On Friday, we headed to Galway City to visit the Galway Kellys (including my buddy Triona). The previous evening we, Maura, Tim, and I, decided we would leave as soon as possible in the morning because it looked like it was going to be a sunny day. If you are in Ireland at the moment, you know that this is not something you take for granted. I am not one of those consummate complainers about the weather in Ireland. The weather has been pretty cooperative with me through the years, but this is not one of those times. Let's just say I would like Tim to start a fire in the evening, and he has denied me my right to warmth because it is summer. Summer, really? I don't recall wearing a fleece in the summer in Boston, but back to Galway.
As I said, we were going to leave at the crack of dawn of Friday to enjoy the glorious sunshine as much as possible. If you knew Maura and Tim at all or me for a matter of fact, leaving early means two totally different things to them and me. To me, it means waking at 5 and hitting the road by 6. To them, it means whenever we get up and get everything together, and I mean EVERYTHING. We were going to Galway for 3 days, but it looked like we were moving to Galway. You should have seen the amount of food we had in the car! Now, in fairness, we decided we would stop for a picnic on the way up to Galway (again to soak up the sun), so we did have sandwiches, fruit, and drinks for lunch. However, there was a cooler bag on the floor in the back seat, a bag full of various provisions on the floor of the front, and food in the boot(trunk). Thanksgiving dinner could have been provided from our car for the Pilgrims and Indians. Finally, after we had enough food to last us in case we got caught in the midst of a blizzard, we all climbed into the car and buckled up. First stop, Ballincollig to return DVDs and go to the bank to exchange U.S. dollars that Grandpa (or Dad as I like to call him) so nicely sent over for all of us to enjoy. Great! We are on the road; well not really as I soon found out. Maura suggested we all get out of the car to stretch our legs instead of having 2 adults do the errands. Okay, everybody out. Climb back in the car and get a phone call from the video store that one of the DVD cases was empty. Great. Back to the house, collect the DVD, and back to town to return it. Is this a start now? I thought so. Tim drove for about 10 minutes, and we landed in Blarney where we had our picnic, went for a walk, and raised our faces to the sun. Sorry, I forgot to mention that it was about 1:00 by this time. See the difference in thinking? Me: 6:00 AM, them: 1:00PM, all of us thinking an early start. I have to give myself a pat on the back because I have come to accept this difference over the years, and to be fair, they have 2 children and I just have myself. In the end, we hit the road at 1:30 PM.
After that the ride was pretty uneventful. Dylan, Maura, and I all took naps for a good bit of the 3 1/2 hour journey. When we stopped just outside of Galway City, we all woke up, used the toilets (yuck, yuck yuck by the way! Why do people write stupid things on bathroom walls with phone numbers there? Quality people you will find in this manner, I am sure.), and of course, got a snack.
About a half hour later, the wary travelers, us, arrived in Barna which is about 10 minutes from the city centre. Dave had the barbeque going, yes the sun was still out, and Eileen asked us what time we started our journey. I replied, "12:30." M|eanwhile, Maura and Tim said, "1:30." I was slightly confused as we had left the house at 12:30. Eileen said, "oh, it's not a start until the stops are done."
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