Thanks to everyone who posted good wishes on my win of the Wild West of Ireland Tour: Kathryn Ann, Fran, Bit, Angela and anyone else I've neglected to mention.  A special thanks to Ger Regan, Mike & Trish of WIld West Irish Tours, Jon Ragnar Jonsson and all the others at WOW Air who are helping to make this happen.

My mother has decided that it's just too much for her to travel across time zones.  My sister and both my aunts had…

I often tell my friends that the only way I'll ever make it to Ireland is to win the Lottery or to write the great Irish-American Novel. I am disabled, and on a limited income, so there's very little chance to save up for something like this. If I go to Ireland I would like to take my 78 y.o. Mother for the mother/daughter trip of a lifetime. I would like to give her the trip that she and my Grandmother had always hoped to make to my Great-Grandmother’s home. I remember my Great-Grandmother.…