DAY 11: SCOTTISH COUNTRYSIDE AND FERRY TO IRELAND!

September 3, 2017

We woke up early to get on the bus and we would be driving out of SCOTLAND and we would be taking a FERRY (Our whole bus would be getting on the FERRY!) over to IRELAND! I have been anticipating IRELAND for so long. I am super excited!

This is what I wrote for our morning ROLL CALL on the bus:
                                             We are leaving Scotland and the busy Royal Mile
                                             But on to Ireland in true Fun For Less style.
                                             We'll ride the coach for many hours and take a ferry too
                                             Then in the Emerald Isle we'll wish good luck to you!

When driving out of SCOTLAND we saw Greyfriar's Bobby. This little statue of a dog is pretty special. You can touch his tongue for good luck. You can read about this adorable story right here:
http://scotlandwelcomesyou.com/greyfriars-bobby/

 This is blurry cuz it was taken from the bus.

 One of these windows up there is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter

We the SCOTTISH COUNTRYSIDE:

  It's so green and beautiful here!

 Then we got to where we would take the FERRY over to IRELAND:

 Our bus would drive us onto this big ferry. We would get off and sit for an hour or two until we got to Ireland. You could walk around outside, which we did for a bit, or go inside where they have restaurants, shops, and couches to sit on that you could see outside.

 Lots of trucks, cars and buses were loaded on this ferry. I couldn't believe it!

 Goodbye SCOTLAND. We love you!!

When we got to IRELAND and back on the bus, this is what I wrote for ROLL CALL:
                                                              We crossed the water by ferry boat
                                                              It was a fun thing to do.
                                                              Now we are in Ireland
                                                              So happy to see it all with you!      

We drove to BELFAST, IRELAND to our hotel and the hotel had our dinner waiting for us:

  So we spent days and days with our bus drivers and the other bus driver in our group has been asking a lot of questions about our church after hearing all of the stories our tour guide has been telling us along the way, and after stopping at all of the Church History Sites, he has become very interested in what we believe. So the people from that bus is going to give him a Book Of Mormon.

Our tour guide asked us if our bus would like to give our bus drive a BOOK OF MORMON as well because he too is very interested in our church. We definitely did want to give him one. Fortunately, one of the passengers on our bus brought an extra one to give away so we decided we'd write a quick note to him in the back with our testimony, or a favorite scripture, etc...  Well, I have not been feeling so good on this trip. Well I've felt ok but I have had the most horrible cough since Day 2 of this trip. And tonight I was not feeling well at all. In fact, I just wanted to go straight to bed and I was thinking of missing the tour tomorrow to just sleep. But then I thought, gee! I'm finally in Ireland and I don't want to miss a thing. But I couldn't wait to get to sleep!

Well, the passenger that had the extra BOOK OF MORMON came up to me at dinner and said they had been thinking about it and he thought it was appropriate if I would write a little poem and then me, being the one to give the BOOK OF MORMON to our BUS DRIVER.

I told him I would be honored to do that but deep down I was freaking out because I would have to write the poem tonight and it was already 7:00 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet and I did not feel good! But as soon as we got done with dinner I immediately got to work writing the poem. I didn't want it be too preachy but I wanted him to know how much the book means to us. I was to give it to him tomorrow. He could only drive for 10 days and be off for a few before working again. Well tomorrow would be our last day with him so we would give it to him before he left us. We will miss him!

This is what I came up with:
                                            Dear Dan,
                                            We are so sad to see you part.
                                            You've been so amazing from the start.

                                            We've thoroughly enjoyed your knowledge of the things
                                            you've shared with us.
                                            Your comments, your jokes, your beautiful voice
                                            that filled this Big Blue Bus.
 
                                           Because you've become so dear to us, there's something we want to do
                                           We'd like to share this book with you, what's in it is so true.

                                           It's another witness of Jesus Christ. It's changed our lives indeed.
                                           We promise it will do the same for you, if you will choose to read.

                                           We've left little messages in the back of this sacred book,
                                           So when you get a chance, go ahead and take a look.

                                           Our paths will probably never cross again between you and me,
                                           but that's OK because we have such great memories.

                                           May God bless you all along your way,
                                           Farewell our friend, in our hearts you'll always stay.

I'll tell you his response to this on our next day of the trip after I read it to him.

This was a relaxing travel day but I can't believe I am really in IRELAND!!