FW: Your Overdue Alamo rental

So my first thought when I read that was you have GOT to be kidding me right??? RIGHT????? So... I get an email from Alamo saying... "Please contact me ASAP with your plans for returning or extending your contract.  You were due to return the car in Dallas two days ago". You can imagine my joy and delight at reading that... um not. I sent the guy back a reply asking him to clarify as my paperwork is all in order and not due to expire til 1 April blah de blah. So I ring him this morning and he asks if he could call me back in 45 mins as he's out of the office. Cool, no problemo.

45 mins goes past. 1 hour and 45 mins goes past and I call him back and we go over the story of what happens and I hear him typing away and I give him my reservation numbers and do si do he says he's going to need to look into it and call me back later in the afternoon. oooohkay.....

So later on in the afternoon he does ring me (10 points for him). We talk about the situation again and I give him the sortof short rundown of what happened in total because as far as I'm concerned, as the customer, I paid for 6 months in advance and all this other bullshit is none of my concern and they should get their shit together! Not that I said that mind you.... I was polite and diplomatic :) But gave him some more RA numbers and he's going to talk to the lady that I dealt with that said that everything should be fine til the return to Dallas on 1 April. I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have picked that date as it seems to be a lil fuckered.

So it was at least positive in that it seems like he's looking into it and seems genuinely sympathetic and investigating this nightmare. He's sposed to call me tomorrow after talking to the lady so keep your fingers x-ed for me...... PLEASE cross them right now and offer up some good luck thoughts to me if you don't mind me asking for them. Thanks, I owe you one :))))

Crowders Mountain, North Carolina

Took a hike, well more like a stroll, around the lake at Crowders Mountain the day before yesterday while the weather was so nice. It's been a bit stormy since I got back from OBX so it was nice to take a Sunday stroll in the sunshine. Just thought I'd share the couple of pics I took. The first one I recommend clicking on as it's gorgeous in the full view if I do say so myself :)

There's an active beaver in the area

see?

More beaver evidence

Aquarium and the Beach - Roanoke Island & Nags Head, North Carolina

Took a trip to the little aquarium which was on Roanoake Island which is on the way back to the mainland. There was a historic colony that I wanted to see but it was closed for the season. There were a lot of things that were closed for the season as the Outer Banks really is a summer town based on tourists coming to hang out. Not much to do in winter but still a great trip.

Sculpture outside the aquarium

aaaagh croc!!

cute lil sleeping otters

these turtles were pretty cute, there's one who had his snout in the air all snobby like

uhhhh it's a what?

the petting pool

I just love how the octopus has his own toys :)

This is a skate! sample of the eggs next to it like the ones I found on the beach in the first post :)

and ditto the Whelk egg casing

SHAWK!!!! if I could work out how to post video I'll post the shark vids as they're great

This was a pretty neat exhibit about Jupiter and the movie was all projected on the ball in the centre.

giant dinosaur shark tooth

This was the view from the balcony of the last place I stayed. It was literally on the beach and just fantastic.

I had the top left room

At first I thought it was a shark but worked out that it was dolphins in the waves :) I couldn't get many good shots but you get the gist

Sunset on the last night at OBX.... ahhhhhhh :)

And then got up at sparrows the next day and drove 6 hours home. Looooooong drive that's for sure and it was great to get back!

The lighthouse tour - Outer Banks, North Carolina (pt3)

Headed on through the dunes down to Ocracoke lighthouse

This was the guard dog at the Ocracoke lighthouse that was pointedly ignoring me.... some guard dog sheesh

cold old house next to the lighthouse

Ocracoke Lighthouse

cute donation box

There wasn't much open at the time and it was also getting late so I headed back to the ferry. On the way back to the ferry port there is a stop half way through the dunes where the rangers have fenced off the whole north side of the island because of the wild Steamer horses who were getting run over by tourists. Now they gather there in the afternoon to be fed treats by the Rangers who also check on their health etc. It was pretty wild weather and I'd missed the main feeding but there were a few stragglers.

The Pony Pen... can you see the horses waaaaaaay over there?

as close up as I could get

And then had to wait for the return ferry home which was another amazing trip as it was all in the dark. Interesting to see how they navigate and they had a massive spotlight swiveling around. After an hour and a half drive home back up the island, had dinner at the most amazing diner called The Kill Devil Grill - check out the photo gallery on their website http://www.thekilldevilgrill.com/  They had really great food at decent prices and was a neat old diner and not only that but was just across the road from the hotel yaaay!