Episode 476 - Talking with Furman Hendrickson about Celtic Rider Motorcycle Tours

Hello boys and girls,

Today we’re heading to the emerald side of the world as we sit down with Furman Hendrickson, who recently completed an unforgettable motorcycle tour of Ireland with Celtic Rider Motorcycle Adventures. We’ll dig into the riding, the scenery, the culture, the challenges, and even the antics of Woody—the podcast mascot who tagged along for the journey. So grab your helmet, settle in, and let’s roll into this Irish adventure.

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Transcript

0:25

Hello, boys and girls, and welcome back to the Motorcycle Man Podcast. This is episode 476. I am Ted, your host, here in the V Twin Cafe in Sunnycraft, New Jersey. Hey, today we're heading to the Emerald Isle side of the world as we sit down with Herman Hendrickson, who recently completed an unforgettable motorcycle tour of Ireland with Celtic Rider Motorcycle Adventures. We'll dig into the riding, the scenery, the culture, the challenges, and even the antics of Woody. He went along on the trip. The podcast mascot, yes, who tagged along. So grab your helmet, settle in, and let's roll into this Irish adventure. But before we do that, the Motorcycle Men podcast is brought to you by Scorpion Helmets. Another offering high-quality, innovative motorcycle helmets, and technical apparel at an incredible value. So to learn more, get on over to ScorpionUSA.com. And Wildass Seats. Now you can improve your comfort and ability to stay in a style longer with a cushion from Wild Dash Seats. So if you are tired of those painful pressure points and fatigue, go to WildDash Ass.com and get your cushion today. And Viking Bags, a world leader in motorcycle luggage and one of the fastest growing companies in motorcycle parts. Luggage for whatever you need, whatever you ride, and wherever you go. And as always, Tobacco Motorware. For the best in casual riding gear for men and women, there's only one place you should be going, and that's Dave's pants over at Tobacco Motorware. Visit them at tobaccomotorware.com. That's tobaccomotorware.com. And our listeners will get 10% off your order when you use the code Motoman. Your safety is worth it, so get on over to Tobacco Motorware and get in Dave's pants. Alright, time now for that little chat with Ferman. Alright, boys and girls, we're back, and we're here with our good friend Furman Hendrickson, all the way from lovely Pennsylvania. Ferman, how are you doing, sir? I'm good. And have nice sunny weather, at least today. We're gonna talk about that. Now, Furman, uh, you uh took a you took a trip, a guided, unguided or a guided tour? Unguided. Unguided tour through Ireland, and you brought our little mascot Woody with you, which I have Woody right here. He came back. He's hanging in there, he went with you, and um, that's our little mascot. And uh you're so here's he's here to tell us all about his trip, and uh Celtic Rider is who uh you went well with. Uh so what inspired you to take this motorcycle trip through Ireland in the first place? And how did Celtic Rider uh come onto your radar? Okay, well, you know, I'm gonna try to hold my shit together. Here uh this is a little bit of a sad story. Um my wife Nancy and I had done previous motorcycle tours. Uh they were group tours. We have done Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, that was one tour, and then about 10 years later, we did another tour of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and the other country with two names. No way! Yeah, and they they were all group tours. Okay. Uh it originally started out as I rented a motorcycle while we were in Greece on an island of Santorini. Right. Awasaki Sherpa 250. And we rode two up on that from one end of the island to the other end of the island. So we had a trip booked to Norway, was our next motorcycle destination. Right. Uh Nancy had written a report on Norway when she was in an elementary school, and she goes, I want to go to Norway. So we booked that trip, we booked our airfare, and we decided to do business class this time because we were cheat ourselves. And that was scheduled for June, and it was all scheduled to go um probably in the beginning of May. We were all fucking ready to go. Right. Uh Nancy had some issues, she wasn't feeling well. And from no from May to November, she progressively got worse, and to kind of shorten it up, she went and got checked out, and they said that she had a blockage in her intestine. And when she got an MRI, they said, Yeah, we gotta go take care of that. Uh, we went down to Philly to the best doctor they told us to, and when he went to do the repair, she was full of cancer. Oh boy. And uh she got out of the hospital and then back in and ended up having an Oscomy bag that's a for your for your not your lower intestine, but your update. To make a long story, yeah, make it shorten this up a little bit for your listeners. Uh Nancy ended up dying on November um 14 November 9th, 2020. So sorry to hear that, dude. So sorry. Yeah, it was it was bad. But Nancy told me to keep on going on. Don't feel relieved. She said she was sorry for leaving. And one of the things she always told me, and I used to bring her up a mug full of coffee every morning that said, Live and enjoy life. Right. So that's what she told me to do, and she left me a couple cards I found later on that said enjoy life. So a couple months after she passed, I'm looking through one of my motorcycle magazines, and I see a tour for the Isle of Man, uh, a little bit of England and Scotland. Well, I always wanted to go to the Isle of Man. And this this was through Celtic Rider. Okay. And I was gonna do a solo tour by myself, which I've never done before. I figured what's the worst could happen at this point? And uh that was a fantastic tour. Uh, I loved Isle of Man. I was there about two weeks before the big race. So they were setting up the race, and it was only the island's only 29 miles long by oh, 16 miles long, not not that big. Really? Okay. So I rode almost every road on Isle of Man, including the racetrack they call racetrack, which was very poor conditioned roads. I can't see how guys are doing close to 200 miles an hour. I I did 60 kilometers an hour and I thought I was fast. On the way there, to uh I had to take a ferry. They had to make one of those gigantic multi-level ferries. And before I got on it, I was hanging out with all the guys going to Island End on their motorcycles. So we're all talking motorcycles and what's going on. So I just followed them onto the uh ferry. Needless to say, I did not take notice of my location of my motorcycle, and it got time to leave. I lost my motorcycle. I could not find the when when now when was this? This was 2025. Okay. This is last uh last year. That was my first tour. And that was the was that the 14-day Isle of Man, England and Scotland tour? Yes. Okay. And then from Isle of Man, got on another ferry, the the lake region of England, and then uh kept on heading north to Scotland. Oh, I see. And went all around Scotland, all the way to the highlands of Scotland. Uh, I enjoyed Scotland very much. I enjoyed the people, they were great. Um, and then back on a ferry, back to Belfast, and then back to um Celtic Riders and dropped the motorcycle off. Nice. So that was my first tour with them I did. And Paul uh Rollins, who is the owner of Celtic Riders, it's a small family, said, Them and Fleming, you have to come back and do the wild Atlantic way. And I'm like, Paul, I'll think about it. Yeah. And it took me a couple months, and I called him back up and I said, Paul, I want to do that trip in Ireland because I really didn't see Ireland. I just rode through it on one day. Right. And it was all on a motorway. So it was uh didn't not very inspiring. No. Alright, so with this trip, now what were you hoping to get out of the experience before you even got on a plane to go over there? Um I wanted to continue