Monday, June 4, 2012

Drying Laundry in the Rain

Sunday June 3rd
Rain!
34 miles and one flat...

Poured rain ALL night! Fuat's tent held up well and we were quite dry in the morning. We've also brought a tarp (one EZ Duzit found last spring when we were hiking the AT and gave to me - putting it to good use:)) and put it up to cool under. Worked well and made packing up in the rain a bit easier.

Most of the morning it was raining but not too heavy. I had to laugh when I saw many times laundry out on the line. Some of the houses are quite large (McMansions of Ireland), and I was thinking they'd do better to have one of those rooms as a drying room since it rains so much here. Even in Hawaii where it rains a lot, people would have places under cover to dry their laundry...especially since you just never knew when it would start raining and you might not be home to get it down.

Fuat had his first flat today when he hit a pothole. He's lucky he didn't go down. We were in a town and he was looking around and BAM! Thank goodness for The Cozy Kitchen for hanging in while he fixed it.

Cold and rainy is only tough when we stop. While biking it's those minor adjustments to keep my body from overheating: hood on..hood off...mitts on...mitts off...jacket zipped...jacket unzipped...pants rolled up...pants rolled down. I'm a busy woman!!!

Sitting now in pub having hot chocolate and Triffle & Custard & Cream. Yum!


Too bad the free wifi isn't working. Wifi is turning out to be hard to find. This is rural Ireland!

So no power and no wifi...BagLady disconnects...begrudgingly:(

Stopped for the night between Kiltormer and Mullagh, just southwest of Ballinasloe about the middle of the country (for anyone trying to follow us). We'd been wandering down all the small country roads we could find. They are so narrow, but there are few cars and the views are spectacular. Quaint Ireland! But we can't figure out where we are on the map(s) and often just turn according to the compass. No hurry. No place we have to be. We'll get to the west coast eventually:)

When Fuat said he was ready to look for a place, he had pulled into a building parking lot. We looked around and found a lane just past it that led to the grassy fields behind a Montessori school, The All Stars Montessori School, in fact. And there's a shelter for our bikes with benches for sitting and cooking. Bingo! Life doesn't get any better than this. Luckily tomorrow's a holiday or this wouldn't be such a good option.

Took a walk down the lane to see the sheep out grazing in the pastures. Just as I imagined Ireland would look. So pastoral! We have horses whinneying, sheep baaing, and cows mooing....ahhhh...bliss! So much nicer than last night's campground. What was supper, you ask? Reconstituted refried black beans on tortillas with slices of avocado, zucchini, red pepper, and cheddar cheese! With "digestive" biscuits for dessert with chamomile tea steeped right from the dried flowers we got at at tea shop.

Stopped to get some water late this afternoon and the guy in the little shop said he didn't think I sounded American. I said Thank You! I said as an American, I never heard anyone tell me that they liked my accent. He said, "and you're not going to hear it from me, either!" "Well, I do like your accent!", said I.

And it's time to get warm and comfortable for the night.

BagLady

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Longest Day Yet

Saturday. June 2nd
Campground (for the showers!) at Ballykeeran on the east side of Lough Lee (lake Lee) just north of Athlone.

Overcast till evening, then rain.

No pics on iPhone today, sorry.

Dual languages: English and Irish. Gaelic is the Irish word for Irish.

Major frustrations with power for charging cell phone etc. Battery pack of rechargeable batteries is not holding the charge it can get from either an outlet (Fuat has a great converter device) or my solar panels (if the sun ever shines again). It worked fine at home. I used it as much as I could to continue to test it. Sent an email to manufacturer and their customer service is usually great. Maybe they'll send me a new one here:).

Did 48 miles today. I can't seem to switch my bike computer to kilometers. Don't know why and it's the least of my worries.

Lovely ride through rolling countryside. The houses are all built of cinder block then stuccoed over. The window frames are beautiful orangey brown wood. Wood is scarce so used little. Had to ask directions a lot but everyone is so helpful and happy. Even the drivers are patient and courteous sometimes having to hang back behind us a bit till its clear for them to get around. We saw a tractor trailer today that filled its half of the road. Two could not have passed each other!

In a campground tonight just for the showers. Had it not been late with rain just starting we could have showered and biked on to camp for free. Why pay for this noise? It's a 4 day weekend: Bank's Holiday.

Big thing here this week was the vote for an EU bailout. There were signs everywhere for both Yes and No. Yes won.




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"Lovely Weather"

Friday June 1
Ballivor, west of Trim
Overcast but dry..."lovely weather"




Narrow roads. No shoulders. Have I said that before? This cycling is not for the faint of heart:). You have to just trust that the drivers will not kill you. Some roads today were not wide enough for two cars to pass without them both going into the ditches. And large farm equipment and buses were on that road!
We visited the largest castle in Ireland. Built around 1200's by Hugh de Lacy. Defense design. Castle inside walls. Moat outside. Wooden stairs up to 2nd story main floor would be burned when attacked by Irishman because the dude who owned it was French.

We're not making much distance but we're not in any hurry. Besides neither of us trained for this so we're cycling into shape.

I could sure use a shower though. Tonight we're camped in the front of a vacant factory. Lovely grassy lawns. No one seems to mind. Right in town across from houses the kids wVed at us:)

Tomorrow night we're hoping to be in a campground outside of Athlone. Showers, I hope!

Haven't been in a pub for a Guiness yet (for Cheryl, of course) other than for water. We're not much for drinking.

Lights out. BagLady



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