Bodacious Beginning

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog. Upon reading I expect everyone's reaction to be "wow, he's obviously never done this before." But that's why I put the disclaimer in the email, people. I don't believe I've ever written anything that other people may read voluntarily, and it will show. Anyway, Tim and Tom's Bodacious Journey is off to a great start in Ireland. We rented a car and have done a fair amount of driving thus far. It's pretty sweet because driving on the wrong side was on my checklist of life. Check. It is pretty easy to get used to, except when we're driving around a blind coner and a car comes flying in on the right side of the road. Whichever one of us is driving flinches every time, a la spazzing out of a nap in class. Just a little extra entertainment for the passenger. It also always, just for a split second, appears that the cars are driving themselves.We pulled out of the airport and headed down toward Blarney, home of the aptly named Blarney Castle, and not surprisingly, Blarney Stone. Kissing the Blarney Stone was most definitely on Tom's checklist of life, as he informed me on numerous occasions before we arrived, so we set out to do just that. The castle was really cool. As some of you may know, ancient architecture fascinates me (if you need some facts about the Great Pyramid, just ask). This castle I found particularily interesting. Smallest rooms ever. Apparently these kings and queens hired some guy to draw up a castle blueprint and the guy says "Here we have a 50,000sq.ft. luxury home, where the private rooms will be no bigger than 6x6 and if you've had a big lunch, don't even think about fitting in the stairs." SOLD! Where do I sign?! For those of you who, like me, figured the Blarney Stone to be some rock in the middle of nowhere, it's not. It's actually part of the wall at the top of the castle. And kissing it while on your back hanging off a ledge is the way it must be done. So we climb the mini-stairwell and arrive at the top and......Holy lame modernization of a potentially once neat-o tradition, Batman. Some dude is there to slide you on the plastic mat they've put in place and gets you in and out of there in about 6 seconds. Getting a picture of someone at the precise milisecond that this clown allowed each person to "experience" this tradition was a matter of serious timing. But I think Tim and Tom prevailed, adding to the Bodaciousness of the Journey (for those wondering, the title of this blog was supposed to be off of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, but I thought it was "Bodacious" and decided to keep the title anyway). After that, we walked around the grounds. There was definitely some vegetation I had never seen before. Some of it looked like it was pulled out of a fairy tale. Had I walked around the corner to happen upon a caterpillar smoking a hookah pipe atop a giant mushroom, I would have shrugged and kept on.Well, we must be off. I hope this blog has not been quite as brutally boring as it seems to me. I apologize for all the typos. I didn't take the time to proofread, some keys are different, and about half the keys have been worn away and are blank. Also, Tom has nearly earned the right to the password to this blog, so if he continues to behave, look for his posts soon. Enjoy.
draft
by TN