
After dinner in Waterford, we drove back to our base. We visited the Byrnes at the Rocktavern and caught up on their news, and of course sampled Ann's wonderful apple pie. Then we managed not to get lost, returning to Egan's where we joined Jim for a pint.
Safely back in the cottage now, it's very late so we've decided not to put ourselves through the misery of rising to an alarm, but we'll get a leisurely start on the drive to Galway. Fatigue is creeping up fast so I'll call it a day now.
Wifi is still too slow for pictures. We're hoping for something much faster in Galway.
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