"How are you today?" the store clerk at a stop near Virginia, Ireland, asked as he rang up my bottled water and chips.
"I'm just fine," I responded. "I'm in Ireland."
It's the greatest country on Earth," he said.
I heartily agreed.
Our second day in Ireland was primarily traveling from Kildare (south of Dublin) to Bundoran in County Donegal on the west coast.
We enjoy our travel days as Bill cranks up RTE classical music on the car radio.
We like stopping at the convenience stores and looking over the offerings.
Bill almost always comes out of the store with some Cadbury chocolates, while my choices are more limited than usual, thanks to colitis.
Still, it's fun to see the offerings, and it doesn't take long to see the wide variety of "Taytos," one of the family's favorite symbols of truly being in Ireland.
One time Annie asked a friend who was visiting her in Seattle to bring a huge bag of individual baggies of Taytos from Ireland to give to her parents.
We served them at our 50th wedding anniversary party.
So, yesterday, it was good to see the Taytos display and shoot a photo back to Willie, Debbie and Annie.
As you can maybe observe, it's the simple stuff that gets us excited when we come to Ireland.
It's also the people.
We were able to do some quick but nice visiting with the staff at Silken Thomas yesterday morning before leaving Kildare. Our server remembered us from spring and couldn't believe those months had elapsed so quickly.
"It seemed like it was just yesterday that you were here and told us you'd be back in the fall," she said.
The big news at Silken Thomas is that Beata (whom we sadly did not see this time) will become a grandmother this next week. The whole staff and probably the town of Kildare is very excited for the upcoming event.
We said our good byes to the Silken Thomas friends and several hours later met a new friend or two and Border Collie No. 2 here in Bundoran.
Bill unsuccessfully searched for a nano geocache along the shoreline walkway.
I was helping him look for it when a nice and curious lady named Maria walked by and asked what I was doing. A quick explanation and her curiosity was whetted even more as she was determined to go look up the geocaching website.
Daniel checked us in to our room and also helped see that we had a wonderful meal last night at Madden's Bridge Bar, also the location for our rooms.
Overnight, Daniel came by our room and slipped an envelope under the door with a 50-Euro bill and a note telling us that we had dropped the money at our table.
Brand new Euros kinda stick together so Bill thinks that's what happened when he pulled out some bills. One must have separated from the pack.
Talk about honesty. Daniel will live in our minds as one very honest South African who moved to Ireland a while back.
We also saw Maria again, along with her friend Clare. Clare happens to know Paula Harvey who runs an Air B and B in Ardara where our Sandpoint friends Laura and Sean stayed a couple of weeks ago.
Laura and Sean were enamored with Paula, whom we've learned is multi-talented and a shaker an doer in Ardara.
We're thinking we'll drop by the Air B and B and say hi to Paula while we're in County Donegal.
Another small world moment!
Again, that's a prime example of the people we meet here----good and friendly to a fault.
So, yes, we're just fine.
We are in Ireland and loving every moment. One more day and Willie and Debbie will fly over to join us in Clifden with John and Sue, owners of Sharamore House.
Life is good. Life is heavenly.
We are in beautiful Ireland.
On today to Catriona, Michael and Maura and the gang at the Seaview Tavern B and B today at Malin Head, northernmost point of the Republic of Ireland.
Can't wait to see them and do a little friendly heckling with Maura.
Bundoran is a surfing area on the Atlantic Ocean. Lots of hotels and B and B's.
It's our first visit to this community, and we have enjoyed it.
Bill is always on an ongoing culinary adventure, sampling and evaluating the fish and chips of Ireland.
He was so impressed with last night's offerings at Madden's that he asked me to take a picture. His meal earned a high rating.
These two nice road workers stopped at a roadside rest area and gave us some tips on what to see in the area around Ballyshannon and Bundoran.
Bundoran has a nice walkway along the ocean shore.
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