Adventures of the Weekend

Saturday I woke up feeling like I was in Antarctica compared to what I'm used to in St. George, my goodness! Had to change my plans. I was gonna bike up to the Slieve Bloom mountains, setup a hammock and a-frame above it with a piece of plastic to protect me from the rain and stay the night. I'll save that for another day :) So I ended up indulging in the Bourne series and then Roy drove me up to the Slieve Bloom mountains so I could check it out. It was awesome!! Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best but the view was still great. Oh and some of the streets here are seriously like as big as one lane in America, but they someone manage to split it into two.

Sunday the plan was to bike to a local waterfall but it consisted of many detours which is always how it works with me. First I strolled by the Church of Ireland and the gates were open so I walked my bike up there, and what do you know the service was just getting out. I was expecting to see some weird looks, seeing as I was wearing a purple shirt & green pants and I'm a stranger from a distant land, but instead I was met with welcoming faces. The people here are so cheerful and down to earth. Before I knew it I was getting a tour of the church by a local that grew up 4 miles from here and has lived here his whole life, all 79 years of it. Despite the thickest accent I've ever heard, I managed to understand some words of this alien language he was speaking. Like the church is 215 years old, and they have a service every week at noon, so I figure I'll check it out next week. It's incredible how different everyone's life is. 

After that I continued biking and stopped to ask a woman walking with her dog if I was headed in the right direction, and I wasn't of course. So I turned around and went down the street I thought she told me, and kept going and going and going for about an hour. And then I'm like there's no way it's all the way out here I'm in the boonies of Ireland! But it was fun, and I ended up wandering around that area for a while. I found a street that had a bunch of cut down trees placed over it, and lifted my bike over it and journeyed down some mysterious road in the middle of nowhere. It came to an abrupt end and I was surrounded with a forest of sorts on all sides, and I looked in and the trees were so condensed that it looked pitch black! I'm a curious fellow, so I wandered some more into this forest on foot. At this point I don't hear the sound of a car, people, anything. Just me and nature. I love it. No distractions means you have to go inward. I could almost hear SamWise telling me about the Shire behind me, it was like going through Mordor!

Also, I saw some golf ball sized bees I had to run away from! 

During the ride back I stopped by a big pasture where some cows were chillin'. There's a first time for everything, so I hopped the fence, jumped over the other electric fence, and ran around with the cows. I was getting such a power trip out of it, being able to control the movement of these giant creatures at my will! I continued on my way and asked another person where the waterfall was and found the street, but turned around after a while because I couldn't here the sound of any water. Well, I asked yet another person and she said that it was that street! So at least now I know where it is for sure and can go another time. In total the bike ride was close to four hours, and it was sprinkling the whole time, so when I got back I was drenched but felt like a million bucks. 

The great thing about any adventure is that it doesn't have to cost anything. And you don't have to be half way across the globe! All it takes is a willingness and openness to the moment. This moment right now. The only moment that is real.