my live and enjoy life fancy tour. Right. Um and I wanted to see Ireland. Yeah. Um, the little experience I had in Ireland from the last trip, I really like the people. I like the weather. Um I do not like riding on the left-hand side of the river. For for a person who is extreme for a person who is extremely dyslexic. It will ring it overing only three times. For a person who's extremely dyslexic, it made it very tough for me. So what I always did was I brought one of Nancy's hair barrettes with me, and I would put it on the left mirror, and that would remind me to keep that on the pitch side of the road. And the and you know, the the roundabouts are backwards too. Yeah. Well, if you've ever been to Bermuda, it's the same way in Bermuda. They ride on the left side. And I've heard the thick I've ridden scooters in Bermuda. Yeah, I've ridden I've ridden scooters in Bermuda on the left side. So I got I got used to it pretty quick. So but anyway, but when you picked up the bike from Celtic Rider, and what were your first impressions of riding in Ireland? You know, the roads, the traffic flow, the weather, and basically the overall feel. Yeah, I I kind of got a feel for it last time I was there. Um the the way the roads are set up, if it starts with an M, that's a motorway. If it starts with an N, the route number, that's a national road. If it starts with an L, that's local, and then if it starts with an R, look out because you're gonna run into sheep and tractors and everything that stands for rural. Uh yeah, the roads are uh pretty nice. The motorways I'm not crazy about. They're large trucks, their tractor trailers there have a flat nose on them, and boy do they throw a wake out behind them. I bet, yeah. Yeah, no aerodynamics whatsoever. Here, most of the trucks have a little bit of aerodynamics, it's not bad, but the motorways, no, I don't like too much, but once I got on a national or rural or local road, it was a lot of fun. So the local roads is where the sheep are, right? The rural roads, the R roads. Oh, the R roads, okay. The R roads. Yeah. And boy, there was a lot of sheep. Um you'd be riding along on a single track road, but you had traffic going both ways, and you go around the corner and there'd be sheep. That must be so nice though. That must be so good. I mean, really, where here in the US are there single track roads? Right? Uh yeah, I'm trying. Oh, no, I was thinking of the blue there was a couple roads that remind me of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but Blue Ridge Parkway is a lot wider than the track road. Wow. I mean, how how long did you how long did it take before you felt like like fully in sync with the with everything, the environment and all that over there? Well, to get used to the riding and the roads, I would say it takes me three days. Um, I usually like to listen to music and my helmet. I didn't listen to anything because I was really concentrating. Yeah. Um, I made one mistake coming into a circle or a roundabout. Uh it was a left-hand turn off the roundabout. So you only hit the edge of it. So I went through it, got back on the road, and I'm watching this car pull out, and I was like, he's in my lane. And we come, we come luckily, he just pulled out on the side because we came head to head. Oh, geez. And and I don't know what to do. So I even passed him on the right. They're really wrong side. Once I got past him, he blows the horn. I was like, yeah, buddy, a little bit too late for that. Well what kind of what what kind of bike did you rent? Um, I rented the the first trip I rented a R1300 GS. It was a 2024, and I really liked that bike. Um I liked it so much that I I ended up buying one here. So Paul said, Oh, I'm gonna get you on a brand new R1300 GS. He goes, here it is, and it was a GSA. If you're familiar with any of the BMW models, a GSA is a bigger bike. Yeah, yeah. It has an eight-gallon fuel tank on it. That's 50 pounds of fuel. Yeah, yeah. And it was the basic model, so it I didn't like I tell you the truth, I really didn't like the bike that much. Um it rode hard, it was top heavy. Um you know, once I got going, it was fine. I rather had the GS that I rented in the beginning. Right. First trip out. But I you know, I managed. I got I got uh you know, it was no big deal. It just wasn't my ideal bike that I got last time. Wow. But you got you got used to it though, right? Yeah, I got used to it. Yeah. Uh another thing they do on that bike is I don't understand, is they put a real short kickstand on it. So it leans way over, and then you've got a full tank of fuel. Yeah. You have to call somebody over to help you stand it up. Or I always look for a rock to put underneath the kickstand, or I parked it on off-camber roads so it sat straight up and down. And I did see a couple uh photographs when you as you were taking photographs with Woody along the way. Uh you were on a couple ferries with the bike. So obviously you can't have a rock with you on there. So, what'd you do there though? Uh that wasn't too bad. Okay. Uh I forget where the ferry was. Um, it's in my notes here somewhere. But I had to take a ferry across an escary. So escary. It was and it wasn't that long. It was like a 25-minute, half-hour ride. And I came up on the ferry, and there's a van and me, and the ferry's loaded, and I see the guy on the ferry signaling to come ahead. Yeah, and the van starts moving. He goes, No, the guy on a motorcycle. So I get on there, and the guy in the van got left behind. Now this yeah, but this was an open ferry. There was a you know, I and I I didn't lose my motorcycle on this. Okay, yeah, I just I was wondering, did they get make you tie it down? Going across the room. No. Oh, really? I'm really surprised. Well, I guess it wasn't that rough going across though, right? The the other ferries I went on that were gigantic, the one ferry uses they use rope and they rope them to the railing. Then the next ferry I was on, the big one, they actually had ratchet straps and uh phone pads. They just put one ratchet strap, put it on there. Um but yeah, this ferry I was surprised. I was like, uh oh, I'm just gonna leave this by itself. But that thing leaned over so much, it wouldn't fall over. Yeah, because if you watch any YouTube videos of like say itchy boots, for example, or anybody else that travels overseas and they're going on these ferries, you know, they all tie them all down, ratchet strapped and stuff like that. You think that that's the guess the case all the time. But uh and and it was real smooth. Yeah, it wasn't rough at all. Uh now Ireland, Ireland is has some beautiful landscapes. We've all seen photographs of Ireland, it's absolutely gorgeous. Can you walk us through any like some of the stretches of road that absolutely blew you away? Uh yeah. Um let me see. I'm taking a quick look at my notes. I did um let's see where it is. I did a couple mountain passes. Um, before I get into that, um Paul took me when when you rent a motorcycle there, they they make you watch a video, get oriented with the road, and they take you out for an hour test ride with another of their employees. And you follow him so you get used to the layout. And Paul took me out, and I didn't know what he was doing, and he took me to a um ruins of a church because there was a graveyard there he wanted me to see. And it was actually Arthur Guinness was buried there at Guinness Bear. Oh, really? So I did leave some of Nancy's ashes in the graveyard. Uh let me see. Oh, uh see a note here. I did worlds, and uh there was a really good uh mountain pass I rode through. I'm looking for the name of it. Um I think it starts with a P. Healy Mountain Pass. I did that. That was a single-lane road that went from um I'm close to the Atlantic at this point, and up through the mountains. There was a sign there that said no buses or large trucks, so that made it a nice ride. Yeah. And that took you way up, and you overlooked um the valley and the mountain. And at one