BEAT A DRUM and DRIVE

Gigi the over-achiever has already layed out the bare bones of our trip to Ireland. But I'll add in what I can, the stuff that meant the most to me. It won't be all inclusive and, unfortunately, for now it won't include any pictures. What is wrong with Blogger? I haven't been able to spell check anything all month! But, pics will follow at some point I'm sure.

I'm skipping the travel days and will leave out most of the drama of Gigi and I fighting everytime we hit a pothole (Love u Geege!) . . . luckily there is so much more to share:)

Day 1 - Music Memories

Have you ever spent a day that is so perfect in so many ways that you hear the soundtrack playing in your mind? You know what I mean, right? You can picture yourself as the opening, or closing, credits roll and you hear that perfect song. The song that not only explains exactly what you're feeling at that particular moment but also makes it better, or somehow stronger.

Our first full day in Ireland had gloriously perfect parts to it and I could hear the music.

The Cliffs of Moher in County Claire make your imagination run wild. You can't help but dream up a big sweeping epic and hear the John Williams score playing in the background. It was cold and misty. It was moody and perfect. Seeing the cliffs shoot up from the angry Atlantic below made me feel small and fantasticly powerful at the same time. We're all familiar with the phrase "my heart swelled," right? More than once on this trip I looked at the landscape that is Ireland and I swear to you, my heart swelled.

The roads and the drivers you encounter in the Emerald Isle have entirely different music rolling through your head. It's like one of those energetic instrumental pieces where a particular guitar chord or drum beat actually sounds like a word. Everything is blending together in a crazy celebration of action and excitement and then wham! A speeding lorry with no respect for individual lanes or an unconcerned and self-rightous sheep pops into view and the music perfectly correlates with the expletive that's on the tip of your tongue. Or, in our case, already sharing space with us in the car like a prayer.

Prior to the start of our trip I made an "Ireland" playlist for my iPod. I filled it with random songs that came to me in the early, early hours just before we left. And, I do mean random. Heavy on Green Day and old country. It made sense at the time:) I also predictably gave a nod to Ireland's most famous exports: the Corrs, U2, Van Morrison.

Some of the songs stuck out so much when compared to the scenery flashing by that it was laughable. We had so much fun listening to Flo Rida's "Low" feat T Pain at top volume with the windows down! It became our antidote for all that ailed, the fix for any fight or annoyance. As a result, it will always mean Ireland to me.

Other songs eerily complimented the moment. We came to a fork in the road that had our "Garmin Lady" confused just when Billie Joe sang to us about the same in Time of Your Life. While listening to Landslide instruct us to "climb a mountain and then turn around" we did just that as we drove up a curvy mountain road and then took a sharp right turn that had us facing nearly back the way we came. And then Dave Matthews asked "It's your birthday, what would you say?" And Gigi said " It is my birthday!" Because it was.

We celebrated that night in a pub in Adare, Co Limerick. What we actually did is crash someone else's birthday party (complete with balloons and streamers) and pretend it was our own. They didn't seem to mind a bit and eventually welcomed us like old friends. Part of the party action as the night wore on was live music. We saw a guy setting up speakers and tuning his guitar just a few feet away from us. We waited with anticipation to be a part of some traditional Irish music. So far the music playing on the jukebox was almost exclusively American. I'm pretty sure Shiny Happy People played three times in a single hour:) When he finally got started he began with a lovely Irish ballad about Derry. And, after that? He covered Neil Diamond. Elvis Prestley. Garth Brooks. David Gray. Johnny Cash. Seriously! Gigi and I even did the Texas Two-Step to his (actually really good) version of Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. Eventually he led the crowd in some great and rowdy pub songs. I have a video of Gigi dancing her version of an Irish jig with a local in a pub in small town Ireland on her birthday. I'm not sure it gets much better than that.

We ended this first day blissfully drunk on Guinness, excited about the adventures and the music memories still to come.