No place like home

My wife kidnapped me and took me on an all expense paid trip(paid by me) to Ireland for 2+ weeks. As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz," There's no place like home,Toto". I enjoyed the trip immensely, but I sure was glad to see my house again. Sometimes we need to leave South Georgia to realize just how beautiful this place we call home is--heat, humidity, gnats, and all.

 The scenery in Ireland was just awesome, and the people were so friendly and helpful. It's more comforting to me to visit a foreign country where they speak a language I understand even if with a strong accent. Of course, we ran into plenty of US citizens who struggled to understand our South Georgia dialect. I enjoyed the countryside more than the cities, but that is just my nature. After a while, all castles and cathedrals look the same to me, but terrain is constantly changing.

Speaking of cathedrals, I located one of my ancestors who had a burial vault on the floor of the church. I was feeling fairly smug until our guide pointed out that Michelle Obama's uncle, six generations removed, was also buried in this church. My smart butt friend, Earl, quickly made the connection that I must be kin to Michelle. Now what I found interesting was that they could trace her lineage that far back, but we can't find her husband's college transcripts.

We also saw some of the best dog work I have ever observed with border collies herding sheep. A sheep herder gave us a private demonstration of two of the best trained dogs that I have ever seen. Each dog performed individually or as a team based on hand signals and whistles from their trainer. It was most impressive! Oh, did I mention that they have quite a few sheep in Ireland?

I will not bore you with all of the places we visited, but we covered both Ireland, and spent a few days in The Republic of Northern Ireland. My take on Northern Ireland is that those wounds have not healed, and it would not take much of a spark for a fire to blaze back up. We were more comfortable when we exited there and got to Dublin.

Guess what folks? College football season is just around the corner, and hunting season will be here before we know it. We are ready. The woods are beautiful, the quail are plentiful, and the guides and dogs are chomping at the bits!