point I'm riding along and I'm like, the scenery is fake. This cannot be real. It's just it's like a postcard or professional photographer look. It was but that's where I hit the wind. As soon as I got up high in the mountain, it was a type of wind where it's blowing and it's gusty. If you run through like a area where it's just constant wind and you almost lean into the wind to keep going straight, you couldn't do this because all of a sudden a gust would catch you and send you going the other way. But that was one of the passes I did that was uh that I enjoyed. It just took me up and over. Um, there were a lot of other smaller cars and they have small vans there that people travel in that were stopping alongside the roads and take pictures and stuff. I probably got Woody probably got a couple pictures from there, too. I think he did. I think I took a uh a couple pictures of him there. Uh yeah. It was a ride from Dingle. Dingle and I just had down my notes it was very windy and it was late to medium rain. Uh so yeah, so that was the the the tough one there. What what what tour was this that you just did? Which one was uh it was called the Wild Atlantic Way. Okay, I see the 14-day Wild Atlantic Way. Yeah, and actually I guess it's something put on by Ireland because the road signs were more wild Atlantic Way. Oh, okay. And then they had this sign with like uh ocean waves in it, like squiggly lines. I couldn't figure that sign out until almost the end of the tour, and that was this the sign for the wild Atlantic Way, if it wasn't spelled out. Okay. Oh now is there anything as far as it goes for solitude and scenery and challenges that made any of that riding super memorable for you? Close to one of the last days, I did a ride from oh it Paul had it marked, and I think it was one of those um days that I uh had an extra day. And you can rest or go riding. I wanted to go riding. Yeah, so I always went riding, and this was another mountain pass that went up through the mountains. Um it was another one that the scenery was unbelievable, and then the road got to the point where I was very I was scared of the road. Really? It was super narrow, had extreme hairpin turns, no guardrailing whatsoever, and it had two-way traffic on it. So I'm riding around this road, yeah, it was it was tough. Uh it wasn't tough. I did it okay on a heavy GS that I didn't like. Uh going first or second gear is is the most I did. Really? And when I went around a corner, the the sheep were okay because they're really not moving and taking up. the whole road. What wasn't okay was if another farm truck or something was coming the other way. And there were little turnouts that you could go into and pass, but if you weren't close to one, you know, I can't back up. Right. So they I would have to wait to the car. But everyone waves hey, you know, as they pass. And it's it's it's nice. The people are unbelievable. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna talk about that too. But you rode everything from coastal curves, mountain passes, narrow rural lanes. What type of terrain pushed you the most? You know, which made you feel completely at home? At home? Uh there was a couple roads that were more than a single lane. They were two lane and they were nice. They went through the countryside, they went through the mountainside, uh they may have started out down by the Atlantic Ocean or the Irish Sea. And some of it reminded me of riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nice two A road it really was curvy. You you get into that rhythm when you're riding yeah where you just like you just like the corners you know the first one you come up on might be a little tight might be like a hairpin but a lot of sweepers going into it which it it to me that's why I really like motorcycle riding and touring is when you get into that mode and you're you're thinking about the riding. I guess the what was more challenging for you was it the motorways or was it those uh single tracks with the hairpin turns it was the single track. The motorways are the same as highways you get on them you go straight for a while you just gotta watch out the four crazy BMWs doing 250 kilometers an hour past shit. But the single track roads up to the woods in the mountains down along the the ocean those I really liked a lot uh was there was there any of them that you wanted to go back and do twice no not really I just was ready to move on once I got through some things yeah yeah it wasn't gonna turn around because they they were you know I didn't do long days um I I'm looking at my notes here and I think the longest day was only 159 miles but they were mostly around a hundred and so it gave me time to take it easy. Yeah yeah yeah I was planning on doing a little bit more sightseeing uh off the bike but I I I I got a knee injury and I think that started when I first got to Dublin. I got to Dublin at six in the morning so I couldn't check into my hotel and my plan was to find one of those hop on hop off buses so I get familiar with the city and find out where the Guinness brewery was at. Because I I wanted to do their tour and I I walked to the where they sold the tickets they were closed I walked back everything it's the thing about Ireland and people of Ireland everything's oh it's it's just down the you know a little ways from here a little ways it was three miles and I walked it uh I had did have some minor knee issues before but my left knee started bothering me in Dublin. Uh so once I got on the bike and did some more riding I was doing a lot more sightseeing. I was getting off the bike I was going down these trails checking out waterfalls and there's a place called the Baltimore Beacon a big cement lighthouse tower that you had to climb up a trail and I got my motorcycle dudes on stuff and I got there and getting more and more pain in my knee but I was like you know no big deal just yeah it's one of those things. So I did go to a place called Torque Falls and it was like the second or third it was third day of the tour. And I it was said it was 200 meters away and I started doing a walk. It was up a rocky trail and something snapped in my knee and I couldn't I I couldn't walk so I hobbled back to the motorcycle got on a motorcycle a woman motorcycle rider came by and said do you need help getting that bike out and I said yeah can you push it for me she pushed me out and it happened to be one of my rest days it was a two-day and then breakfast so I did go back I talked to my host who happened to be a paramedic too she had ice ice down my knee I googled about knee injuries and Google asked me a bunch of questions Dr. Google yeah is it hot no is it swollen no doesn't look like does it click does it lock no no said oh you you know you probably did this it's nothing permanent so I got some inflammation uh pills iper iced it and I stayed in bed all day uh uh that day and it was I thought the trip was done at that point uh but um I was able to I was like long as I'm on the motorcycle I'm gonna yeah right it it's the walking that kills me so I didn't so that's there's there's there's your answer don't walk don't walk right yeah so I didn't get to do as much walking as I wanted to okay that was the only thing uh I I missed I wanted to do more um sightseeing and exploring I did do a couple places I did the uh Dunry Military Fort which was a military museum and I'm trying to look at see what town that was in uh it was it was probably coming out uh you gotta permit forgive me I cannot pronounce these Irish towns I I get it Cardone Cardone I think that was in it was a military base that overlooked the Irish Sea and I dig it off the bike and I walked around that and then there was a machine shop I wanted to check out and that was down these cement steps. Don't you know I missed the last step and fall and I fall on my knees but I'm wear I'm wearing all my motorcycle gears and I got the big abs on my knees yeah so I didn't hurt anything but I did