Grandpa Durand and the Races

Hey, Hey, its my birthday! We wake to cloudy weather, no complaints after sun for 11 days, I can only remember a handful that were without precipitation. We walk, we eat and we get back on the road, oh joy! No interstate and we are heading west to Clonmel.

In and out of small towns, speed limit 120 kph, we are cruising and it's two lanes, one in each direction, Guy and Sean are reading maps and I am staying on the path. Through Limerick and soon we are in Clonmel. Larger city than I expected, they have a Wickes. We target the City Center and park, feed the meter and look up to spot a sign with directions to our hotel, Guy wants his Euro back, alas it is now in the hands of the taxman. Annie is at the desk. Sean made this reservation with Annie and if course she remembers the conversation... we are at Hearns!

We have not one but 3 bars a hotel and a disco...Annie winks at Sean and assures him there will be action there tonight.

We ask about parking, Annie sends Patsy to check, she comes back and reports, "Jamie needs to move over and then we'll be okay", service with a smile...could this get better? Yes, it could! I navigate down an alley while Jamie, who is smiling and waving, jumps in his car and gives me some space.

Our rooms are beautiful. Sean's single is big enough for a slumber party..more on that later. Guy and I have a delightfully big space that faces the street. This hotel must have been built in the mid 1800's and is just charming. They have updated the decor and we have a real 2010 amenities.

Sean, Guy and I regroup at the bar, the one on the left, and get directions for our next wander. Jamie is charming and Annie comes by to give me a ticket for the horse races later in the evening. "Happy birthday" she says, "let the boys take care of themselves." As she leaves, Jamie gives us the scoop, she comes from a family of trainers, her roots are in Kildare and her niece is a jockey.

We wander awhile and then back to the hotel to clean up. Sean has a birthday bar set up in his room, cocktails anyone? We hit the Cuervo and then we off to the races!

I think of Mom and Grandpa Durand and his love for the sport, I tell Guy and Sean the stories I remember and think how odd in my 50's and finally seeing a horserace in the flesh.

The track and surrounding backdrop are glorious, we get familiar and the festivities begin. The noise is gleeful, people are watching the horses as they come out to warm up, the bookies are yelling the "line", we scurry to place our bets. Guy wins the first race. My horse comes in second and Sean's ticket is reading backwards, otherwise he would have had one and two...he won't make that mistake again. We repeat this scenario a total of 7 times and in the end Guy wins 3, Sean wins 3, I win 1, and Sean has the biggest monetary gain of the evening.


We see Annie who offers to share her cab back to the city.....let me just say she made our night, back to her "races bar", out to her favorite chinese restaurant and finally back to the hotel sometime after 1:00 a.m.

Total tally of the evening, one of my best birthdays ever and Sean may have a hook-up with Annie's niece Katie...go figure!