After enjoying a full Irish breakfast yesterday morning, the first task of the day was to figure our how to drive the Tesla properly. Since we wanted a full charge to start our explorations, we found the nearest charging port in Athlone, plugged the car in, after figuring out how to do that, then sat and worked our way through the entire control panel of the Tesla to set up the configuration we needed. This included everything from setting the airflow inside the car to adjusting the wing mirrors, seat and steering wheel so that Roy, at least, felt comfortable when driving. Other options included setting the steering mode, getting voice navigational directions, making sure the lights came on automatically, whether or not we wanted to use the regenerative breaking mode and on and on the options went.

Delighted with ourselves at “mastering” this first step, we still felt like first graders on their first day of school, but we set off anyway under sunny skies, heading north, then northwest to explore the interior counties of Roscommon and Leitrim and the various loughs (aka lakes) along the way, before heading to the Wild Atlantic Way.

By days end, we’d reached our hotel for the night, the Mill Park Hotel & Spa and what a fabulous hotel this was compared to the Radisson Blu in Athlone.

Over sundowners on the patio, we reflected on our day and what we’d seen. Thankfully, although there were areas we were very disappointed with, there were three areas we loved; one with stunning country views, one with views over Lough Lee and then Elaine’s favourite, with an ocean view, including an area with a fabulous beach, surprised to see cars actually parked on it, reminding us of Fraser Island in Australia. At least we now had options. We did, however, spend some time chatting to a number of American tourists staying at the hotel and, once again, Roy couldn’t resist bringing up American politics and, in particular, the state of the US, much to their disgust.

A shower and a very tasty dinner; champ and sausage with vegetables for Elaine, a Thai roasted duck dish for Roy, sealed our day, although some hand washing was required in order to have clean clothes to wear today. Fortunately, though, our luggage had been located and was successfully delivered to Elaine’s sister’s address, where we were heading today, albeit a rather late night delivery at 2200.

This morning, although we woke to a drizzly overcast day, we woke up naturally, enjoyed another cooked breakfast and set off to Newcastle, but not before we took a drive through the nearby little town. Our tour took us through counties Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh and into County Down. Fortunately the weather cleared the further north and east we drove, reaching Newcastle around 1300. As always, it was lovely to see our loved ones and spent the rest of the day chatting and catching up.

After our travel fiasco and touring for two days, though, we were definitely grateful for a relatively early night.