bend my wrist back so now my knee hurts my wrist hurts and I gotta get back on a motorcycle a little more stopping the cycle now you met a lot of locals uh along the way and you stumbled upon some unexpected gems as you uh had told me uh can you share a moment where the people and maybe even the culture uh of Ireland uh added something special to the whole trip uh a lot of people when you're traveling by yourself you know they have questions they ask to ask you questions and I would get that when I was on a road I remember uh a girl and her boyfriend at the Guinness uh brewery I did the tour there they were on an elevator together and we started chatting and she asked me oh you're all by yourself and I was like yeah I really enjoy you know traveling and being immersed in the culture and so we talked a little bit and there they were heading out to Colorado this summer I think they had relatives there. I there was a car accident on one of my routes and so I was stuck waiting in traffic for about a half hour and I talked to the rescue squad people there. A young man I got to ask him you know what's it like living here? Where are the taxes? Do you enjoy it? And he was telling me that only about 10 five to ten years ago you know you could get a nice place now I'm gonna convert this over to dollars uh for like a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand he said now those houses are in the 5000 range so it's getting a little tough the taxes are high but there's a lot of stuff that's included with those taxes. So this was just a guy on the road I just got off the motorcycle and just sat in there and he's like oh yeah well hold on I gotta let the ambulance through the ambulance on through now now dur well during all these things you now you've met a lot of people uh because you did send me pictures and apparently you made a lot of pub stops I only made pub stops at the end of my riding day. Yeah exactly yeah I I don't touch any kind of alcoholic drink while I'm riding that's one of my big rules not even one uh but when the day is done I would usually have two Guinnesses uh the first one I stopped at uh let's see I have it written down here it was in Kilkenny now Kilkenny has nothing to do with South Park a lot of people think that but I stopped at a um this was on my first stop and it was Martin's Millery I think it was called uh a nice pub uh Kilkenny was like touristy kind of place yeah and I had um Woody on the table I think that's where he's sitting in front of a dentist and the the yeah the people really nice there I I I would get the the young waitresses the you know I said here can you hold Woody up while I take a picture and they're like what is this and I said oh it's a um mascot for a uh motorcycle podcast oh okay and then he was like wow Woody looks like he's got some miles on him he does uh that was friendly uh on one of the mountain passes I pulled over they would have places where you could stop and you know take pictures and stuff and I found a uh nice woman selling jewelry there and I always like to get something for my neighbors that helped me out um during Nancy's sickness and she had some nice homemade silver I guess she was a silversmith and you'll see the one picture of her she's wearing a blue jacket and she's holding Woody up on a stone wall and I talked to her she was she was nice but loud and yeah and I talked to um the girl at the military museum fort and we talked for a long time everybody's talk to you I was I was very concerned about an American traveling in another country because Ireland's economy is influenced by America's kind of economy the United States and their economy is not doing good either because there's a lot of large pharmaceutical companies in Ireland it's the Botox capital of the world really yeah I found that out and uh but it wasn't the case you know even when we were talking politics they said you're fine you're fine so yeah it it was the people were nice the and uh no run-ins uh except for the guy I tried to head on coming out of the circle yeah that uh yeah I made two mistakes that was one mistake and then I tried to go up a one way street uh oops I was I was looking for the one way sign which is a white circle with a red border with a red slash through it and I didn't see it until I got up to the traffic and then oh oh there it is so I just jumped on the sidewalk and made a Utah uh yeah so you brought Woody with you. Now did you get a lot of response from that? Like what's this all about? Do you get off the Yeah yeah I did. Yeah I was like hey can you hold this and like what is this? You know what is I said well it's Woody it's Woody. Yeah and you know what Woody is a good icebreaker. You want to meet some people you know I always wanted to talk to the you know it was usually in a restaurant or something you know younger women that I always always come at I said come here come here can you hold this and I've explained it to him. So yeah he broke the ice for me a few times I'm glad he came in handy yeah now you've done a lot of uh guided and unguided tours what stood out for you most about doing the one this one the way you did uh you gotta be a little experienced you gotta be experienced with using GPS's uh when there's an issue you have to take care of it yourself one of my routes took me to another ferry crossing um I bring my a small tablet computer with me and I often at night uh check out where I'm going what I want to see and also due to my dyslexia I have to write everything down the hotel name and the town name and there was a little compartment that I could put it on in the bike because once I got on the road I forgot where I was going. I would take that out an hour later I was like what what's the name of the hotel I have to take it out and look at it. Uh but that's the things that stood out most to me um traveling by yourself. Paul was telling me that he had rented bikes out. He also rents out his um can amel to do that he said he would get phone calls from people saying hey it's raining what shall I do? Yeah I've got to put your end gear on it through it. Get what uh a little GPS rerouting um he my tour was supposed to end in um Northern Ireland Belfast and he said he didn't feel comfortable the way things were going in Belfast. So in his terrible handwriting he had written down where I was supposed to reroute and go to oh and I did find it in the GPS but it was buried. Uh he all the plan all the the routes are in a GPS okay so every day you go to the next route and then if there's something to see he would put that in favorites so I would have to check favorites first because I could go right by uh I like uh I went by the Blarney Stone Castle and I tried to make a U-turn and find out where it was and after about 20 minutes I got frustrated and I said I don't want to kiss a rock anyway. Did you ever do any like okay I have to here's the the GPS is telling me to go this way and this way did you ever just like and just go off GPS and just m find your own way well I did a couple times and they weren't really by choice. They were detours oh Paul didn't update the maps in the GPS that's one thing I told him I said you gotta update these because it's telling me I'm coming into a circle and there's no circle or it's telling me to make a left and there's a circle there and which exit do I use but yeah uh detours there was I had a detour one time so I just detour and a lot of times the GPS reroute you and it kept on rerouting me to the detour road and I was like through this I shut the GP off GPS off and just headed in the general direction. And then you know after about you know 20 minutes then turned it back on and then I could get back on my route again. That happened a few times. But that that must have given you some like unexpected pleasures of seeing something different that you probably ordinarily wouldn't have seen if you were using the GPS. I had me going I w I went on one road that I swore was a stone driveway