Lots of catching up to do...

Tonight we've made it to the County Mayo town of Westport - home of Matt Molloys pub with Croagh Patrick practically in its backyard.
I have a cold, this morning we saw the kilclooney dolmen and were accosted by sleet and evil winds,  and have been experiencing a decided lack of available cell network and wifi, but we're having a marvelous time.
It is our intention to update the blog rather extensively this evening.
After listening to some local traditional music of course.

Brazen head

Very old Dublin pub.

Guinness Gravity Bar

Is where we are! Today was eventful. The long room of Trinity's library is always more impressive than I expect, as are thr views from the Gravity Bar atop the Guinness Store House.

Best flight ever

Our planr from phx to lhr was empty. As in, the ticket counter suggested we not bother to upgrade.  As in, yhey gave us tickets for an aisle and window seat, and then we both ended up with two rows ilif three to ourselves. I watched Filth, hsd a wine, and then snuggled in. One minute we were over Oklahoma,  the next, I woke up to the plane flying over the west coast of Ireland.  And coffee. And a croissant.

Temple Bar

Slainte! We arrived in Dublin without incident, checked into our room and proceeded to take the tram and heaf to temple bar. First Guinness was had, as well as a Rascal at Farrington's Bar and we now find  ourselves at The Porter House enjoying an oyster stout and a hophead. You guess who had which.

Mmmm. Extra seats.

Most sparsely populated flight ever.

Jack

The guy at cowboy ciao is great.  Excellent conversation. We have cons to go to :)

Airport wine

Early check-in plus an underbooked flight means we should hopefully have a row to ourselves. Now for dinner and a two hour chill until take-off. Also, wine.

Serious blogger is serious

Last pack

BLOGGER APP INSTALLED

ALL SYSTEMS TERMINAL... I MEAN OM-NOMINAL.. I MEAN JUST NOMINAL.

Day 0

We leave tonight.

This morning I hugged and snuggled the animals good-bye. They're being cared for at the Pal's Inn Pet Resort until we return. Poor Jeremy was stuck with the task of driving them over and looking in to their sad, accusing eyes. If anything untoward should happen to us - Mom, Lisa, you get to decide who gets Bruni, Psyche, and Charlemagne.

The last 24 hours before a big trip always makes my stomach go wobbly and my shoulders tingly. 

I know I'll stress out a ton the hour before the shuttle arrives, repeatedly going over and over everything that we need to be bringing. Once stuff is loaded and we're off in the airport van there's no going back for forgotten sundries. My shoulders will continue to tense up during the long ride.

At the terminal there's always the multitude of hurry-up-and-waits: in line for the ticket counter, through security, locating the departure gate. There might have to be a glass of wine at some point after that, before everyone stands up and gets in line 15 minutes before the plane begins to board.

Currently, I'm longing for that 1st hour after the plan has taken off - you're on your way and things are now out of your control until you land. The only thing you can do is sit back and relax, and for at least the next hour or two you shouldn't be too horribly uncomfortable yet. Time will seem to slow to a stand still and the odd reality of rocketing through the sky in an aluminum tube will set in.

For the mean time, I'll tick off the last items from my get-shit-done list (blog entry is one of them), and look forward to the epic roadtrip I'll soon find myself on.
 
Hmm...we're gonna need a mascot.

Funny, when I was looking through Stephens I found quite a different artistic style.

Excellent Timing

Photo I totally stole from Stephen's fb timeline

The timing of our visit happily corresponds with the Temple Bar TradFest. I have a gut feeling that the evening of Wednesday the 22nd will find us in a rather crowded Temple Bar listing to some fantastic music and sipping some delightfully creamy pints of Guinness. 

The festival line up looks pretty fab.  

I've also been working on a little cheat sheet for places to visit that we missed in the whirlwind tour of 2004, places we'd like to return to, and watering holes to duck in to and warm up whilst we tromp around the town on foot. This time around I'm making The National Museum of Ireland - Archeology a priority. They've got a spectacular collection and there's a Viking exhibition on this month. We also intend to return to Trinity's Library ands well as see another set of pages in the Book of Kells.

And of course we intend to visit the Guinness Storehouse once more. The view from the Gravity Bar is pretty much a required experience.

Here We Go Again - Next stop, Ireland

Photo I also stole from Stephen. What?

We're about to go off on another adventure; this time our destination is IRELAND. It's about time, right?
When we boarded the Ulysses (massive car ferry providing service between Dublin and Holyhead, Wales) back in 2004, we knew we'd return soon. Well, we were pretty sure we would.
Ten years has passed far too quickly and, at last, return we shall.

So. What are we doing? Where are we going, and When?
Mostly we don't know yet. We've decided to do this the way we did our first trip back in '04 - by the seat of our pants. That means that while we've booked a hotel for the first two nights we'll be in Dublin and the last night of the trip as well, the rest is a mystery. We have a general idea that we're going to leave Dublin on the morning of our third day there and proceed to spend a little over a week driving counter-clockwise around the country, but we have no set destinations, and no other rooms reserved. We'll have our car, an atlas, some guidebooks, and the spirit of adventure. We'll live by whim and meet interesting people, see wonderful things, eat fantastic food, and (this is very important) drink some excellent beers.

Our we ready to go? Almost. We're leaving the evening of January the 20th. That's just 12 days away.