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Cows as Pedestrians?

In 2017, my daughter and I were able to go on a trip to Ireland. It was special in many ways.

1 - My daughter turned 18 in the air on the flight to Ireland. Because at least then their legal drinking age was 18, I was able to buy my daughter her first legal drink... twice (I got to do it again here when she turned 21.)

2 - Due to moving back to Birmingham in the middle of my daughter's junior year in high school, we decided that home-schooling would be better than changing schools for that amount of time. That meant she wouldn't graduate in the traditional sense - no walking across a stage, getting handed a diploma (or piece of paper as a place-holder for the diploma), and moving her tassel from one side to the other.

When I was blessed with the resources to do this trip, I planned to hold a surprise graduation in Londonderry, a city in Northern Ireland where we have distant relatives. We were able to have it on a rooftop in the middle of the city and I live-streamed it (badly) back home so that friends and family could be a part. 

3 - We were huge Game of Thrones fans and, as anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows, a lot of it was filmed in Ireland. I opted to rent a car and travel a route that included most of the Irish Game of Throne filming sites during the trip.

The featured photo for this story happened at the first Game of Thrones site we visited.

Roads in Ireland can be pretty narrow - and they can go on for a while before you get to your destination. We drove up a long, winding road to get to the site of the Starks' Camp - Audrey Castle. 

Just as we could finally see the castle in the distance, an Irishman told us to pull over to the side and stop. He didn't mention why. We looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary - especially nothing that would make us stop on our route.

We were intrigued and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. 

The road curved out of our sight in front of us. I don't remember for sure, but I think that we heard them before we saw them. Then just a few seconds later, about 15 cattle, including calves, came around that bend. Of course, I grabbed my camera (I always had it in the front seat ready to shoot) and started shooting.

It wasn't until I looked at the pictures on my laptop that I noticed the Pedestrian Crossing sign just behind them. It made me laugh so much! That little calf hustling to get in front of the pack added to the merriment. 

After they were herded into a truck in a nearby field, my daughter and I drove the rest of the way to the castle. Though it was absolutely beautiful and we were thankful to finally make it to one of the Game of Thrones' sites, personally that wasn't nearly as fun to shoot as the cattle who thought of themselves as pedestrians.

                                                           (Images by Tracy Riggs Frontz)


      

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