Tuesday 28 June 2011

Transit is GO



This is what we did last weekend; we rented a van and moved stuff.  I helped my other half move out of her old house.  We like Enterprise since they usually give us a good deal and they seem like they have their heads screwed on right.  So, we booked a little station wagon, (in Ireland they call them Estate Wagons) for 28 euro a day.  We took the bus into the center of town and walked through a sketchy area called Mountjoy Park, over to an enormous sports complex called Croke Park.  I guess that is where they have soccer and Irish Hurling matches.  (No, Irish hurling is not what you do after drinking too much at the pub.  haha)

So, we arrived at noon as our reservations stated, and there was no little station wagon.  The folks at Enterprise were very apologetic; the previous renter had not returned it yet.  Would we like a larger van?  Er... yeah, fine.  We walked outside.  Holy crap!  This thing was a monster truck.  Well, ok it was just a Ford Transit van but it was a really enormous Ford Transit van.  You could fit the planet Mercury in the back and still have room for a Space Shuttle or two.

This was my first experience at driving since arriving in Ireland.  Allll rightie then:

Transfer is complete on an internal power with the launch vehicle.

Second stage tanks now pressurised. We are still go with Transit.

Guidance is internal, ignition sequence starts, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero


All engines running, LIFTOFF. We have a liftoff.

Liftoff on Transit Van.

Dublin, this is Transit.  Tower cleared.

Oh, I should mention that when we got the van there was an enormous scrape on the left side.  The previous renter had grossly misjudged the size of the vehicle and whomped a telephone pole pretty good.  The agent at Enterprise told me (with a pleading look in his eyes) "Just take your turns pretty wide, alright?"

3 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a LARGE van! Good thing that the folks at Enterprise already knew about the scrape/dent so that you would not be suspected and charged for it. I bet you were able to make fewer trips with all the stuff since the van was so big! *sillysally*, (one of your mom's blog followers).

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  2. Heh heh, that was my first reaction when I saw the van, "Holy crap... That's a big van...". Still, it did the job we wanted it to do and now I'm all moved out of the other house. Yay!

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  3. Yeah, it really felt like I was in charge of the Saturn V launch, just getting it out of the parking lot. Remember, this is a new country with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the van, and driving on the other side of the road. I eventually got used to it though. Haha, every time I took a turn successfully, I would look at GrumpyOldLady and say, "Like a boss!" By the way, we *did* get our deposit back. As they say in The Who, "YEEEEAAAAAAAUUUUHHHHHH!"

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