Travelling with a relatively new friend means lots and lots of laughs....fortunately!

 

 

 

Judy and I are relatively new friends...met her when we "moved" to Caseville and we hit it off and somehow, we decided to come to Ireland, a place Judy had never visited. I came here 11 years ago with Heidi but we stayed south of Dublin. This trip, we decided that we would definitely hit the Dublin area but I wanted to go to Northern Ireland...an area that we were told was unsafe 11 years ago.

 

Travelling with someone you know, but not well, could be a bit risky. So far, we have had a ball. Both of us are comfy laughing at ourselves and each other....and we are doing a lot of both.

 

Each of us have assigned responsibilities...she is the navigator and I am the driver. She reminds me often to "keep left" so I don't pull into OUR driving lane by accident. I remind her that she has to put the key to our front door in, right side up. For some reason, she likes to put them in upside down. And, it just won't work for Judy to try to show me a map to indicate where next we might stop WHILE I am trying to focus on driving in the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road.

 

I am not the best at backing cars up and one MUST be an expert here. I literally start every morning trying to back my car across two lanes of traffic to get to the side I must leave our B&B from. Judy is a trooper...she goes out into the road and waves me around and across the seriously narrow and busy road. She hasn't groused once at me...even when I get snarky with her like I did today at the Titanic Experience. She wanted me to back out in one direction and I chose to go another,...amazing how easily we center our cars. Try driving on another side of the car and another side of the road. When you get that under control, add roundabouts, high speed, small cars, rain, and blind spots that we just don't have in these places.

 

Judy is short and has a small stride....she is perpetually six paces behind me. I stop periodically to let her catch up. Kinda like travelling with a vertically challenged person. Then, there are issues with a lack of places to hit the bathroom. Public facilities in the guise of parks is wonderful. One might encounter picnic tables...but NO potty and NO garbage cans. Unusual. I am here to tell you that when one is laughing when walking briskly in the cool night, with no potty around....something happens!! Laughing loudly!