Tire Troubles and Eyemouth, Scotland

Monday, October 31 ~ by Amy

As we hauled our luggage out of the Nisbet's Tower into the chilly morning sunshine, I saw an elderly man by our car. He had two leashed dogs and seemed to be staring at our tire. As I approached, he asked where we were going. When I said that we were bound for Longhorsely, England, he told me that he would not recommend that I drive this car there as it had a crucial bulge in the left rear tire. He told us where there was a Quick Fit tire shop in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, only seven miles away that would check it out. We decided to go eat breakfast while we pondered what to do.

Nisbet's Tower (along with Gunsgreen House museum) is situated across the man made deep water harbor from the main town.

Eyemouth, Scotland ~ As seen from Nisbet's Tower

Assuming that I had probably already driven hundreds of miles on the damaged tire, we decided to chance a few more. Though the main town is just across the water, by car it's quite a distance. Being completely off-tourist season, we found a public lot with no problem. There was a sign stating a list of charges but we finally concluded that it cost nothing as long as we stayed within the marked spaces and didn't park in a handicap space. We then walked through a brick portal on onto the streets of this charming seaside town.

We walked through the charming old streets of Eyemouth, admiring the quaint buildings as we promised ourselves we'd come back after we ate breakfast and our tire was fixed.  

We walked to Oblo, the bar where we'd used the wifi the night before. As they opened at 11:00, we expected that we'd have to have a burger or something for breakfast but were pleasantly surprised to find that they had a great breakfast menu. I ordered hot chocolate and it came with a pile of marshmallows, a dusting of chocolate and a piece of tablet (a sweet confection, like brown sugar fudge). All the trimmings went a long way toward solving my tire problems, of course.

I chose eggs and bacon over new potatoes for my entree. Alyssa had a breakfast sandwich of scrambled eggs and bacon. The bacon is more like our ham, thinly sliced.

After breakfast we posted some cards from the very quaint post office and then walked down to the sea.  I wished that I could just sit on the shore and ignore my responsibilities. 

Swan parade, off the coast of Eyemouth, Scotland

The Gunsgreen House (or Smuggler's House) was a museum connected to the Nisbet's Tower where we stayed.  As guest's of Nisbet's, we were entitled to a free tour of the museum.  Alyssa had researched this place in advance so we knew that after today, they would be closed for the winter.  We've observed other places closing earlier than their posted hours if they don't get enough business so we decided to tour it before dealing with our tire.  You can read all about that in Alyssa's blog.

Entering the Smugglers House, we met the manager/curator, an elderly man named Tony.  He had been expecting us.  The first thing that I did was tell him all my anxiety about our tire.  He told us that there was a local shop that could look at my tire.  So we toured the museum as I decided what to do.  By the time we were out, I realized that since it was a rental car, I should follow their protocol.  Tony let me use the museum phone to contact EuropCar.  The first party I reached said that they would have to find a local garage to fix the tire because they aren't able to use Quick Fit.  They were to call me back in 45 minutes.  Tony put a few coins in a machine and made Alyssa a hot chocolate while I was on the phone.  Then they called back and I had to have Alyssa run out to the parking lot (which was not close by) to check if they had the lug nut set and tool required.  She found it and came running back with it in her pocket.  Then they called and asked about a spare tire so I went out and emptied all our luggage out into the parking lot.  The space below the hatchback decking was a gaping hole.   I was pretty discouraged as I trudged back into the museum.

Finally the decision was made that they wouldn't get the tire fixed at all since there was no spare available to fit the car.  Who knew?  I thought spares were just little donut things anyway.  I waited on hold for a while and when they came back on and said that it would be 1-1 1/2 hours until they could get a car from Edinburgh.  That was really not what I wanted to hear as we were now so far behind schedule.  I started to tear up.  Tony quietly said to Alyssa, "You are Christians, aren't you?  God promises to work everything for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose."  That was so touching to me that I started crying in earnest as I was trying to end the phone conversation.  Tony wasn't sure what to do since he now had two women sniffing and digging for tissues.  He told me that he was only trying to encourage.  I assured him that we were fine and then related about the two ladies that helped us make connections the night before and that I thought they might be angels.  I mean, why would they be sitting out there in a vacant, dark lot eating ice cream in the cold?

The truth is, Alyssa and I had been wanting to see the real Scotland...the people, and everyday life there, not just castles.  And that's exactly what God was working out for us.  It just wasn't the script I would have written.

We made arrangements for the rental company to call the Oblo bar when they were about 20 minutes away from Eyemouth.  We would walk to the Oblo and wait and eat supper if needed.  Bundled up against the cold, we said our thank yous to Tony and following his directions, took the walking bridge across the harbor and then through the stinky fishing area of the harbor.  At Oblo we explained things to the bartender.  He said not to worry, as Tony had called ahead.  He'd also paid for our choice of drinks on him.  So soon we were sitting with a warm cup of hot chocolate in front of each of us.  

An hour passed, and then two.  We ordered a dish of chicken risotto to share for supper. Finally the call came through that the rental car was already at Nisbet's House waiting for us.  We were frustrated that they hadn't given us the advanced notice that they promised but bundled up again and walked the 15 minutes back as quickly as we could.  We got there only to find that there was no one waiting for us.  We sat in the dark there for more than an hour before I decided that we'd just drive back to the Oblo.  Just as I put it in reverse, we saw headlights.  Sure enough, it was our replacement car!  The young driver told us that his GPS had taken him to another location (weird, since ours took us right there) and he'd been waiting every since.  Why he'd wait when he didn't see our car is beyond me.  He'd clearly been told that we were leaving the car in the lot.

But as my dad always used to say, "All's well that ends well"!  The replacement car was a Mercedes also but a nice compact car like I had originally ordered.  Soon, only 4 hours behind schedule, we were on our way to Longhorsely, England!