Ireland Tour

[Elv15]

I was able to get a very reasonable airfare and I took a long weekend trip to tour with the se7ens.net group in Northern Ireland. I had a fantastic time and was able to visit with quite a few of the tourers from the USA2005 tour.

I've posted some pics here:http://pierats.com/gallery/jj09

The tour was based out of a single hotel and we took day trips out and back. This was a great format for a short tour. I think it would be a good format for longer tours also.

Cheers,

Tom

[JohnCh]

Great photos Tom, but you can't honestly think it's okay to fly to Ireland, join a tour, and then not provide a write-up?? We want details - particularly about what the hell was going on in photos 220 - 238 ;)

-John

[slomove]

Looks like great fun! Except the crap weather, of course but I suppose if you don't want that you better don't go to Ireland. All part of the experience?

Also noticed some of the roads are *really* narrow with regular car and truck traffic. I guess that puts a certain damper on the gas pedal in the wet. But at least no double yellow lines....how about speed cameras?

[Elv15]

Ireleand tour - now with details

Sorry guys, here are the details:

The tour was the 10 year anniversary of the very first se7ens.net tour - which was in Northern Ireland in 1999. Although I did not attend that event everyone seemed to agree that the weather was more than a bit wet. I packed thinking that this could easily be the case for my trip.

I had been wanting to go over and visit some of the friends I've made online and see some of the folks from the USA2005 tour. I was lucky enough to find a really inexpensive fare from San Francisco to Belfast. One of the locals, Dusty Millar graciously picked me up at the airport and took me along as his passenger. It was a whirlwind trip. I basically left here on Thursday morning and arrived there 9am Friday morning. The tour started at noon. Fortunately the flights were all on time! The tour started off at Stormont the seat of the NI parliament. It was quite the impressive location for the start of the tour and they gave us a very nice reception lunch. With a short speech we were off for the day's drive. I'm happy to report that Dusty had no problem making good speed on those little roads even in the wet. :D

There were about 35 cars in the tour, a number of them from England, a few from NI and one from Holland. There were all kinds of different makes, including a couple of bike engined cars and even a turbo diesel Westfield. He said he kept breaking axles because the engine has so much torque. Se7ens.net has a great tour support truck, it can hold two sevens inside and the big awning really helped with the wet weather repairs.

The rain was on and off the first day and the second day (Saturday) until we stopped for lunch. We had a fabulous lunch at Bushmills - where we totally filled the car park. I'm guessing the other cars in the car park just went back to the bar when they saw how blocked in they were! :D After lunch it was nice and sunny for the rest of the trip. It's hard to believe that I got a sunburn visiting Ireland, but there you have it - I did!

I'm sorry I did not get more pics of the dinners, but it was really nice with this size group for everyone to sit down and have meals together. It was a great way to socialize...and of course, afterwards many hung out at the bar...(btw, the Guinness was superb. Nothing like the stuff we get here. Delicious!!)

Sunday we did a long drive over some beautiful roads and scenery. Funny those country lanes are nice, but in many places you can't see anything, at least from a se7en, because you are lower than the hedge/stone wall!

As John noticed, Sunday evening there was a party, a 70's party to be exact. No one admitted without proper attire (that's what they threatened anyway). Some folks really pulled out all the stops. You can judge for yourselves. I thought I did alright: http://picasaweb.google.com/martincx...44310156666402

It was an excellent party! The costumes were hilarious and there was a raucous spud gun war before the food was served (although I'm not sure the wait staff was ready to serve us in the middle of heated battle!). After dinner there was a nice speech by a few of the "tour regulars". It was amazing to think about what a little internet mailing list has generated over the last 10 years. Tours all over Europe, and of course the USA2005 tour here. There were a few mentions of possible tours to top the ones done in the last decade...I mentioned that 2015 would be the 10 year anniversary of the USA tour... :D

Monday we spent the day at the track. I was kindly offered many rides, including one in a Westfield Hayabusa - totally bonkers!! I really liked that - totally raw, massive acceleration, deeper braking points and excellent handling. I was even more kindly offered the chance to drive a couple of cars and had a really good time! I managed to keep them both on the track for most of the session! :eek: :o I cut some grass...no harm done to the car, but my ego was put back in it's place. :rolleyes: :)

I flew home Tuesday - taking most of the day to get home, thinking of the new friends made, the good times with old friends and feeling satisfied that it was worth the journey. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to go and am wondering what the next 10 years will bring!

PS: more pics here: http://hughmcgphoto.com/supersevenst...191_large.html

[Sean]

Great write-up, Tom. Thanks! When I went to Ireland around twenty years back, all of the younger crowd in the pubs were shunning the black stuff in favor of the fashionable new import at the time... Budweiser! It too tasted completely different, was 5.5%, and was brewed locally by Guinness, under license from AB.

An expanded version of your report would make a great contribution to Low Flying (hint, hint). ;)

[mopho]

Every time I've been to Ireland, everyone was drinking Miller beer, I was the only one ordering Guinness

[JohnCh]

Excellent write-up Tom, and nice outfit ;) Sounds like a great time.



-John

[Elv15]

Oi, I've been outed by John! WAIT, actually that's my new driving suit and now that I've been to the "Afro club for men" that is my real hair! ...Mark my words (since I'm a fashion genius) everyone will be dressing like this soon. Go out and get yours now before it becomes the norm. :D

Yes, many of the locals were drinking lighter beer...but I just took that as a sign that they had grown up with Guinness and wanted to be different. ;) I did see quite a few of the locals drinking Guinness too.

Sean, a LF article...I suppose I could. I don't think my writing is on park with our veteran Clark, but I might give it a try. :)