A Rainy Ride to Kilkenny

Monday came in normal Irish fashion with lots of rain. I'd slept through breakfast and was awakened with a call from Hunter that they were on the way to collect my luggage and take it to Kilkenny in 30 minutes. Time to get moving ... FAST.

I met them on time in front of the hotel. We loaded my bags and headed to the light rail stop that would take me near the motorcycle pick-up point.

They dropped me at St. Stephen's Green, Dublin's Central Park and I caught a trolley to Sandyford. The LUAS ticketing system is a joy. You buy a ticket and get on the train. When you get to your destination you get off. No one looks at your ticket at any time. It's a an honor system. HOWEVER, if you do get stopped and do not have the proper ticket in your possession the fines are substantial.

At Sandyford I began the two mile walk to the pick-up point. Once more in rain. The hardest part was keeping the inside of my helmet dry.

I found the place using my GPS and was the first one there. Oh goody, I get first dibs on the bikes. NOT! Someone had stopped by some time before and claimed four of the bigger bikes. All that was left were a couple of F650s and a couple of F800s (all the bikes are BMWs). I grabbed a cool silver F800ST which was big enough to haul two. Since my job was to pilot a motorcycle for a photographer that was essential.

The bad news was twofold. I'd forgotten to pack the RAM mount bases for my GPS mount and my radio mount. And the F800ST has a plastic tank area. My tank bag is a magnetic one. It doesn't play well with plastic.

So off I headed to the biggest BMW motorcycle dealer in Ireland about 20 miles away with my magnetic tank bag secured behind me with a cargo net. Surely they would have a tank bag for this bike and maybe RAM mount bases as well. Since I could not mount my GPS I was back to navigating by normal means; looking for road signs. I knew Joe Duffy's was on the M50 and that route was very near. After four two-mile circuits of the Sandyford Industrial Park all I could find were signs that pointed to M50 but didn't take me there.

Finally a fellow motorcyclist pulled up and asked if I knew where (I couldn't understand a thing he was asking) was? I told him I was lost myself, an American trying to find the M50. He knew enough to point me in the right direction. I wished him well and headed on the rainy slog north.

The fine folks at Joe Duffey BMW Motorrad had everything you can imagine except a tank bag that would fit and RAM mount bases. Time to head to Kilkenny. Did I mention how much I hate toll booths when on a motorcycle? Well, I hate them even more when on a motorcycle in the rain. The only people who hate them more are the people waiting while I take of my gloves, dig into my pockets for the correct change which falls on the ground and then you get off the bike to pick it up and finally pay the toll and drive up the road and stop before putting your glove back on. I wish my EZ-Pass worked in Ireland.

It took about a half-hour to get out of Dublin on the M7 and the further out I got the dryer it became. By the time I was 50 km out it was dry. I'd stop after each new route to check if I was still on course according to my GPS. It worked out fine.

One of the more remarkable parts of driving in Ireland, other than driving on the left, is their passing technique. Ann will never have grounds to criticize my two-lane passing again. First let me point out there is a small lane on the side of the main lane. I did not understand why it was there. It was barely wide enough for a bicycle. Then a fellow passed me just as a big truck came around a bend. I hit my brakes and headed into that small lane and the big truck did the same on the other side, except he didn't hit his brakes. The fellow in the car drove right over the center line went between the two of us like nothing happened. As far as he was concerned, and everyone else but me, nothing had.

I got to the Lyrath Estate Hotel safely only to find that I was not staying there. The race is occupying four hotels in Kilkenny. Darach had some letters for me to post before 5 PM so I headed off to find my hotel and a post office neither of which was in my GPS.

I found the post office on High St. which looked like a fine place to look for a gift for Anne tomorrow and after a few false starts found the hotel.

I was the only crew there that night so I ate alone and got organized for the next day. Early to bed with no drinking. Work was about to start.

My camera was in one of my pieces of luggage so no pix today.