Follow-up to the Irish bus driver

In 2003 my roommate from Spain and I did a tour of the "British Isles" though I found out later I was using the wrong label for our trip through England, Ireland, and Scotland. We took a bus tour on a rainy morning to the cliffs of Moher, stopping at various stone ruins and natural caves along the way.

It poured and poured all day until the instant we pulled up to the cliffs. Suddenly, the sun broke out and for the next 30 minutes we had sunshine (with unfortunately still-slippery rocks my roommate slipped and sprained her ankle on) for our time at the famous and fabulous cliffs. Our bus driver assured us, "God is smiling down upon us today, smiling down."

He was a funny little man, surely someone's grandpa who had been driving this bus for 40 years and would continue to do so until he dropped dead. He had the kind of formless mouth common in old people, with a wet tongue and wet lips that you could hear in his speech.

On the way back from the cliffs we stopped in a small town and ate pub food with Guinness as a primary ingredient. I had Guinness stew. So did the bus driver. He sat alone at the bar, eating slowly; surely he knew all the regulars, having passed through once a day for several decades, but other than a few friendly nods he kept to himself until we got back on the bus. We arrived in Galway three hours late, causing most of us to miss an evening bus back to Dublin, but our driver was nonplussed. "Surely the day was worth taking a later bus, there is a later bus to take."

A few years later I was comparing Ireland stories with a friend who had lived there for some months. We discovered that we'd both taken trips to the cliffs of Moher from the tiny town of Galway. "I had the funniest bus driver," he told me. "I did, too!" I responded. "He repeated everything he said. "Mine did, too!" I exclaimed. We eyed each other, hoping the answer to his next question was yes. "Was his name Desmond?" "NO WAY!!" We laughed and laughed at the happy coincidence. Then he asked me, "Did he call them wee-wee breaks on your tour?"

I couldn't remember, but I like to think that he did.