Drayke's Travels

Just a few days before Christmas, before I ventured back North to spend the holidays with my family, I visited this grotto in Alabama. It’s normally closed at sunset but they had special hours for Christmas and the site was lit up with lights. The photos are a little blurry because it was dark. If you’re ever in the area it’s worth a stop, you can really see the lifetime of work that went into... read more.

In mid-December, after recovering from an altercation with an electric scooter, I traveled south to Natchez Trace Tennessee, and Arley, Alabama. This was my first time camping at actual campgrounds instead of in driveways and backyards. Lovely views of Tennessee in winter. Spotted a lot of interesting rigs at this park, including what I would call "tiny homes." More Solo Stove ramen. This time I used the dedicated pan. Used a fair amount of salvaged... read more.

I bought myself a Solo Stove Campfire to use for small campfires and the occasional cooking on the road. It’s the largest of Solo’s “Stove” line. I debated between this one and their smallest “Fire Pit” model, but this one has worked out for me pretty well. My first trial run was a package of instant ramen, and some tea. You can’t tell from these photos, but it was drizzling rain while I did this,... read more.

In August I finally found a tow vehicle for my camper. It’s a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel. It has more than enough power to pull my camper even if I need to accelerate onto the highway, though I try to avoid that to keep the MPGs low. I took the camper down to Bloomington for GenCon, and parked it at my buddy’s house for a couple weeks. Ready to roll out. I got some... read more.

In May of 2021, I purchased a used 2021 Forest River Cherokee Wolf Pup 16FQ. A coworker has another trailer of the same line, and when I heard the name of it I was amused at the seeming random collection of words that make up the product name. Forest River is the manufacturer, they are like the Disney of RV makers, having bought up many other brands. Cherokee is the brand, Wolf Pup is the... read more.

In April of 2021 I rented a 19 foot Thor motorhome from Cruise America and delivered it from Chicgao to Salt Lake City. First stop was a State Park in Illinois. It was snowy but quiet. The view wasn't great at this KOA outside Lincoln, NE, but the internet was fast. Grill made from an old wheel rim. Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming was easily the nicest place I stayed. This window is a... read more.

Tuesday of week 5 we decided to do one last tourist attraction and see the Titanic Belfast museum. The ship was built here and the museum gives a nice overview of the history of the city and some of the context of the times, along with a haunting recreation of the sinking. Nearby is the newly-restored SS Nomadic, a tender that was used to ferry passengers from the smaller port of Cherbourg in France to... read more.

After Castle Ward we went South to Tollymore Forest, another GoT filming site, and ended up near a point on St Patrick’s Trail. There was a hiking path up the mountain on what seemed like a dry riverbed, the walking was so rough. Then near the car we found the actual trail and walked down it the other way for awhile. On our drive back we discovered that we had missed the actual Forest Park,... read more.

On Sunday we drove down to County Down to find Castle Ward, one of the filming locations from Game of Thrones. There is a 40£ tour that runs from Belfast, but that’s about $60 so we decided to find it ourselves. It was slightly awkward as Google maps took us to the back entrance along several miles of literal one-lane road, and when we arrived there was some kind of family day for DHL employees... read more.

After the drive up the Coastal Route, we arrived at the Giant’s Causeway. Being yet another big tourist attraction they had a nice visitor’s center at the entrance and a road with busses down to the Causeway itself. The legend says that an Irish giant Finn MacCool built the causeway to reach Scotland when challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. When he reaches Scotland, Finn realizes Benandonner is much larger than him... read more.

Photo taken at: Ballycastle Sea Front Belfast had the best internet speeds of anywhere we stayed, so we spent most of our time there catching up on work, keeping our tourism to the weekend. On Saturday we drove north along the Causeway Coastal Route to the Giant’s Causeway, stopping a few times along the way to photograph the view. We stopped at the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge, but decided to skip it because it was around... read more.

On Wednesday of week 4 we crossed the island again from Donegal to Belfast. Northern Ireland is part of the UK and uses Pounds so we had to pick up a third currency. read more.

