Aventuras en Melbourne
Part IX, Returning the Hired Car
Since our issues with a rental seemed to be never-ending, it’s only fitting that it was no picnic to take back the car. Does that surprise you? I know it shouldn’t have surprised us, but yet....

We took the right exit and searched the road for the correct number. We finally found it, but the rental agency was no longer at the address on the business card we had. We stopped at a hotel to use the pay phone. It was broken. When we asked if there were a phone we could use (and we offered to pay for the call), we were told there was nothing at the hotel and that we need to go to a milk bar down the road. Um, what’s a milk bar? As time ticked away, we drove down the street and saw a Mobile station. Hard left into the parking lot and quickly to the pay phone. We called the number on the card, a man answered, and I explained the situation. He figured out where we were (turned out to be just around the corner from the agency’s current location) and said that he driving and would come get us so that we could follow him back. It turned out to be our friend Mark. And the story has a happy ending: we made our plane.