through somebody's backyard trying to find a castle. Wow oh man's in the GPS I'm riding right by these house they got you know I go right by their garage and the garage doors open but luckily no one was there um but I finally made it to a castle and the tour bus was there and the tour driver was talking because well we're going to this destination you know you can follow Mess if you want and I was like well I think I'm going to destination but I'll go on my own. Oh but if there was detours or road construction yeah that really threw the thing off. Did you have any difficulty communicating with people? I mean because there were a dialect um no I didn't but when I was having dinner in a couple of the pubs people would come in I had no idea what they were saying and a lot of people speak Gaelic. Yes and the signs are in Gaelic also they're in English and Gaelic. Oh I was trying to learn some Gaelic phrases forget it. Not not for me. Uh oh oops yeah like hello thank you or something like that and their the phrase was just way too long oh uh the I the the guy I was talking to at the car crash said that they get taught Gael in school. He was taught but he forgot all how to speak it ah how about that? Yeah now now you've done some of these trips that you did you share you shared with your wife you did you revisit familiar places that you both had done once anytime before no it was always someplace new oh always someplace new we did some touring you know here from home right um Canada um we did my my wife liked the museums and cultural things so when she found like we did I don't know if you're familiar with it Storm King in uh upstate New York it's yes yes exactly yeah know exactly where that is yes yeah she goes oh I want to go up to Storm King and I was like okay well the roads look good I want to ride up there can we do any any excuse to go anywhere and I could take the motorcycle whatever we did. She was um a really good photographer she sold a lot of her pictures oh so she was my photographer on all our motorcycles really oh wow did you I I don't want to upset you or anything but did you have any did you have any moments where you you felt like she her presence was there with you oh especially this trip. Oh really I couldn't believe overwhelming I was it was to me um yes a lot I don't know why uh she's been gone a year and a half her birthday was on my trip which was May 9th and her favorite drink was a Cosmo so I I stopped and had a you know at my dinner break I had a Cosmo in her honor. And uh yeah it really was and then for the last couple of days I was at a hotel and this hotel was way too fancy for me. I even told him I I walk in there with my motorcycle gear on were you all muddy and dirty fancy yeah there was a fancy golf there's some fancy golf course there and uh but they never said anything to me so I was like I don't want to eat again at this I had two days there I said I don't want to eat at the hotel again I want to walk into town with my gimpy knee so I couldn't go see far and there was a restaurant and it said Nancy's on it Nancy's born and I went inside and I said I gotta stop here and I sat down and looked at the menu and ordered some food and then I look up and there's a sign that said live and enjoy life on the wall oh man I was like oh my god I lost it yeah oh wow oh man yeah that must be wow holy crap yeah I don't know where I don't know where Nancy went you know she I know that her soul lives inside me now and I continue to do what she told me to do absolutely told me what to do absolutely uh let's talk about Celtic Rider now they're they're known for these well planned routes and and good support what aspects of their service uh impressed you the most like the bike quality maybe the route design and accommodations and things like that he does have nice motorcycles um mostly BMW but he did have some Hondas um just a side note a lot of tour companies are picking up Harley Davidson's now that attract the American crowd yeah but Harley in these countries is not well suited um for a lot of the roads even the big BMWs aren't I would rather have a 650 or something like that something small and you get to the big large heavy bikes and uh you can have some difficulty um but Celtic Riders he has um he he's stayed at all the hotels and places he does a really good booking with hotels and then breakfast uh some of them are a little bit more my style which would be a room you know uh a hotel with a pub downstairs uh some of them were like oh my god I don't even belong here I guess it's way too fancy for me uh the one place that was real fancy for me I I rode through a big rainstorm and my feet got wet because my one boot had a little hole in it. So I said hey do you You guys have those little plastic garbage can liners like you do in my room. They're like, what? I said my feet get all wet. So I wanted to dry I dried my boots out in case I ran into another rainstorm. I put the plastic bags over my feet. And they dropped like eight of them off. Oh I kept them. How was the food? Uh fish and chips. I went really I'm not a fish eater, but fish and chips are way too much. I had that, I had a great venison um um well I I want to call it a meat pie. It was like uh you know with vegetables and stuff. Uh that was a really good meal. Um I had a lamb stew after I hit one of the lambs on now I didn't in Dublin I had a lamb stew. That was good. Yeah, the food was always good. Um they always had uh some kind of hamburger on there, and one bad hamburger. I don't know, unless been like some kind of frozen. Well, you know, yeah, you're try you're you're traveling away from America and you were you're you're in a different country, you want to experience their food. But I realize that sometimes a hamburger is what you want, you know. And I had a pizza, I had to have, you know, if you travel anywhere in the world, you have to have a pizza. Of course. How was it? And it was good, it was good. I liked it. Um the crust was really good. Uh it was pretty close to American style, though. One thing was was the Irish breakfast. Did you ever have an Irish breakfast? No, I can't say I have. Okay, it's eggs, how you want them. It's sausage. I get two, their sausages, breakfast sausage were great. Two big sausages, and then they have bacon, which is like ham slices. It's not really like it's not American bacon. Bacon like we know it. Beans, some kind of beans, and then they got they look like they're bread, but they call them bread pudding. Oh gosh. And there's two of them. I hate bread pudding. And and if I ate one of those, which I did most of the time for breakfast, I never stopped for lunch. I just kept on going. Twice I didn't even stop for dinner. It was enough to hold me over. Really? Yeah, yeah. That was the one time when my knee was healing up while I was laying in bed, I wasn't going back out. And another time I was too far away from any uh restaurant, and I wasn't gonna walk. It's I was you know, I'll skip it, have a big breakfast in the morning. Did you do uh coffee or tea with your morning track? I did I'm a coffee, I'm a big coffee drinker, and you know, I drink coffee by the mug. I buy specially ground coffee. You know what their coffee is there? Instant coffee. No. Instant coffee. And I said to the person at the desk, I said, don't you have any real coffee? And they said, uh, you know, it's not that big of a Yeah, we have this instant next to the coffee. I said, no, that's instant coffee. I said, Do you know why they call it instant coffee? She goes, why? I said, for instant it tastes good. They it was more of a I think it was more of a tea drinking country. Yeah, I can imagine. I'm a tea drinker, so yeah, I don't know. Well you fit right in. Maybe they had all kinds of different teas. It was special. Coffee, not so much. And coffee they to me it, you know, they were in cups and they're like, this is a shot of coffee. I I need like yeah, twelve ounces to start out with. All right, so you so