Photo taken at: Kilcar We spent Sunday-Wednesday of week four in Kilcar, in County Donegal. Sunday was spent driving North from Galway. We stopped in a town called Mullaghmore for dinner, and got some photos of the marina and people swimming in the cold water. On Monday morning while enjoying my coffee outside I had to get a shot of the smoke from the chimneys, there were a few turf or coal fires burning most... read more.

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  It is a very “Touristy” thing to incessantly photograph sheep while traveling in and around Ireland. However, as I walked along the cliffs of Slieve League at this particular point, this sheep was staring very intently at me while I passed. That, in addition to the lovely backdrop, seemed like too precious a photo opportunity to pass up. After snapping the offending photo, I looked up to find two gentlemen smiling  in my direction. They... read more.

On Monday morning of week two we went West to see Slieve League. We found out that this is the primary attraction for people staying at our Airbnb. We actually found it by accident, looking merely for a place near Donegal. The cliffs here ended up being some of the best scenery we saw on the entire trip. We parked at the first car park and walked the road to the second, then followed the... read more.

On Saturday of week three we drove Northwest from Galway to Connemara National Park. We stopped by to see Kylemore Abbey, but decided it wasn’t worth the ticket price (only the all-inclusive house and garden tour tickets were available and we were short on time) and drove on to the park and walked one of the trails up the hills. We saw more than a few sheep and some lovely countryside. read more.

Photo taken at: Galway, Ireland We spent the third week in Galway, from Sunday to Sunday. Owing to the relatively reliable internet at our Airbnb, the proximity of downtown with a plethora of live music, and the amount of work I missed driving around the southwest in week two, we spent most of week three working during the day and going out in the evenings. We went twice to a pub called Fox’s Bar and... read more.

The photos from Saturday night and Sunday morning are both here. We rented bikes to take us out to the shipwreck and to see the lighthouse. During this adventure I had the misfortune of gaining too much momentum down a hill and gripping the front brake first, causing the bike to throw me off as a horse might. Fortunately I endured only minor scrapes, and didn’t break any body parts or my phone despite landing... read more.

  This photo was taken the morning of our one-night stay on the smallest of the Aran Islands, Inis Oirr (pronounced and spelled Inisheer in English). I try to get at least 15 minutes of meditation in each morning. This was especially easy to do accompanied by the sounds of the ocean and a cup of tea. read more.

Photo taken at: Inis Oirr, Arann Islands After the ferry tour of the Cliffs, we took another Ferry to Inisheer. This is the smallest of the Aran islands, and the site of our airbnb for Saturday between weeks 2 and 3.  After watching for the dolphin who we discovered lives near the dock at the island, we checked into our room and walked westward looking for a good sunset over the next island over. http://travel.drogers.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/11936127_806664402787478_236033810_n.mp4... read more.

We drove along the coast roads just inland from the Cliffs of Moher from Lahinch to Doolin, where we would catch a ferry to Inisheer. We opted not to take the side road up to the top of the Cliffs because of the sheer number of tourists there. Instead we took a ferry tour to see the Cliffs from the ocean side. We found the various ferrymen very helpful, if a little overbearing. Nonetheless we... read more.

On the recommendation of a server we met in Kilcullen, we stopped in the town of Lahinch on our way to Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher and catch a ferry to Inisheer. I get the impression that this town is much more appealing in warm weather. Nonetheless there were more than a few people surfing and swimming, especially after the rain stopped and we finished breakfast around noon. read more.

Here are just a few random photos from week 2 that didn’t fit in any of the specific sights or sites we saw. These ruins were right along the road to Cashel, and the spot where we had our first car scare, scraping the undercarriage on a rock. It’s been fine since then so no worries. Sarah wanted to climb into the tower, but it had an iron gate over the doorway, even though it... read more.

  On our first jaunt into the city of Limerick, Dennis and I visited what was the Milk Market, a place where food and craft vendors gather under a large tent in the middle of the city to sell their goods on Saturdays. Most of the vendors had packed up and gone by the time we got there, but there were still several food and coffee vendors, as well as customers sitting at picnic tables. Dennis... read more.