I\u2019ve driven some pretty wild roads. Mountain roads where\nboulders the size of houses look ready to crush you. Roads with snow higher\nthan the car. A road that had a wolf jogging alongside it. You want a bad omen\nfor a road? How about a WOLF trotting next to you! That one screams, \u201cBuddy,\nyou\u2019re going to die and I\u2019ll to be there to eat you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after a week of driving my family around Ireland \u2013 mostly\nalong the Wild Atlantic Way on the western coast, where the rocky shore line meets\nthe cold, raging ocean \u2013 I\u2019ve found roads that redefine the meaning of \u201cwild.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not wild in any traditional sense \u2013 the kind of roads where\nyou might plummet off a towering cliff and people stand with mouths agape saying,\n\u201cDid you see how the smoke spelled, \u2018Holy crap!\u2019 right before it exploded?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a \u201cwild\u201d unique to Ireland. Part of it stems from\nthe fact that the Irish like their steering wheels on the right side of the car\nand their driving on the left. This is done primarily to keep Americans\nconfined to bus tours so they don\u2019t run over sheep and skip all the distillery\ntours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But driving this way is disorienting \u2013 like you\u2019re in a\nparallel dimension or a mirror image of yourself. It takes all kinds of neural\nre-wiring to accomplish it and keep yourself from steering into the right lane\n\u2026 and a bus full of Americans screaming, \u201cNot another distillery tour!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Add to that the fact that in Ireland the roads are as narrow\nas dental floss. The emergency lane is actually a tree or a hedgerow. Often\nthere are no dividing lines, or lines at all, aside from the occasional sheep standing\nperfectly in the middle of the road. It\u2019s less driving, and more threading endless\nneedles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Master that, and Irish roads can still throw curveballs your\nway. Like roundabouts, which are actually kind of fun because people quickly\nnotice you\u2019re American and clear out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or one-lane bridges on blind switchbacks. What\u2019s that?\nPicture yourself rocketing down a cute, pastoral road at speeds normally\nreserved for Formula 1 cars. Then suddenly signs in Irish warn you are about to\ndie. You spot a one-lane bridge on a curve with a yield sign that has been\nknocked over next to some skid marks. No bother. You\u2019re going too fast to yield\nanyway. So you pray to your favorite saint and hope no one is coming around the\nblind bend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is really, really fun. (Translation: More scary than a\nglowing meteor covered in botulism speeding toward you.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s even better if you arrive at the exact same time as an\nIrish tour bus. Because, if you can stop in time, the bus driver will give you\na very polite look that seems to say, \u201cListen, lad, this one is just simple\nphysics, and my coach wins every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever reverse on a one-lane bridge on a blind switchback?\nAlso fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Repeat this three to four hundred times a day, and there you\nhave it! Most of my hair has fallen out, and I\u2019ve aged at least 45 years. The\none positive is I\u2019ve never seen a wolf trotting beside my car, but only because\nhe won\u2019t fit with all the sheep. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve driven some pretty wild roads. Mountain roads where boulders the size of houses look ready to crush you. Roads with snow higher than the car. A road that had a wolf jogging alongside it. You want a bad omen for a road? How about a WOLF trotting next to you! That one screams, \u201cBuddy, you\u2019re going to die and I\u2019ll to be there to eat you.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after a week of driving my family around Ireland \u2013 mostly along the Wild Atlantic Way on the western coast, where the rocky shore line meets the cold, raging ocean \u2013 I\u2019ve found roads that redefine the meaning of \u201cwild.\u201d <\/p>\n
Not wild in any traditional sense \u2013 the kind of roads where you might plummet off a towering cliff and people stand with mouths agape saying, \u201cDid you see how the smoke spelled, \u2018Holy crap!\u2019 right before it exploded?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,561,565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-family","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1938,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions\/1938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}