Jim’s Gaelic Turas 17’ – Ireland and Scotland

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Hello fellow riders, well-wishers, & Cure Duchenne supporters,



Tis time to be thinking about the wind in my face and a cool breeze at my back. Last year’s National Parks Tour was awesome with all the majestic mountains and parks, the beautiful upper west coast, and stunning lake Louise.



Unfortunately, Travelpod.com is no longer going to be available as a blog sight. So I will be using ( www.mytb.org/JimBMW/ ) as my new sight. You may want to go in an give www.travelblog.org permissions so that the blogs don't go to junk mail folders. I will be including a lot of pictures this year. If you don't get the blogs- you might ask your IT manager to open up the file size a little for the incoming emails. If the blog size gets to big because of the pictures- I may just send out a note that says I've updated a trip log and you will be able to go to the travelblog site on the internet and view the pictures from there.



This year’s ride in Ireland & Scotland will be the second in a series of three rides in foreign countries.
Sandwiched between the 2015 “Principalities of Europe Ride” and next years “Outback Ride-a-bout 18” in Australia.



Jim’s Gaelic Turas 17 (turas means touring in Gaelic) will start in Ireland circle through Scotland and end up back in Ireland. Unlike the principalities of Europe ride in 2015, I won’t need to ship my bike over to the Emerald Isles. I’ll be renting a BMW 1200 GS which is similar to my BMW K1600 GLT less a few bells and whistles. I’ve gotten high recommendations from my Irish friends about using “Celtic Rider” as the preferred bike rental company in Ireland/Scotland.

As many of you know -since 2011, every other year I've dedicated my ride to Cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a form of MD that affects young boys. Typically the child is diagnosed with the disease by the time they are 4 or 5, in a wheel chair by age 12, and most don't make it to adult hood. The Cure Duchenne team are making great progress. I encourage you to go to the www.cureduchenne.org website and make a donation to this very worthwhile charity- feel free to reference "Jim's Gaelic Turas 17'. I'm not sure when they will have a donation site up but the more important point is to donate if you are able. Over my past three "Cureduchenne rides" nearly $30,000 has been donated. Donations can be made at: http://www.cureduchenne.org/event/jims-gaelic-touras-2017.



JIm's Gaelic Turas 17' will start in late July of 2017. As always I'll be blogging along the route and promise lots of pictures this year (big request from past blogs). I've visited Ireland a couple of times before and consider it to be one of my favorite place to visit. In case you wondering - I have no Irish blood in me (but my wife does) and that's just enough to get me into the country 😊 We’ve made a lot of friends in Ireland over the recent years (those of you that have been to Ireland/Scotland know this is not difficult to do). I'm hoping to see the Dunlea's, Kennedy's, O'Keeffe's, Caulfield's, just to name a few. The Caulfield's will be sponsoring a race during the Galway race week (horses) which I'll be attending.

Once I get my schedule outlined I'll do a second pre-blog noting the planned route. Mind you, the nice thing about doing these trips by myself is that the routes are easily changeable along the way. This trip will be unlike any of my other trips, in that the total distance I will cover is but a wee amount of the normal miles I put on. Last year for example, I put on about 6,300 miles doing the National Parks Tour and this entire trip will cover approximately 1,600 miles at the tops. In my earlier (non-motorcycle visits to Ireland), we've spent time in the southern part of Ireland, therefore, most this year’s turas will be from Galway north. I will fly into Dublin and spend a night shaking off the jet lag with the help of a pint or two from O'Donahue's Pub near St. Stephens Green 😊. Then after a quick trip to Cork - I'll spend a few days in Galway for Race week. After the races, I'll be heading north to cities like Westport, Donegal, Carndonagh, and Belfast.

Scotland will be new territory for me, as I have not been to highland country. While I've not mapped out the entire trip yet - plans are to hit the likes of Edinburgh, Pitlochry, Inverness, Oban, and Glasglow. I was hoping to include the Isle of Mann in the route but there is so much to see and since I've never been to most of the parts of Ireland I'm hitting and none of Scotland. I may ride through Wales and a small part of England proper.

Karen usually meets me at the way point on my trips but, because everything is so condensed and there really is no waypoint, she is going sit this one out. Before you feel sorry for Karen, two summers ago Karen and my daughter along with her sister and niece spent 8 days in Ireland and yours truly was left minding the homestead. She decided that she would not meet me on this trip but rather save the time for next year’s trip where there will be many waypoints (Australia) !

Finally, I'm looking at a new camera that I can mount which will give me the ability to take pictures on voice command. So, those of you who have asked for more pictures on the blogs - get ready 😊.

Because of the new blog site ( www.mytb.org/jimBMW/ ) I will send out at least one more blog before I head over to Ireland next month so I can practice. If you know someone who would like to be added to be blog email list. Please have them send me an email titled Blog add on my email address is [e-mail]

Those of you in the fastener industry be sure to watch for the next issue of Distributors Link Magazine! Leo Coar (Owner/Editor who has been a huge supporter of both cureduchenne and my blogs), has published a small excerpt from what will eventually be a book I'm writing about what it takes to plan for a cross country motorcycle trip, as well as, stories about the places I've already completed rides.



Blog to you soon!



Jim

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Comments

[Anny Lee]

wow, nice blog!
Handsome man and handsome Motorcycle ! feel exciting from this blog. :)