you so you're cruising along the road, you're you're on these one of these back roads, you know, you're out in the middle of nowhere, and do you find a cafe or something to eat at? I didn't so much. I stopped in their convenience stores and I would pick up something there, uh biscuits and their cookies. I'd throw them in my backpag, and when I stopped, I would have something. I'd always have water with me. Um something like that. But I really didn't stop at any small cafe. Oh, I did stop in one of the towns I was in, I think it was I'm gonna pronounce it wrong. Dongoli? Dongoli. I could I always call it dongoli, but it's not dung dongoli, so I'm pronouncing it wrong. And in town was a big circle, not not a traffic circle, but like a tr square. And here were a whole bunch of motorcycle riders, and they were riding all kinds of different bikes, and so I had to go talk to them. I and I went up and talked to him there, and uh we had a good time talking about riding and politics and everything going on in the world. Really friendly. You can walk up to any motorcycle guy and say, Hey, I like that bike, oh yeah, and you start talking. So I went to a um restaurant there, and that's where I had that um venison uh meat pie. That was good, and I always would find and there I always like to find an ice cream place. Oh so there's a couple places where I stopped and had ice cream. That was the ice cream. It was good. Um it the one place I stopped at I was like, they don't really have any flavor flavors. It was some kind of vanilla ice cream. And I liked it, it was good. Vanilla would never do you wrong. Yeah. So so you're on this ride and you you're you're on you're on day 13 and you're coming close to the end of the day, and then you realize tomorrow the trip is over. How do you feel? How do you feel about that? Well, I was in Northern Ireland at that point. Uh one of the stops before I got to Northern Ireland, I stopped in the northern, most northern part of rip regular Ireland, not Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's another country. Don't get them don't get them confused because people getting sold. Um and I stopped at a the most northernest point. Woody got his picture taken there a couple times, and I stopped at a bar that was the most northernest point, but it was 10 o'clock in the morning, and of course they weren't open, so I got I think I got a picture of Woody on the motorcycle sitting in front of the bar. Uh the last day I was in Newcastle, uh, Northern Ireland, and I was dreading the highway ride back. I just because it's just a straight run back. Yeah. And I got back to Celtic Riders. Paul had the gate shut and locked. He wasn't expecting me. So I sent him a text and he gave me all the combinations to get in, get into the garage. Uh he said I could make my own coffee if I wanted to. And then I had to unpack and repack my um travel bags up again. Oh. So did you as far as as far as it goes for your travel bag, obviously you're you're you're traveling by motorcycle during this entire trip. So what did you pack as far as it goes for like what kind of gear did you use to pack all your of your clothes, etc., in? Okay, he supplies on the bike has a large pop box and then two side boxes. And he also had a tank bag if you wanted to. Um, I tried to pack as light as I could. So I'm wearing my I have an Olympic jacket that I've had forever that needs to be replaced because it lost its waterproofing. But I had rain gear that went over that and over my pants. So I had motorcycle riding pants, my boots, uh, my jacket, and I also wear uh an inflatable air vest. Okay. Um I brought that with me. Three pairs of gloves, my normal summer gloves, my in-between winter and summer gloves, and waterproof gloves that there is really no such thing as waterproof motorcycle gloves. Oh, there are. Because that was good to wear underneath. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would wear that underneath, put another shirt on top of that. And at one of the hotels, I was able to get laundry done. So halfway through the trip, I had them take care of all my laundry, my delicates and stuff, and they uh it was like 14 euros, which probably was equivalent to a little less than 20 dollars. Okay. So so you had your so you had your own travel bag with you on the bike? Yes, I would unload every time I parked the bike. Two bags and a top bag. Um, I had my computer with me. That was all on the top bag. How did you travel with your helmet though? Oh, um, I got a separate bag for carry arm. Um and my carry arm bag last trip, the dimensions were a little bit too big with the wheel. So I went and I bought just a motorcycle bag, helmet bag. Uh like a it wasn't a briefcase, but it was a you know carry arm bag. Sure. Which the motorcycle helmet fit in and not much under else. Yeah. So I put my gloves and everything in there, and I would put a change of clothes on it because I knew I'd be carrying that on the plane, and that worked out well. I didn't want to put my motorcycle helmet on check baggage because I didn't I didn't know what would happen to it. Right, yeah, that's a kind of thing. So I always bring that on. Yeah. And the last not this trip, but the trip before, I didn't have much room. So I actually wore my motorcycle boots on the plane. And I got stopped by um the Irish equivalent to the TSA and had to take my motorcycle boots off. Like he's he's wanding and he's feeling yeah, he's doing the pat. What's this? What's this? I said, Oh, motorcycle, can you take them off? I said, Yeah, I can take them off and click them off. Oh my gosh. I got stopped not so much well, I got stopped in the airport coming and going. Uh, and when I was doing the ferries on the last trip, I always got pulled out of line and checked. And I think I was a male traveling by myself, might tip them off. I wasn't with a group. You know, look in your side bags, and I was I was like, hold on, let me get the key out. And they're like, oh, well, we'll look through just your your tank pack. I was like, yeah, sure, look at all you want. And uh I never I never got into trouble or anything. Oh, that's good. Coming back home, I had my wallet in my back pocket and walk through the machine, you know, you put your hand up in the air, and I get through and they stop me and they said, What do you have in your pocket? And I said, My wallet. I take my wallet and x-rays it. And then I'm waiting there about you know five or six minutes to get my wallet back. Uh when you leave Ireland, you actually do your uh immigration and uh check-in in Ireland. So when you get back to the United States, you just walk off the plane and outside. You don't have to go through you don't have to go through Customs and Airgate. So travel time from I guess you flew out of uh Philly, right? Yeah, I flew out of Philly. Okay. Uh um, I flew American Airlines, and I wanted to do it right also this time. So I booked business class, and that's where you see Woody in front of the screen. And this is the first time I ever did that, and it was great. I had my own cubicle, I could lay down, they gave me blankets and stuff. They kept on trying to give me alcohol, and I was like, nah, I want to sleep, I can't have any alcohol on the way back at three o'clock in the morning. Really? Well, I got it's seven hours to get to Ireland, so I did the red red eye. I got to Ireland at six in the morning. I wanted to stay up as long as I could. That's when I did the hop on, hop off bus. Uh so I figured I could be out in the air and get familiar with sea. But on my trip home, at three o'clock in the morning, I get a text, your flight's delayed. About 20 minutes later, your flights cancel. I can't know what I do now. And I try to book another room. All right, I try to book another flight. They have another flight the next day, but I lose my business class, I'm economy. So I try to get another room at the hotel I was staying in, and they were booked. So I tried to book a room at the Hilton