Cranking Up The Machine!

It's been years.  Seriously, years since we posted last.  And, we left ya hanging in Madrid.  You could almost think we stayed in Madrid.  We didn't.  We went from there to Barcelona.  Then from Barcelona to Nerja.  Then Nerja to Dublin and from Dublin we went to Portland, Oregon and stayed with Bryan and Crystal for a time.

Some of us left Ireland willingly.  Some of us went under protest.  All of us went to live in our RV on Hayden Island where we added to our family with our beloved dog--Cinnamon.

I know that living in a 30ft (9 m)  RV (caravan) with 4 people and a puppy for several months while working, looking for a house to buy, going to school and caring for a parent who mysteriously can't recover after hip surgery sounds crazy to some, but I look back and think how great it was.  And, that level of crazy was the reason we left ya hanging in Madrid.  Which, isn't a bad place to hang if you ask me.

But, here we are 4 years later.  House has been purchased in a suburb of Portland (not going to talk about suburban living 👎).  Dog has been fully assimilated and worshipped everyday.

Amy and Cinnamon on couch

Colleen and Cinnamon on couch

Kerry and Cinnamon on couch

Abigail and Cinnamon on couch

Teaching with Crazy Eyes

One child graduated high/secondary school and gone on to slay her first year in university.  One child is making friends as she does her time at the aforementioned secondary/high school.  One child is fully on his own.  One parent returned to his job and got promoted.  The other parent worked temporary until she was hired as a full time instructor at a local community college teaching math.








We suffered a devastating loss during that time--my Dad was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer August 2017 and died in October that year.

If you've lost one of your parents it's possible that you know how hard it is to figure out your life when they are no longer in it.  It is harder to do almost everything.  But, I know he'd want me to pick it up and go as far as I can, doing as much as I can and as much fun as life can provide.  I also promised him that I'd make sure Mom is okay.  And, most days I can get that done for him.  Of course, Mom makes it easy and Tina and Jim lift more than their fair share.  Knowing that I'm doing what he'd want me to do helps some days and some days I find that nothing helps.

But, he'd love this.  I'm sure he'd shake his head about the whole thing, but he'd get on board and be asking questions and probably be joining in.  You see, we are going back to Ireland this summer for 7 weeks!  While we are there we will be taking a trip to Scotland which is one of the places Dad and I wanted to do.

It's been in the planning stages for so long that it's weird to be actually finalizing the details.

Here's the plan:

• 18 June 
• Colleen and I leave Portland and fly to Dublin
• 19 June - 21 June 
• Colleen and I stay in Dublin recovering from losing a day in travel
• 21 June - 26 June 
• Colleen and I stay in Armagh visiting and hitting our favorite NI spots
• 26 June - 4 July 
• Kerry and Abigail join us and we head up through NI and circle back around to ROI
• Abigail returns to work in the US 4 July.  
• 4 July - 8 July 
• Kerry, Colleen and I hook up with Aunt Val and Sheila in Edinburgh and do Scotland
• 8 July - 16 July 
• Kerry, Colleen and I return to ROI and do a southern loop through the country ending in Dublin where we send Kerry back to the US to work
• 16 July - 25 July 
• Colleen and I have no idea what we're gonna do.  There's some interesting ideas, but nothing solid yet.  But we know that--
• 25 July - 30 July 
• We are in London because Tina is meeting us there on the 28th!
• 30 July - 2 August 
• Colleen and I take Tina up to Armagh in NI to visit and explore
• 2 August - 3 August 
• The three of us head through Drogheda to Kilkenny for the night
• 3 August - 6 August 
• We stay in Dublin
• 6 August we go....back to the US. 
• Tina's purpose is to get me on the plane😝....But, I'm not going to think about that right now.

Here are some of the questions that are still unanswered:

Where are Colleen and I going to go during 16 July to 25 July? And can Crystal join us👀?

There's just so many places we want to see! We want to go back to Spain.  Or see new places like Germany, Istanbul, Morocco, Croatia, Lisbon, Nice....  We want to hunker down in Ireland and chill. I want to swing by Versailles. I've always wanted to go but it's not really on anyone's must-see list but my own. Colleen wants to see Athens.   Colleen expressed some interest in doing Europe by train. But, I don't think we have much in the way of time for was far as she would like to go.  Also under consideration is a place to lay on the beach and chill.  I'm sure we'll figure it out, but it's still up in the air.

Why is it so hard to fit all my shoes in a carry on?

Seriously, why is traveling with as many shoes as you may need so freaking hard?  If you check a giant bag, then you have to haul that bag everywhere.  If you only bring small bags then you've got to leave stuff behind.  Such a conundrum.  And such a hassle with the way airports and traveling in general is nowadays. Back in the day...well, let's not go backward to the 1970's and 80's.

Are hostels the way to go or are they not the right place for a worldly 16-year-old?

If it were only myself, I'd go hostel all the way, but some have already emailed me that Colleen's age is below their age restriction.  Boo.

How can we keep costs down? 

This one is hard.  And it's an ongoing conversation.  Winning the $400 mil lottery would be good right about now because you should see some of the costs of staying in Dublin and London.  Jeesh.

Why do we always find out at the last minute that the girl's US passports are expired? 

Gah!!!  This one was hairpulling for a hot minute until Ker and Abigail took it on.  We never seem to have the right document at the right time.  Maybe if we actually moved into this house it would be easier.  But since I don't plan on staying here much longer (2 years left, baby), it never seems like fun to move our stuff fully in here.  That makes finding the correct document box challenging.

We've settled some of the other questions.  Colleen and I are getting SIM cards in Ireland and getting a pay as you go plan for our phones.  We are renting a car for some of the trip. I'm keeping my old computer even though it's heavy. And on and on.  Tiny details, medium details, and large hulking issues.  It's been fun to spend most Saturday mornings with Ker hunting around.  I love every part of traveling so this has been a great part of it.

But, now I have to go and deal with mowing the lawn, grading all sorts of stuff and getting Colleen up and out of her bed.

See you all soon!