The Ring of Kerry is a scenic highway that circles the lovely Iveragh Peninsula in the county of Kerry. It is a part of Ireland's famous Wild Atlantic Way highway and offers wide views of the North Atlantic Ocean, Dingle Bay to the north and Kenmare River to the south. What a fierce, rugged but gorgeous stretch of land and coast! Ireland!! Ireland!! What a wonderful place!

I am not going into great detail about today's drive; it was a full day on narrow winding roads and the sights were magnificent. I think we have photos to show that.

There are things on my mind today that I feel compelled to share. These are random thoughts but ones I think are important. I am feeling a sense of loss in ending this trip. Throughout this trip I have tried to mention things and experiences that have impacted us in one way or another. But there are so many observations and learnings that I simply did not have time to incorporate into a story but these observations make up facts and curiosities that need to be shared. If I don't write these thoughts down now, they could be forever lost, at least in my memory.

I want to touch on the different ways of life we have seen . . . what people like, say and do. For example, in Scandinavia, people always take their shoes off at the door when entering a home. They deal with so much snow, wet and gunk; it is a habit all folk have adopted. They have fuzzy rugs by the door to catch the grime, pairs of warm woolen socks to slip on, and little racks nearby on which boots and shoes are to be deposited. Most Scandinavian homes have heated floors!!! What a nicety! The toasty floors makes going sock-footed very nice. They also have heated towel racks in the bathrooms. Whoooo! Warm towels are heavenly!

All European clothes washers are horrible. They can take many hours to finish a single wash cycle. Some are washer/dryer combination machines. Only small loads can be accomodated, and they either don't dry them at all or dry them so well that wrinkles are almost perma-set in. Once the machine starts, it locks and the door cannot be opened to throw in a missed sock or to change your mind about how the load is to be laundered. Most people here dry their clothes on drying racks. This is something I think we all should do. Imagine how much energy could be saved if we all dried our undies, gym clothes and other items via rack. Plus our clothes would last much longer!

Switching gears a bit, the Scots greet each other with "Are ya all right?" The first time I heard that when I entered a shop I was a bit taken back. I hesitantly answered, "Umm, yes! ---- Are you?" I later got the hang of it. They might also greet you with "Hi ya" -- not hello, good moring or how are you doing, but hi-ya.

Here's another thought, everyone knows how we pamper and adore our rhododendrons, especially in the spring, right? In Scotland, the flowering-bush is almost a nuisance. A Scottish tour guide we had said the bush is invasive and has taken over. He called them "rosie-dendrons. Hmm, we saw a bunch of the beautiful bushes, all with abundant light-violet colored flowers, but I'm truly not sure they have" taken over." We also saw bunches of wild Rhododendron bushes in Ireland too—same violet colored blooms. From now on guess what we will call them.

People all over the UK, especially in England, love the word "lovely" and use it often. It it only applies to certain things, however. The weather can be lovely; a cup of tea can be lovely but a spectacular view will be described as, "it's very nice over there.".

Yes, it rains at least a portion of the day almost every day here in Ireland. The people here do not let the rain stop them from any activity they have in mind. And the most amazing thing is, although it rains every day, there is no humidity! The air is crisp and clean.

Every house and shop has flowers blooming in bed, in post, in window boxes s or in hanging baskets. Town houses have them and roadside counttry houses have them, and nearly all shops have flowers by their door. They make the homes and shops look loved and inviting.

From the beginning of this trip, we have gone through ten countries each with each having a different language until we reached the UK. In case you are wondering, just as English is not true English in the USA, there is no true English in the UK either. While our words are much the same, the language in England sounds incredibly different from that in Scotland and from the language spoken in Ireland. "English" can also sound different again in cities and areas we visited too. For example, Londoners speak a different sounding version of English than the folk in Liverpool. Further, the brogues and accents are so heavy in Scotland, North Ireland and in Ireland that to our ears, the English language is very difficult to understand. In Ireland they still regularly use Gaelic language. Words on Irish road signs are printed in both the Gaelic and English versions. To give a bit of insight to the Gaelic accent, when they Irish say the word, "wait," it sounds like "wee-aht." The word, "Gate" sounds like "gee-aht." It gets worse.

Continuing on with my random thoughts . . . I was looking at the photos I posted last night of the lads with their ponies and sulkies we met on the rural road near the Athassel Priory. I noticed all of the men and boys had their forefinger raised in the air. We learned that this gesture is the universal sign of greeting. They raise the forefinger in the car when they pass another driver on the road. They use it to greet people on the street. In their photo, the lads last night greeted us Americans - and you too, with "hello" from Ireland. Weren't they something to behold!!!

One last thing. . . as we were driving toward the Ring of Kerry today, our road took us very near the town of Killarney. The name, Killarney, kept bouncing off the walls of my brain. I was thinking of a long ago forgotten song. It finally hit me . . . "Over in Killarney, many years ago . . ." It's the first verse of a lullaby my mother sang to me as a child. I sang too, it as I knew it, to my daughters as I rocked them when they were babies. I Googled the lyrics. Just reading and remembering all the words of the song made me cry. I could almost hear my mother, Martha's voice once again.

Our drive today was spectacular. We will never forget the ocean road, Ring of Kerry. Ireland is an amazing green island that warms the heart and kinders up much love.

Tomorrow is our last on this amazng adventure.