Where Were the Wandering Women?

Last night as I lay dreaming, of the pleasant days gone by,

My mind being bent on rambling and to Erin's Isle I did fly.

I stepped on board a vision and sailed out with a will,

'Till I gladly came to anchor at the Cross of Spancilhill.

~ Michael Considine, Spancilhill

What do you do when a friend meets you for breakfast and greets you with, "My fall plans have changed. I'd go to Ireland with you!"

Seriously. What would you do?

You check to see if there are two seats on the bus!

And it really was meant to be. There were signs all around. The Kerry Gold Butter fell out of the refrigerator. Two different kinds of wood sorrel* haunted me all through the spring - from Central Texas to Ohio. Then a professor requested the use of a photo taken in Coole Park.**

Wood Sorrel

The final sign came with a phone call - "There's room for you on the bus."***

So after months of planning we got on American Airlines 808 in DFW. We would change to AA 88 in Philadelphia and land in Shannon, Ireland on Saturday, September 1. Three days would be spent on our own - adjusting to the time change and exploring some places we would not see on the tour. Nine to 10 days would be spent on the tour (more on that later). The last few days would be more adventure on our own.

Little did we know.

The plane did not want to work and we sat on the tarmac in Dallas...waiting...waiting for a new computer...waiting for the fuel to be "topped off."  We held our breath as we circled the Philadelphia airport. Bad weather caused a further delay and we realized we would need to deplane (of course we were in the back of the plane), sprint from the very end of terminal C, past terminal B, to the very end of Terminal A in 10 minutes, and hope the plane was still there and they had not given away our seats.

The lovely folks on flight 808 allowed those of us who were trying to make connections off the plane first.

And we ran. We ran past the few folks in the airport at 9:00 pm. We ran on the moving sidewalks (4? 6?). We ran past abandoned carts - no airport employees to transport us in those cool little beeping contraptions.

Arriving out of breath at Gate A26, we were two tired women waved aboard after showing boarding passes and passports. We greeted the other passengers, "Thanks for waiting for us!" and found our seats.

We arrived in Ireland exhausted to find our checked luggage was still in Philadelphia.

Whatever...this was Ireland! We had a change of clothes in our carry-on luggage, a map, and a rental car.

We stopped by the news agent and there it was, the final sign --- the August edition of The Irish Garden. Woohoo! A copy was purchased, photos were taken, and we headed for the road to Sligo.

NOTES:

* Read that shamrock.

**He was writing about Lady Gregory's catalpa tree and asked to use a photo I had taken in Coole Park in 2014. While there are loads of photos of this plaque on the internet and this isn't even a good photo, the catalpa leaves were present.  It was the view he wanted and The Irish Garden published Dr. Charles Nelson's article in the August 2018 issue. See, a sign.

Lady Gregory 1852 - 1932 * Today Me and Nu planted this Catalpa Tree in memory of their grandmother * 30th September 1995 * A Moment's Memory to that Laurelled Head

***Thanks,Vicki!