MOVING DAY

Unlike Saturday on the PGA, we are actually moving today.  Our time at the Portmarnock Hotel and Jameson Links has passed and we are on our way to Donegal…..our golf home away from home Rosapenna.  Along the way we have decided to take Sibylle to Cruit Island, home to a very unique 9 hole course, home to what is billed as the best Par 3 in the World!………NOT……… which we played on our first trip to Donegal, and always wanted to play again.  It is located on the west coast about an hour drive south of Rosapenna, and is actually an island accessed by a short bridge from the mainland……..home to many seasonal residences, and I’m guessing many fewer permanent homes.  The road in is very tight, and becomes single track for a good portion of the way, and you end up actually driving through the golf course to get to the clubhouse.  We get saddled up and are on our way……..wind howling, but the starter tells us there is just a slight “breeze” out there.  The course is all we remembered it to be, with blind shots, and angles to play that you just can’t imagine…….many of the paths are covered in astroturf which would maybe seem like an expensive proposition, but once the lines start showing up here and there, you realize this is a repurposed soccer field……….brilliant! I think we all enjoyed it, but local knowledge is key if you would ever hope to play well at Cruit…….today was just survival.

With the round over, we load up the car and head out……..I can only advise, that when driving on the single track roads you must be 100% attentive at all times, especially when there is oncoming traffic.  I think I blinked once too often and clipped a small rock outcrop on the side of the road…….pretty good contact with the wheel rim which blew out the front drivers side tire and left me almost immobile.  I was able to drive it to a parking area about thirty yards away and got out to survey the damage……..hoping I could just change the wheel and be on my way, but unfortunately it looked more serious than that.  

This is where that famous Irish hospitality kicked in.  I flagged down a commercial van, and Michael, I think and electrical contractor, was most helpful calling a tire guy in the area……..remember this is Donegal……..in the area meant about a half hour away.  That fella couldn’t come so Michael had him call someone else, who called us back and said he could be there in an hour.  Michael said to walk up around the corner to the Viking House Hotel, an older hotel that had been refurbished and reopened a shot time ago.  The tire guy would meet us there. Very special that he would take that time and make those calls for us.

At the Viking, we were greeted by Fin, one half of the husband/wife ownership team and he was eager to hear our story, but first, he realized the ladies needed an immediate glass of wine, and I needed a pint.  Once all was laid on the table he set about making calls on our behalf to Budget Rent a Car so I could report the accident, and when he and I decided it would be best to have the ladies transported to Rosapenna by cab, he was on the phone to one of only two taxis that were relatively close to us…….”Paki” I kid you not, said he would be there shortly for the pick-up, and yes he was from Pakistan, and he was a wonderful guy, dropping the goats at Rosapenna just over an hour later.  Tire guy, “Darren” showed up, removed the wheel and installed a new tire right there on the side of the road, but said he didn’t think there was any way I was driving that car farther than around the corner to Fin’s parking lot.  Amazing that there was no damage to the body of the car…….literally just nicked the wheel and blew it up. He was right……..more damage than what we initially saw.  Next on the agenda was getting me mobile……..remember this is Donegal……..the closest place I would even have a slim chance of getting another car would be at Donegal airport a half hour away, but when Fin called the rental car dealer there, he was already gone……..but……….Fin had seen a Europecar sign on a building in a nearby town (can’t remember the name) and knew the fella that owned the business.  Everybody knows everybody around here.  He called him and low and behold he had an SUV that he could deliver to me at the hotel in about an hour when he closed up the shop…….absolutely amazing.  I am back on the road, and can’t thank that man enough…….what a star he was.  My drive up to Rosapenna began at dusk, and then the lights went out totally………man, does it get black out here……..zero lights of any kind, and still on skinny roads.  Maps and the nav system got me home safely, but what a day! 

Jutta is still awake and waiting for me at Rosapenna in our favourite room, 417, the same one we have had for three years.  Quick nightcap before hitting the sack…….tee time on Old Tom Morris tomorrow morning.