Renting the car

I've tried to take care of all the paper work ahead of time so there will be no surprises but things are different in the U.K.  You can only reserve the car, not pay for it ahead of time.  The instructions are that you will be charged when you return the car.  I pick a car rental agency that says it's at the airport to avoid riding the shuttle to get the car.  No such luck.  The kiosk is at the airport.  You do have to ride the shuttle to get the car, and what is worse no one is at the kiosk.  Just instruction on a posted card telling you to catch the bus shuttle to the car rental agency.  I had the approximate price the car should be along with the make and model we wanted all written down, so that is what saved us.  The guy at the agency was so nice.  He looked at our luggage and decided we would need more room.  He looked at where we were going and decided we needed a more fuel efficient car.  He also decided we need diesel instead of gas, since that would be much cheaper.  Then he showed me the price in pounds.  I asked him to please print that out in American dollars and nearly fell out when he showed me the bottom line.  Over $600 dollars more than what it should have been.  I told him that was way over budget and he needed to start all over again from scratch.  I don't know if it was because I was super tired and frustrated or if he really was becoming less friendly by the moment, but one thing I did know what that price and that car wasn't going to happen!  So we started over.  Since Earl was the primary driver the credit card had to be one that had his name on it.  In my haste to get things ready I had neglected to take a card that was in his name, so I had to be added as a secondary driver.  That move cost us an extra $200 so I guess that made the nice gentleman somewhat happier and it taught me something important.  I already knew that, but I had just forgotten.  At any rate, we did manage to get the car and get out of the rental car lot and headed north without too much more trouble....Here we go...Traveling up the motorway toward Cumbria...driving most of the day in the rain on the left side of the road.  Are we having fun yet.  No, I don't think so...but hoping it will improve soon.  We arrive at the Cumbria Grand Hotel around four o'clock after a little trouble finding the place....but we are here. To say we are tired, stressed, and worse for wear would be the understatement of the year.  And at this point we are wondering why we ever decided to do this.   Today is Tuesday, March 25, 2014.  Third leg of our U.K. adventure...