at the airport, and little did I know I was on a third-party booking uh site. I thought it was on a Hilton, and I booked the room, and then they I called them up an hour later and they said, Oh, I found another flight, I don't need the room. They said, Oh, well, there's no cancellation pro uh policy, you have to pay. And I got in a big major argument with them, and I I think I got it taken off my card. Uh not stop slip. Oh no. I keep on checking my card, and the charge is not on there. I contacted Hilton. It was Nancy's uh American Express Hilton card. She had a lot of points on it, so I had it transferred over to me, and that's why I was using the American Express Hilton because I could use the points she had on her card. Uh that turned into a major disaster. So I finally booked the flight the same day. I didn't need a room on Air Lingus. Air Lingus is American Airlines partner. Oh, okay. And it was the worst flight I ever had. Really? It was terrible. One thing they were flying an Airbus 321. When I looked at this plane, I said, this thing's never gonna make it across the ocean. It doesn't have enough fuel. And they packed you in there. And my seat wasn't recline, but the big fat woman in front of me, her seat reclined twice as far back on me. It was just I was a guy who's a get up and open the emergency door and flight. Oh my. Okay, now from the moment you left your house to the moment you laid your head down to go to sleep when you got in Ireland, how long was it? Hours. Alright, so seven, a little bit over seven hours to get to Ireland, and then I spent the next ten hours trying to stay up. Because I got there at six in the morning, went to the hotel, it was probably about six thirty-seven, and I knew I had to stay up as long as I could. So I got the hop on, hop off bus, sat in the back where there was no roof, so the wind would blow on me, and I was nodding off. I just couldn't do it. And then I get a phone call saying at 11 o'clock, oh, your room's ready, and I was just finishing up the bus tour. I walked back, went to the room, and I took a nap for about an hour and a half, and that was enough to get me into the evening. Yeah. Because you you you want to get adjusted to the time. Oh, of course, yeah. Yeah, that jet like will kill you, man. Yeah, if you get in at early in the morning and then you go to sleep, you'll you'll never get thick with the time. So you gotta stay up to your normal, close to your normal bedtime. But I was still, I don't know how many times I would wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning on this trip and just get up, turn the TV on, turn my computer on, do all my journaling, do all my logging at 3 o'clock in the morning, and then look at my watch, like, well, okay, well, breakfast is gonna be ready soon. So seven hours that of travel time that doesn't include getting to the airport and getting home from the airport. But so I so if you if anybody's gonna do this kind of trip, you just gotta really plan for it. Because it is a long flight. I I remember the flight from Iceland uh back to New Jersey was uh six hours you know back in the day. So still, you know, it's a long flight. It's a long flight. Our honeymoon, we went to Australia. That's a long flight. Oh no. Oh no. All right, so uh now for anybody who's considering doing a Celtic uh Celtic Celtic rider tour, what should they expect in terms of uh daily mileage, road conditions, uh weather, and basically just the overall vibe of the trip? The uh mileage you're gonna do is is not for me, it wasn't a lot. Like I said, most of them are around the hundred mark, some of them around the 70 mark, uh, 70 miles. Uh some of them had your stops included a rest day where you could rest and check out the town you're in, or had an alternative route uh route, which was usually a big loop through some fantastic areas. Uh so the riding is very comfortable. You can hang out after breakfast, leave at nine, get to your next destination close to check-in time, give you time to relax, time to find a place to eat. Uh, that aspect was well planned, uh, well set out. Um, the accommodations that Paul picked out were nice. Um, I stayed in one hotel that um what is it called? It was oh, it was kind of like gothic theme theme. It was all black, everything was black. Oh, really? Oh, okay. Yeah, but I thought it was pretty cool. It was a pub up down the basement. Or not basement, but down from the room I was at. Um that made it easy. Um, if anyone's planning on doing a a a trip in another country, I would say for their first trip, do it with a group. Um but the uh a guided group. It'll give you an idea what to expect. Now, Celtic Riders does not do any guide, they don't have a guide that goes out with you, but you can hook up with your buddies and ride together, of course. Which a lot of people did. Um for me, last time last year was the first time I ever did something solo completely on my own. Right. And I felt perfectly comfortable. Okay, cool. If if if you're a traveler and have traveled to other countries, uh you know what to expect going into the airports and going through TSA. I I get all worked up about the airport. I get anxiety about the airport, the TSA. And I have TSA pre-check, I have global entry, I have all that stuff. Um and but still, it's just I just I know I hate I hate flying. It's just it's just a big pain in the ass. That's all bottom line. All right, so uh tell you what. I wonderful stories, I I really appreciate that. How about some rapid fire questions for you? You ready? Yeah. Alright, okay, here we go. I'm gonna give you 10 rapid fire questions and mostly about your job. Okay, number one. Favorite road you rode on in Ireland? Uh Sky Road. And where is that exactly? I think it's coming out of Dingle. Okay. Dingle day. Best number two, best meal of the trip. My fish and chips. Fish and chips. I could never finish it. You can never finish it? Really? That was gigantic. Oh, I would have never thought that. Uh, number three, most surprising thing about Irish Roads. I would say the sheep. You know, I didn't the sheep would get out of their fenced in areas, and they'd just be going all over the road, and it must have been lambing season because they all had lambs, and the lambs are real skittish, so you had to be very careful. Another thing that was weird was the gigantic farm tractors. I've never seen tractors that big, and they were on the motorway, the highway, and they must have dysty miles an hour. It was it was crazy. Really? Yeah. Okay, number four, rain gear, essential or optional. Oh, definitely rain gear. Good rain gear. I my jacket, well, it's a squaterproofing, but I had rain gear that I put over my jacket, but a part of my jacket hung out underneath, and I still got soaked. My feet got soaked, so prepare for heavy rain, and you gotta ride. Did it rain every day when you were up there? No, not every day. Uh, but a lot of times there was drizzle and light rain off and on, which I could get away without putting my rain gear on. Okay. But you never know. So in the beginning, if there was a chance of rain, I knew if I put my rain gear on, it wasn't gonna rain. If I didn't put my rain gear on, it would rain on the side of the road trying to get my boots through the pants. Yeah, that's not good. All right. Number five, favorite Irish town name to say out loud. Dingle. Dingle Dingle Bag and Kilkenny. I like Kilkenny because there was a sign that I saw somewhere, I don't know if it was in the hotel, and it said, Welcome to the It's the town of Kilkenny. This is not South Park. That's cute. Number six, Guinness. Better in Ireland or the same everywhere? Better in Ireland. Ten times better in Ireland. Really? When I got back, I went to the our local bar and had a Guinness there, one of my friends. She likes Guinness, and we looked at each other and we're like, this is terrible. This is nothing like Ireland. Really? Yeah. I I when I was at the uh pour at the brewery in uh the Guinness Brewery, I