Didn’t sleep well last night . . . body hurt in so many places it was hard to find a comfortable position. Should have taken some Nuprin or something like that.

Tony delivers the news at our morning ride meeting that there is a ‘reasonable’ change of rain expected in today’s ride . . . everyone had there rain gear handy . . .

Don, Denise and Mary studying the maps for today and the various options . . .

. . . Tony giving final gps tips to Judy, Dave and Denise . . . and the riders were off.

Today riders would be traveling around this mountain, which was completely fogged in with really only the base visible . . .

We stopped at the Drumcliff Church to view the grave of  the famous poet W.B. Yeats, who wrote his own epitaph . . .

We have left the ‘Ancient East’ of Ireland and are the back on the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’, which has physically been here for eons but has only been marketed as a recreational opportunity since 2014!!!

mmmmm . . . looks like some of our group having a little lunchy in Mullaghmore.

About half of the group beat the rain into Rossnowlagh, where our home for the night is the Sandhouse Hotel. The current owner bought the place for 600,000 euro and put another 6,000,000 euro into remodeling it!!!

Cozy bar and seating areas and wood fires burning in the fireplaces . . . in September!!!

A great dining room on the second level, looking out over the ocean, where we would have our group dinner.

Most of our bedrooms also had an ocean view . . . NICE!!!

I walked down to the beach where there was lots of surfing going on and passed this caravan park used by weekenders. This is probably only the second or third place like this we have seen . . . there doesn’t seem to be any of the traditional ‘double wide’ residential trailer parks like in the US.

oh . . . the rain was coming in . . . and the surfer’s were coming out of the water.

Nice view of our hotel from the beach . . .

Soon it was time for the ‘Tom and Tony’  daily travel series , accompanied by your favorite cocktail . . . this could become habit forming (where is my Smoochie???)!!!

I chose the yummy crab cakes followed  by the salmon with a crab claw on top and a hollandaise type sauce . . . ate every bite (I am in physical recovery mode you know and need to keep up my energy) . . .

. . . including some simple sugars!!!!

Soon it was time for my other newly developed nightly routine . . .

Today Tony gave me a ride back to the emergency room to see the ophthalmologist. I had taken my three types of eye drops last night and will continue to for the rest of the week. Bad news is  . . . I need to go, once more, to the ophthalmologist, four days down the road, for a final check up at one of their satellite clinics  . . . AND NO RIDING UNTIL THEN!!!!

. . . but we did stop at a bike store in Sligo and I bought a new helmet to replace my cracked one . . . so I am ready to ride . . .

. . . although I hate to say goodbye to the Cannondale helmet I bought several years ago in Moab, UT, that has seen many miles . . .  it saved my ‘noggin’ on this ride!!!