Velda and Joe: A(nother) Grand Adventure

Hello friends – Thank you for taking a look at our Grand Spring Adventure blog. We know many of you don’t use social media, and some of you would rather visit the blog than get an email. Please be patient with us. We’ve talked about doing a blog for ages but this our first one. We have the free version of WordPress and are still figuring it out. We don’t even know how to send out alerts yet. But in all likelihood we will step up to the paid version and then it will become more polished.

This is my first ever entry so it looks almost exactly like the email newsletter I sent out. Going forward there will be an overlap with that and what I put on social media, but there will also be entries that don’t make it to the newsletter.

If you have suggestions and recommendations please email them to us. We welcome those.

And so it starts. We’re here. In Ireland, Galway to be exact, experiencing jetlag and sleet and rain. 

Actually, it might really start with the weeks of getting ready.  Joe did all the heavy lifting, arranging flights, hotels, car rentals, cat sitters, and the rest of the logistics. I practiced packing.  The trip is going to be almost six weeks long and we’ll be visiting Ireland, Holland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the UK, well, London. 

Getting into LAX turned out to be easy, thank you TSA pre-check!  We even had time for a milkshake. And it wasn’t a zoo in the waiting area. There was a little boy who had a surprising number of wrestling action figures and I had a blast photographing him. (If I post an image of him playing it will not show his face.)

It was a night flight and we slept a good part of the time. That made it easier to rent a car and drive about three hours to Galway, on the West coast.  There are strikes here to protest the heavy taxes (50% we heard) on fuel. The price of petrol is very high and that is if you can find it. It’s even worse for diesel. Protesters are blocking traffic on the freeways. So we took smaller roads to avoid the M50. It was a beautiful drive but as I said, the roads are small, and Joe had to drive stick on the left side of the road. We hadn’t worked out how to get data on our phones yet (we had switched to Google Fi, so calls were okay), and my job was calling out GPS directions, then explaining the directions, and holding on to the “mom handle in fear” until Joe got into the rhythm.

By the time we got to the hotel we were exhausted. The Harbor Hotel was recommended by Marc and Celia, and it’s great. We didn’t hear the 350 protesters and dozens of Gardas outside the building, but we did hear the sleet on our skylights. We woke up at 3am and the first order of business was coffee.

Breakfast (pancakes an inch thick with bacon and REAL hot chocolate for me) and then we walked around the city.  The garda were everywhere, but friendly.  So were the protesters. 

It rained a lot but this is one of those places where it might be sunny five minutes later.  We did not avoid the jet lag though and by noon (8pm LA time) we were down for the count.  

I have a cold or a sinus infection, and have not been able to find a decongestant here – all the pharmacies are closed on Sunday. I have tissues in every pocket and people are keeping their distance.  Joe is doing great and is already asleep…on Irish time!

Tomorrow we drive to Connemara for the day. But below is my favorite image of the day, and it someone else’s vision. According to Google’s AI, “The Nora Barnacle mural, created by artist Friz (Marian Noone), is a vibrant street art piece located in Galway City, Ireland, celebrating James Joyce’s wife and muse…the “original Galway Girl” alongside Irish cultural icons.”

Ta for now.

Velda