got um Woody a certificate that he could pour the perfect um glass again, and for some reason it didn't come out. They emailed it to you. I got mine, but I didn't get his. I was really just I wanted to send that to you. And I did it like three times to make sure I did it right. Uh number seven, most memorable photo you took. Oh, that was one of the first photos I did. It was a Celtic ruins uh with a Celtic altar that uh it was like a stone hinge, but a very miniature one where if you look through the rocks are all set in the ground, and if you look through a set of rocks, that would be like summer solstice when the sun would shine through it. And then winter solstice. That was really cool. I really like that a lot. And it was out in the middle of nowhere. There was a cow feed, the farmer was feeding his cows. Hey, and you ride down this dirt road, up this gigantic hill, park there, and there's this ancient ruin that's over 3,000 years old. Oh, cool. All right, number Go ahead. Then a lot of the churches that are just ruins with a graveyards connected. That's interesting. I would have I'd I'd love to see that. Yeah. Uh number eight, sheep on the road, friend or foe. They're friend. They're a friend. Yeah, you just had to expect it, you know. And I would go first gear very slow, and the uh older sheep, but they would just look at you. The little lambs you had to be careful about because they didn't know what was going on. Are we talking like like like like 20 or 30? We're talking hundreds. Uh there were probably um hundreds to thousands in the field. But there was probably a hundred, maybe at the most, yeah. Yeah, I'm thinking like twenty or thirty in a way, but you're talking the hundreds. So every time I pass the sheep in my helmet, I'm going, far, Ram, will you, yourself, please be true. That's from uh the movie uh babe. Oh no. Who tells a dog how to talk to the sheep? It doesn't work. Number nine, best soundtrack for riding Ireland. I don't know, because I didn't have anything. You didn't listen to anything. I didn't listen to anything when I was riding because I was concentrating so much on what side of the road I was on. Looking at my GPS, but I did my knee was killing me. The receptionist said, Oh, we have bathtubs here. Why don't you take a hot bath? Oh. So I took a hot bath and I put on um some modern Irish, kind of like rock and roll music on my phone. It was great. I really loved it. I might even go to a uh Celtic Irish uh music festival. It's coming up this Sunday. Awesome. And to see listen to their music. And finally, number 10, would you do it again? Yes, definitely. Absolutely. Definitely would do it again. I would definitely do another Ireland trip. And would you do it uh through Celtic Rider again? Yeah, I would do it through Paul. Um, he was very good to me. He did a big write-up on the newsletter about me. Um yeah. Uh Paul Paul's okay. Paul was like, you know, he wanted to tell me everything he he knew, even though sometimes I didn't want to know it. Right. All right. One more question for you with regard to communication and things like that. Did you have to get a different SIM card for your phone while you're over there? Nah, I have Verizon and I just called Verizon and they added a plan. An international plant to yours? Yeah. International plant. The only problem was is I needed a cheat sheet how to figure out how to make phone calls. You gotta do the country code, then like zero zero, then the area code. Right. And a lot of times I couldn't make a call. I couldn't figure out how to do it. It would take me five or six combinations to make the phone work. Oh, okay. All right. And are there like is there we have 911 here? What do they have there? Yeah, they have something similar. I forget what it was. I don't know if it's 999, but it's three numbers that you can call for emergency. Also, I get when I do these trips, I get uh insurance that includes Medivac. That they if I get injured, they and I want to get out of the country, they'll take me out of the country. Uh if I'm able to get on a plane, they a regular commercial plane, they will send a nurse with me. And it's not that expensive. And I also run a Garmin Inreach, which is a device that tracks wherever I'm at, right? And it also has an SOS feature. I'm out by myself. Sure. And every day it tracked me, and people and my friends and stuff, they could go to my computer site and see where I was. Okay. Right. So staying in touch is important while you're out there. Yeah, they could buy yourself and you crash and no one knows. Yeah, that's right. Exactly right. Man, Furman, listen, you've been an absolute joy to have on the show. Uh, what's next? What's the next big trip? I'm thinking about staying or Portugal. Oh, really? Yeah, I heard Spain's got really good roads on it. Uh Portugal supposed to be. Well, I understand a tiny, tiny bit of Spanish because I used to work with Spanish guys. So, uh, but speaking it, and that's what I'm a little leery about. But one of my friends said, you know, Google Translator is your friend. Oh, yeah. All right. Um, any closing words for anyone considering doing a trip like this? Do it. You gotta travel, you gotta immerse yourself in somebody else's culture to understand what's going on in the world. Yeah, you know, it's everything is not what it is in this country. There's there it's it you learn so much about the culture. I I was fascinated by the culture, um, the fascinated by uh how many different religions Ireland had through the years. You know, we're we're in a country that's let's say 300 years old. I'm in a country that's five, six thousand years old. And and to learn about the the Druids, the pagans, the Celtics, the Christian, and you know how everything waves across the country and changed. It's it's really a game changer for me. I wouldn't say the trip was I I'm not a spiritual person, but uh there was some kind of connection in that. Sure. I don't I don't know how to describe it. Right. But for me, it was it it made me really feel different. This trip made me feel a lot different in those times. Alright, well there you go. So boy boys and girls, get on a get on a trip and get on over to uh Ireland. Celtic. Ireland, Scotland, yeah, anywhere. Um do it. Do it Ferman, thank you very much for being on the show. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and taking Woody along with you for on the trip. Um, yeah, don't go anywhere. I want to talk to you while we're done. And uh yeah, thanks a lot, man, for being on the show. Appreciate it. All right, just remember to live and enjoy life. Thank you, sir. Thank you for joining me and Furman Hendrickson here in the V Twin Cafe, where he told us all about his wonderful Irish adventure with Celtic Rider motorcycle tours. What a great trip, what a great story. So glad to hear all about it, and Woody even got to go along for the ride. Now you can learn more about Celtic Rider by getting on over to Motorental.ie. Now, links will be in the show notes and of course on the motorcycle men website at motomenpc.com. And don't forget to get on over to the Ride with Ted YouTube channel, watch some of the many videos I have there, and if you'd please also like and subscribe. That would be a tremendous help to the channel and of course to the podcast. Hey, listen, the Motorcycle Podcasters Challenge is in full swing. Registration is currently in effect, and that is until June 20th. So get your team together, or if you choose, you can ride solo. So do that. Get on over to Motopodchallenge.com if you want to get involved with a real fun event. Hey, get your copy of my book, The Road Most Traveled, now direct from me on the Motorcycle Men website and save nearly eight dollars from the Amazon cost. But if you want, you can still get it from Amazon, and now we can sign it for you. For the rest of the Motorcycle Men team, thanks for listening. And remember, boys and girls, we say stupid traffic, so you don't have to. Ride safely, kids.