Kansas City to Philly to Dublin

We had 3 suitcases, a backpack and Amy's "Handbag of Holding" and pretty much needed them all!

We arrived early to the airport and went through the usual "take your shoes off" and "full body cavity search" routine with no issue and were able to get loaded on the small plane to Philadelphia.

The flight was about 2 and a half hours once we left ground. We were in center seats, so no looking out the window, which was fine, as Amy has a problem with planes anyway. She pretty much hates being on them. She held herself together and we passed the time playing a 'hidden object' game on the Chromebook together and talking.

In Philly, we had a 4 hour layover, so we grabbed chow at Smashburger and walked around the Terminals, looking for anything of interest. We saw

Tobey Maguire (well - a guy who looked a lot like him) and listened to a wide range of accents from those preparing to go to Ireland. French, German, Spanish, etc.

We found a Liberty Bell made of Legos, so that was something! There were also some crocheted instrument covers, custom bicycles and a pictures of an old church through the years, but overall, there really wasn't much to do. They did have a neat little sitting area with a 'book swap' that I snapped a picture of. We chose to walk and get steps in, knowing we hadn't done anything physical and were prepping for a 7 hour flight to Dublin.

Then we did like all good passengers do - sat in the waiting area and charged our devices.

On the plane ride to Dublin, my seat was directly behind Amy - which was kind of a bummer, but we were on our way to Ireland, so we didn't care as much. I watched Justice League, which was better than most of the DC dribble, but not nearly as good as Wonder Woman and then put my head on the seat in front of me to go to sleep for awhile. I slept decently, as far as plane sleep goes, until a dude towards the front of the plane freaked out yelling ‘stop choking me’ and 'you're choking me' repeatedly.

Several rows in front of us is where the guy was, and there were already a few people standing around him. I couldn't see anyone touching him at all and his lungs were strong enough to yell, so I did a quick assessment - he wasn’t a terrorist and was no active combat going on, so I went back to trying to rest. I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but he woke me up again shortly afterwards screaming about his hands turning purple and holding them up. They had been zip tied or bound somehow, but it was too dark to tell color and quite honestly, I understood why the airline may have taken the precautions. Irish authorities came in and removed him upon landing. We passed another dozen or so as we left the plane up to the ramp. Those guys were not messing around!

Going through immigration went pretty fast and painless. I did not know that all the signs were in Gaelic first / English second and thought that was pretty cool.

We left immigration to the sound of traditional Irish music and heard step dancing. I could tell the dancing sounds were real, but thought the music sounded like a CD. Alas, I was incorrect - it was a real band! Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was on stage learning how to Irish dance after being invited and then deserted by a young, pretty, blonde dancer . I honestly do not like to be on stage generally, except for playing music that I know, but I figured "I'm in Ireland, so what the hell!". Incidentally, I was awful at it.

We headed to find the gate where our comrades would be arriving from Toronto, which was at another terminal...luckily, the airport was pretty small and easy to navigate.

Their plane was delayed due to bad weather - luckily, I was kept occupied by Prince Harry* for awhile. His Irish lilt was so thick I had a hard time following him, but he was the first person I had a conversation with in the country and set the tone for a wonderful land of friendly people. When the overhead announcer called for a "Finbar Patrick O'Sullivan", we knew we made it to the right place.

*I cannot confirm or deny if this was truly Prince Harry

We met up with Kate, Kelly, Mirinda, Tim and Lori while holding our 'Tenacity' sign (the official name of our traveling group), exchanged a bundle of our dollars into Euros (ouch) and went to go get our rental van at Hertz. It was a little dreary and the rain was chilly, but everyone was dressed and ready for it!