West of Ireland tour with my San Diego friends.

 Pictured from the left:  Gary, Paula, Donna, and Stan.

 My new friends, all the way from San Diego, arrived at Shannon this morning,  and were overjoyed to be greeted by the best of Irish rain. They had escaped from a sun-soaked California, and i really felt for them. How anybody can tolerate the amount of sunshine that these Californians have to endure, is more than any Irishman can understand. Gary even changed into his shorts to gain the maximum benefit from the refreshing cool Atlantic breezes.  I am sure that i will now be inundated with enquiries from  Californians envious of my new friends. Despair not.....we have plenty more of that precious rain waiting here for you. We do get sunshine by the way, but do not worry about Gary, his legs will not get sunburned.

Our first stop , as we made our way to Galway city, was in the market town of Gort. Stan, pictured above, was intrigued by this weigh bridge station, which was a feature in all market towns as it was used to weigh all types of loads, from trucks, to animals.

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 . It also gave me the opportunity to have Stan weighed on the above mechanism, as i am only entitled to carry a specific amount of weight in my van. He came in just barely below the limit.

Stan really liked this old water pump, which was extremely important for watering the animals at the fair on market day.

What a nice friendly group of people i now have the pleasure of spending the next couple of weeks with. Our tour will bring us to many wonderful and beautiful places in the west and south west of Ireland, and you are welcome to follow along as we tour.

If you wish to make an enquiry with regard to a visit to Ireland, no matter what the duration, just drop me a line and i will see what i can do for you.