Leaving Dartmoor & Continuing On

This morning we left Dartmoor which ended the first part of our trip. We were all up early trying to get things packed and loaded into the van. We also had our last breakfast from Mark & Jackie and thanked them profusely for all they did for us this past week. At 9:30am we were off as we waved goodbye to Blackadon Cottages. The drive to London was pretty uneventful - we only made a couple of bathroom stops and had some lunch along the way. As we got closer to Heathrow the traffic started to back up and it took us a while to reach the car rental return place. When we finally reached the office we parked and unloaded the vans and the car rental guys inspected the vans. Unfortunately they found a dent on the van Thomas was driving that wasn't marked on the check out sheet. We know Thomas didn't hit anything so we probably just missed it when we picked up the vans - there were damages and scratches all along the side where they found the dent.  The group needed to get to the airport to make their flight home so Thomas and I dealt with the issue. We told everyone goodbye and we told Mark P. that we would deal with this and get back to him. The employees were adamant that we had to pay for the damages and unfortunately there was no insurance taken out on the vans. The vans were paid for under Mark P.'s credit card but Thomas had to put a security deposit on the van he was driving, so now he is liable. We decided to dispute the charge and Thomas marked all pages with "Dispute" on them and asked for copies. We finished with this issue and then moved on to the rental car we had reserved for the next two days. We almost decided to skip the car and take a train to Brighton but we decided since we were here to just take the car. This time we inspected the car with a fine tooth comb and marked every little thing. We ended up with a yellow, four door Fiat with manual transmission. Before leaving the car rental place we pulled into a parking spot and called our credit card company. We reported everything that had happened and they marked it on our record. They couldn't actually do anything since it was the weekend and the charge was only pending at this time. They told us to call on Friday when we return home and they would help us out.

So we put this incident behind us and headed out to Brighton. We had gotten a GPS for the trip just to make it easier to get to where we wanted to be. So I entered the address for our hotel in Brighton and we were on our way. Thomas did great driving the car (even though it was a stick shift) since it was a lot smaller and easier to maneuver than the large van he had been driving all week. The drive was about an hour and a half but it wasn't until after 5:00pm when we arrived in Brighton. Dealing with the car rental place ended up taking a lot of time. After parking the car we checked into our hotel (Premier Inn) in the city center of Brighton. Once we were settled we called our friends and they came to the hotel to see us and we headed out for dinner. We (Julie, Amy, Alex, Lousha & Lola and Thomas & I) walked a few blocks to Preto. This is one of those Brazilian grills where they bring meat to the table and they have a large salad bar. It was really good and it gave us a chance to talk and catch up with everyone. By the time we ate, talked and walked back to the hotel it was around 10:00pm and Thomas and I were very tired. So we made plans to meet up again tomorrow morning and then said goodnight.

It was a long day today and we are both exhausted. We did a lot of driving and dealt with some traffic and issues but it was wonderful to see Julie and her family. Hopefully we will sleep well so that we can have a great day tomorrow with our friends.