Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: trips

  • Memories lost, memories created, memories kept

    I don’t dwell much on memories of my first marriage, which was destructive to all of us. But a few photographs of me with my sons there remind me that there were good times. And then after the divorce, I focused on building good memories.

  • The harbor at Killybegs

    Indulge me, if you will, a brief return to the visit to Ireland my wife and I made last year. I follow the film-photography blog of Roy Karlsvik, who makes his living as a sailor. He shares photographs of what are to him everyday places, most of which involve harbors and ships. But it’s all…

  • Wanted by the FBI

    A story of the time I was wanted by the FBI.

  • Strolling through St. Stephen’s Green

    We had not been having a great experience in Dublin so far. And then we came upon St. Stephen’s Green. It changed everything. Expensive tourist-trappy attractions, criminally slow restaurant service, large crowds and lots of noise everywhere — Dublin had been everything the rest of Ireland had not been. After a disappointing experience trying to…

  • The joy of wrong turns on vacation

    My greatest irrational fear is of getting lost. All those road trips I take? Yeaaaaah, I map them out. I don’t want a wrong turn to lead me astray. One reason I take road trips is to face my fear. Someday I’ll have conquered it enough to head out with minimal prep. I’m not there…

  • A model for living the faith: Father McDyer and alleviating poverty in Glencolmcille

    Christians get a bum rap these days as being bigoted and small minded. Perhaps it’s because some high-profile people who claim to follow Christ behave that way. Perhaps it’s because many people experienced a rule-based, condemning Christianity as children. But most Christians I know go quietly about their faith. The ones who live it out…

  • Arresting views at Glengesh Pass

    An old Irish blessing, one perhaps you’ve heard, begins, “May the road rise up to meet you; may the wind always be at your back.” We let these lines guide us along our loose Irish itinerary. At no time on our trek through Ireland did the road rise more than at Glengesh Pass. Where I…

  • A terraced cemetery in Ardara

    Margaret and I loosely followed the Irish coast as we worked our way south from Ireland’s northern tip. This frequently put us on the Wild Atlantic Way, a byway of sorts that traces the entire western Irish coast. When we figured out what it was, we decided to follow it wherever we could. This led us…

  • Seven tips for driving in Ireland

    We wanted to fully control our itinerary in Ireland. So no packaged tours for us: we decided what we wanted to see, no matter how far off the beaten path — or to go nowhere, if we felt like it. So we rented a car and drove it all over Ireland wherever our noses led…

  • What’s the best compact 35mm film camera to take on vacation?

    As I get ready to visit Ireland with Margaret later this year, I’ve been trying to decide which film camera to take with me. I’d love to shoot nothing but film over there, but ay yi yi the cost of processing the film when I get back! So I’ll pack my digital Canon PowerShot S95.…