The problem with this part of the world is that just about everywhere you turn offers amazing views. Not every place can be a place. And so you have little moments like this, where you just round a bend see something like this. You just park in the middle of the quite road to take a picture and admire the view for a moment.
Up there is the Beefan and Garveross Mountain. The map shows six hours and I think we can see the Glen Head Signal Tower, another one of those Napoleonic era buildings designed to watch out for, and pass the word, that the French were coming. We didn’t go up to it, but it’s apparently a lovely hike. It is a two-story stone building with a commanding view of the ocean to the west and north-west, and two bays to the south.
They were really concerned about the French. And with good reason, when you think about what was going on at the earliest points of the 19th century. This map shows us that 81 of these watch towers were built, covering about three-quarters of Ireland’s coastline.
But if you don’t want to look at that map, have another look at this view. It’s a panorama, click to embiggen.
We journeyed on, stopping at a pub for dinner in a town we were passing through. They forgot about us for a while, or we did not understand the local custom of paying. We wound up being the last ones out of the place, including most of the employees. If a few more minutes had gone by I would have suggested the American custom of dining and dashing, which in this case would have been more like dining, waiting for 45 minutes, and then just walking out the door. And, if anyone magically appeared as we did so I was prepared to say, “Ahhhh, Tim is paying.”
Ever since I found that wallet I keep feeling for it in my pocket. Tim already lost this thing, and he’s getting it back tomorrow. I can’t lose it too.
Also, I explained my personal pocket ritual to my lovely bride. Seventeen years we’ll have been married this summer, more than 20 years together now, and I’ve never said this, and she’s never noticed it. But, when I leave from one place to go to somewhere else I pat down all of my pockets. Keys, wallet, phone, whatever. Just to make sure it is all there.
I think I’ll give that advice to Tim tomorrow, when he and his wife get his back.
Anyway, we paid. Tim did not pay. We left the pub and headed on to Letterkenny. This was a big long move, and I was driving us on some lonely roads. The route sort that went through the dark of a darkest night, looking for taillights and driving on the left. You can depend on the in-dash GPS, which I did. At precisely the moment where it seemed all was lost, when you might be driving off the land into the ocean that is most assuredly somewhere over … there … lights emerge right in front of you. And there was the hotel, and restaurant, and spa, and whatever else goes on here. It feels like the center of the community, and it was lit like an American car dealership.
We’ll be here for two nights, but Tim’s wallet will only be here the one … if I can find where I put it.
Kidding. It’s right here, right next to my wallet. I’ve checked on it 14 times.
