Irish Dancing....Can I do That?

We spent our second rest day in a row here in Syracuse watching my nephew compete in the Central New York Feis, an Irish Dancing Competition.  He crushed it placing in four of the six events that he chose to compete.

Killing it on the dancefloor.

I had never even considered the possibility of taking up Irish Dancing until today, but I caught myself thinking from time to time throughout the competition, “Can I do that?”  

It looked challenging and graceful and fun.  

“You’re way to old for Irish Dancing.”

“That’s what you told yourself about yoga, but once you started you wished you hadn’t waited for so long.”

“You’d just embarrass yourself.”

“Probably, but you said the same thing about walking and yoga until you started to practice.  Were there some embarrassing bits? Sure, but seriously, no one is even really paying attention to you at all.”

The debate went on throughout the day, but in the end, I decided I didn’t have a reason not to give it a try once the walk is complete.

Irish Dancing here I come….at least for a lesson or two.  That’s one of the things I’m loving about the pilgrimage. I’m getting to see, experience, and contemplate things that I never even considered.  My life is becoming richer for it day after day. Thanks for the the inspiration, E! I had a great day!

Syracuse Rest

We’ve had a restful day in Syracuse.  I woke up at 7:30 and didn’t have to think about getting back on the road, and my feet and legs were happy.  We casually ate breakfast, I worked some non-walking phone calls and business related paperwork, and we ate lunch at Tully’s, a sports pub next to our hotel.

Tully’s - Claimed home of “the best chicken tender on earth."

Tully's claims to serve the "best chicken tenders on earth." I've been forced to sample them twice to test this assertion, and they are really good.  I'm just not convinced they are better than Foosackly's based on my extensive market research and fact finding missions during my shipbuilding days to the Mobile area of Alabama.  That's a bold claim that would require some additional evidence, but these New Yorkers are giving the Southerners a run for their money. This is just one minor example of the fun and uplifting experiences we’ve had on this pilgrimage.  Completely unexpected and unplanned, but at the same time, just fun, fulfilling, and tasty.

I’m really looking forward to seeing my sister, her wife, and her son who is going to be performing in an Irish Dance competition tomorrow at the New York State Fairgrounds.  Once again, it just feels like the Universe is putting both Dad and I in the right place at the right time to have just the experiences that we’re meant to have.

This was a completely unplanned coincidence, and just a week ago it was not clear that we were going to be able to make the miles in order to watch my nephew dance.  We covered over one hundred and sixty miles on foot, and here we are….waiting out a pretty bad rainstorm in relative comfort, enjoying a much needed rest day, and getting a chance to let Amazon resupply some of our harder to get consumables.

I don’t want to make too much of this, but it really seems like the more we step out in faith, the better things start to click into place.  That’s counterintuitive for me, and I’m not completely comfortable with this faith based approach to letting the trail deliver that which is needed.  It’s hard to argue with the results, so I guess we’ll keep doing that which continues to work.