Dodging cars, succeeding (so far)

Trying to make the most of this page before next week, when I have to retire it (or at least change the name) and realizing that I haven't said anything with real words for weeks. I've got this plan for next week, the day after my birthday, where I'll move out August 1 (really just take most of my stuff to a friend's house so as to not pay rent) and bicycle to Derry. If I stop halfway, in Armagh, it will split the trip into two days, about 82 miles Friday and 70 miles Saturday.

The problem I ran into, though, on my test run today was getting out of Dublin. It's nearly impossible to make it out of here without hitting those 100 km/h and over roads. It's not so bad staying on back roads, even though there's really no shoulder and my knuckles are permanently pale, but at least the cars are shooting by at 50-60 km/h instead of 100 (reference: like riding on the Richland bypass highway, which is also scary, but at least then I know where I'm going). I'm thinking that if I can make it far enough out of Dublin and not get lost one of these days, then I can do it again next Friday. So, tomorrow it looks like it'll be a 60 mile round trip to Drogheda, which is almost the entire way to Armagh, up in the (capital-N?) north.

The only downside is that (did I say this already?) most of the directions from the last two-hour test ride are lost, my only memories of those last two hours being trying not to die. Anyway, I'll be home (alive, we hope) on August 7, but then off to Salem/Portland probably for a day or two, so we'll figure something out.