Thursday with the car

My aunt and uncle came to visit for a long weekend, arriving Thursday morning and leaving Monday. They were en route from the Philippines, where they had spent the last 18 months serving as church missionaries. I figured that in the spirit of celebrating their arrival from tropics to winter, we should all drive south to Philip Island to see the penguins climb up the beach in the cold.

So I booked a car for the Thursday they arrived. It was my first time using the car share program that I had signed up for soon after deciding to buy a car. I didn't buy a car. Tim talked me into trying car share first. But I haven't needed it yet. Until my aunt and uncle came to visit. The plan was to leave soon after they showed up from the airport, spend the afternoon checking out the harbor where we saw the large sting rays a couple of years ago, hike around the cliffs at the far end of the island, then watch the penguins at dusk. Which is just 5:00pm in the winter. Maybe grab fish and chips before the drive home. Doesn't that sound like a lovely winter afternoon to you?

But my aunt and uncle's plane was delayed. When we realized they wouldn't arrive for two more hours, Jonathan and I went out to try the car, and to pick up some groceries before they arrived. But for some reason, my card didn't unlock the doors on the car share car. I tried several times, then finally looked up the company phone number and called.

The lady at the end of the line tried to help me out. She was able to unlock the car remotely, and asked me to find a replacement card in the glove box. There was no replacement card in the glove box. She apologized, and directed me to a different car, parked not right outside my door, but on the other side of the park. Jonathan and I headed across the park.

Fifteen minutes later, I couldn't get into the new car either. My access card didn't work. This time, the kind lady speaking to me on the phone helped me find a replacement card, and 90 minutes after our reservation began, we were finally off to the grocery store around the corner. Finally!

Except the gas gauge showed low fuel. The previous driver was supposed to leave the tank at least a quarter full. It was about 1/8 full. So we stopped at a gas station first. The gas card provided, the one that we were supposed to use to pay for fuel, didn't work. I tried it twice. So I used my own card, saved the receipt to mail back later....

And then we were off! 

Only the traffic on Commercial Road was pretty much stuck, moving nowhere. So we were pretty much stuck. We inched along, wondering if we should try to turn back, but finally made it to the grocery store. Paid $1.50 for parking. Picked up groceries! Decided to get two extra toilet paper packages because we had a car! We wouldn't have to walk home with it. Somehow forgot in the mean time that we had been switched to the car on the opposite side of the 100 acre park. Woops. We did have to walk home.

Tim texted that the aunt and uncle had arrived. Where were we? Um, trying to drive home? [Edit: Jonathan received the text, not me, as I was driving.] A little while later, parked back on the side of the park, I texted Tim. Come now with the rolling grocery bag. We need help carrying things back.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, Tim appeared, with my aunt and uncle meandering along behind him. My aunt was dressed in a light skirt and sweater, my uncle in a regular suit. They looked cold.

So we abandoned the penguin idea. Instead, we took a tram to the city centre, to a charity shop there, and purchased warm jackets. And then it was dusk, and aunt and uncle confessed they were exhausted -- even though they weren't traveling from across an entire ocean, they had still booked the red-eye flight. Early night.

Friday morning, with a few hours left on my car share booking, we drove 30 minutes to a nearby park to see where the bats roost.

So we had a successful adventure with the car after all. Kind of.