Where did we live? Come from?

 

Where did we start?  Where did we go? Where did we end up? 

My children have been in and then moving to different cities and states all over. My siblings live in Illinois and Ohio.  I live in California.  My husband's group live in Utah, Georgia, Missouri, Colorado, Vermont, and somewhere else. 

Our most eventful move took us to Ireland. We traveled with our children, saw castles and more.  And from Ireland our family headed out to distant places.

   

My daughter lives in Bern, Switzerland, with husband and our grandsons. Since Covid, our trips to see them were cut off. April 2024? Maybe?

My brother Don lives in Springfield, in Lincoln Land. This is a lovely city to visit. Lincoln lived there and ultimately was buried there. So much history surrounds this legendary place.

 

I grew up 100 miles from Springfield.  Our son now lives near Champaign-Urbana. St. Louis is about 90 miles from our farm.  Dad took hogs to market down in east St. Louis. I flew into St. Louis innumerable times over the 40 years when I visited my parents.

 

My brother went from farm boy in Illinois, to being a police officer in Texas, He was a cowboy at heart. But he lived around Galveston, along the coast. Bill had an adventurous spirit.

 

We have been to Phoenix many times. Irish Dance Festivals were our most recent ventures. Great city, do not go to visit in the truly Hot Season.  It is always hot there. We were once walking across mall parking lot; a man drove by in  a large golf cart to get the people to the mall stores alive.  121+ degrees is nothing to laugh at. 

 Small towns become smaller. Our farm was on the north side of town. The house was torn down (built in 1850+) and the pieces of the barn can be seen in between trees. We lived on the Nebo-Pittsfield road, in Pike County, Illinois.

Where we began and have ended up amazes me.  Once my siblings and I were wild cowboys, warriors, soldiers, wreaking general havoc. Now we have taken our own journeys, much milder and more introspective.

 

Lane in Ireland

Travel in Ireland

 Liam's grandfather had told him stories of life in Ireland, how farmers and their harnessed draft horses plowed land and brought in harvest. These images were so compelling that one day, Liam and wife Betty headed to the 'auld country themselves.

Irish Travellers

Liam had rented a traditional traveler caravan, and plodded out onto the dirt roads, being pulled by a harnessed draft horse, named Billy. Sean and Dermot, owners of Caravan Travels, watched them leave, whispering, They'll be stuck in mud before the day's out.

First few miles, Liam and Betty were filled with energy, singing every Irish song they knew, which were many. Over the hours, as energy seemed to drop and sag, they decided that left lane at the fork looked more promising and shorter to the pit stop where other renters would gather and sing more Irish songs.

Mud grabbed their wheels which locked the caravan stock still, while Billy quite happily grazed at lush green grass. Betty began to weep and Liam was dismayed, feeling betrayed by his grandfather's stories.

Then, a fine old black and white tractor came chugging and howling to this miserable couple, followed by Sean in a Ford 150, who fixed the problem right and proper, pulling them out of mud, with a loud SUCK.

Back at Caravan Travels, Liam doled over more pounds to rent a mobile trailer, hooked on the trailer hitch of his rental car, and drove off in a bright red shade of embarrassment.

Tourists. Dreamers.

We are contemplating a journey to Ireland. No traveler caravan, just something safe.

 

This was a post from August 2015. The last we had been to Ireland is 1998.  We intend to take a bus tour around Ireland, hopefully we'll have some time to walk about.

We're on the one road, maybe the wrong road....

Liam's grandfather had told him stories of life in Ireland, how farmers and their harnessed draft horses plowed land and brought in harvest. These images were so compelling that one day, Liam and wife Betty headed to the 'auld country themselves.

Irish Travellers

Liam had rented a traditional traveler caravan, and plodded out onto the dirt roads, being pulled by a harnessed draft horse, named Billy. Sean and Dermot, owners of Caravan Travels, watched them leave, whispering, They'll be stuck in mud before the day's out.

First few miles, Liam and Betty were filled with energy, singing every Irish song they knew, which were many. Over the hours, as energy seemed to drop and sag, they decided that left lane at the fork looked more promising and shorter to the pit stop where other renters would gather and sing more Irish songs.

Mud grabbed their wheels which locked the caravan stock still, while Billy quite happily grazed at lush green grass. Betty began to weep and Liam was dismayed, feeling betrayed by his grandfather's stories.

Then, a fine old black and white tractor came chugging and howling to this miserable couple, followed by Sean in a Ford 150, who fixed the problem right and proper, pulling them out of mud, with a loud SUCK.

Back at Caravan Travels, Liam doled over more pounds to rent a mobile trailer, hooked on the trailer hitch of his rental car, and drove off in a bright red shade of embarrassment.

Tourists. Dreamers.

We are contemplating a journey to Ireland. No traveler caravan, just something safe.

This was a post from August 2015.