valeriesbookofme

Fitting goodbye to Dublin Arriving at Gatwick Leaving England Passing over Greenland Approaching Los Angeles From Atlantic to Pacific within a day Night view of Los Angeles Approaching Phoenix Airport The Irish adventure is over. It officially ended at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, Sept 12th when we flew out of Dublin Airport to Gatwick. The days leading up to our departure had been very frantic as we tried to ensure that we left nothing crucial behind, sold what we could sell of the appliances we had bought, said our goodbyes. David-the-mechanic came through big time by arriving exactly when he said he would on Tuesday morning with a good sized SUV that fit all of our luggage, carryons, Mitzi and ourselves. We hope that David will be able to sell our car quickly! But he certainly was a man without peer to me on Tuesday. He even waited with us at Mitzi's drop-off point and was very supportive as I shed a few tears. Sh...

Six more mornings left in our stay in Ireland. The past two days have been very "active" packing wise. Putting stuff in, weighing, taking stuff out, changing our minds about luggage: we jettisoned a smaller bag and bought a larger one. Figured it was cheaper than trying to mail stuff or leaving it behind. Looking back at the start of my blog on this adventure, I read that I was doing the very same thing in Scottsdale last December. Weighing suitcases, taking stuff out, making trips to Goodwill. Our total worldly goods, except for a few paintings, a couple of small pieces of furniture, a couple of lamps back in a storage unit in Arizona, fit into three large suitcases and two carryons. We own no car, no bed and we have no set place to live until November 1st so it really is just us and Mitzi. It is kind of scary.  But no more scary than what people are experiencing today around the world. When we sighed this morning about having to book into a spartan Extended Stay bac...

As I wind down my sojourn here in Ireland, I had been thinking of the places I hadn't yet visited. One place that is fairly close to us is the Rock of Cashel.  It is this massive, castle-like ruin on top of, well, a huge rock in Tipperary. The traditional seat of the Kings of Munster, there is also a legend about St. Patrick and the Devil--one of the many! It is about an hour and a half's drive from here and a hugely popular tourist attraction. Which is why I avoided it until the end of August. But Sheila's visit from England was a great opportunity to go and on this mostly sunny day I drove over, stopping briefly at a favorite breakfast stop, Dove Hill just outside of Carraig-on-Suir. The Rock certainly didn't disappoint. Much like Edinburgh Castle it looms over the small town of Cashel. You see it as soon as you turn down the road into the town. And then it disappears from view, you park your car and trudge up a winding road and, voila, there it is again....