5/20/2015 Westerly, Rhode Island Spring (#3) and Ireland

Sligo, Ireland

At the end of April we follow Spring up the Atlantic Coast and settle at Ashaway RV Park near Westerly RI for a couple of months. This nice new park is sparsely settled with weekenders at this time of year so besides the staff during the day, we are often the only ones here.  Something Debra has to get used to as Saint John heads off to Ireland with his sister, cousin and aunt for 10 days.   Their mission is to find their ancestral homestead before the families emigrated to the U.S. in 1835. 

Dominican Friary of Sligo, circa 1253

In the northwest coastal town of Sligo,  the Genealogy Society provided great information and introduced them to some locals who helped even more. People in the countryside stopped their daily routines to share stories and even went with them to help find the old homestead using very few clues from a postcard of an uncle's long ago visit.  Forays into this beautiful countryside helped to get a good idea of where and how John's ancestors lived.

Remnants of John's Ancestral Homestead from early 1800's

New England Spring

While John was in Ireland, Debra is enjoying Spring #3 as she ping pongs between flooring stores, plumbing suppliers, kitchen designers, granite providers, appliance stores, etc. while designing our new condo. Even though construction on our building is not expected to be done until Fall 2016, the contractor wants us to have a good idea of what we want before we head West for a year. Good News!! Debra shows John her design ideas, and we are on the same page :) We get to go into the first building and check out the rough design of what our unit will look like AND we get to see our future view!  It will be worth the wait.

Our Future View Overlooking Winnapaug Pond and Misquamicut Beach

Upon his return from Ireland, John commutes to the Naval War College in Newport to continue work on his project. Debra works on a project for her old employer, visits family and helps out with her beautiful new great nephew, Bronson. 

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Not far from the campground, we take the kayak fishing on the Pawcatuck River. It was 60 degrees, breezy and grey and my first cast gets hung up in one of the many tree branches hanging over the river.  I let out more line so it doesn't break (a no no I soon find out) and end up with a massive tangle.  My fishing is done for the day and John's luck isn't much better.  As the swift current takes us down river, my job now is to maneuver the  kayak so he can cast into the river side among the tree branches and weeds.  After about an hour or so of his constant (albeit patient) instruction; during which he spends half the time getting us out of the weeds and untangling his line....nothing is biting and I am freezing.  I said I was done.  As we we paddle back he mumbles...."and that's why you don't take women fishing".  Good thing he was behind me and not in front of me where I could reach him with my paddle! To add insult to injury, as I pull in the freezing, wet anchor line (which has been dragging to slow us down while we "fished"), it wraps around my paddle's safety cord, pulling it out of the boat.  John grabs for it as the hook on his pole embeds into the back of my life jacket.  Oh yeah, this was real fun.....