1/31/17 Tuesday - Arrival

We took our time this morning at breakfast and got on the road a bit later than usual so as to not get in the commuter traffic on its way to Tampa.  We arrived at 102nd Avenue and could not find the house so I called our host and found that we were supposed to be on 102nd Street North.  It wasn't too awfully far away so we arrived about 10:30.  Our hosts are very nice and we are staying in their private backyard with a private entrance.  Our home for the next month is an RV with two lovely seating areas, a grill, a covered area with a washer and dryer and a pool right outside the door.  Everything is quite miniature inside so we will not be shopping for groceries once a week, but more often.  We emptied our suitcases, but had to put them back in the trunk of the car as there is nowhere to store them inside.  We had a light lunch of nuts and carrots and then made our way to the Habitat ReStore to say that we had arrived.  The good news is that it is only 6.7 miles to the ReStore from here, but the bad news is that Doug, the manager, was in a meeting so we didn't get to see him.  We left a message that we would start work tomorrow and made our way "home".  On the way, we stopped at a Publix supermarket for some supplies.  We picked up a roasted chicken and veggies for tonight.  Unfortunately, the RV has everything except an oven so we will have to make do without.  The temperature was in the 40's this morning when we left Ocala and it is now 75 - yeah!  We will relax for a while before dinner.  I am putting on some pix of our new place.  As you can see in the first photo, the pool is just steps from the door.

1/30/17 On the Road, Again

Last night's dinner was a trip!  We ate at the Highway Diner, which was an old-fashioned steel diner with red plastic booths - right out of the 1950's.  Dinner was good, but way too much to finish.  We drove across the street and filled up the car.  So far the most common gas price has been $2.19.

Well, today was a saner day.  We started out at 7:15 after a good night's sleep and made our way south along I-95.  Around noontime, we stopped at Colleton State Park in South Carolina - just 3 miles off the highway - for a lovely walk and a light lunch of crackers, nuts, and raw carrots that we had brought with us.  We both felt that we had eaten too much yesterday and a light lunch was exactly what we needed.  The walk around the park was lovely.  We walked the cypress swamp nature trail until we reached an area that was flooded.  Along the way, we saw live oaks, Loblolly pines, wax myrtle, magnolia, and tulip trees.  Down by the river, there were many cypress trees, some dripping with Spanish moss, growing in the water.  It was a lovely and relaxing stop.

We got back on the highway and did not stop until we got the the Florida Welcome Center, where we enjoyed our free cup of fresh orange juice.  Outside was a dolphin statue, similar to our whale statues.  This was was covered in musical symbols and named Satchmo.  From there we cut over to Route 301 south.  This is a lovely road that runs past many large horse farms, but it is a bit annoying as the speed drops from 65 to 55 to 45 to 35 every time you approach a small town.  I think we will take another route when we return home at the end of February.  We stopped for the night in Ocala and were happy to be able to walk to dinner - Cracker Barrel this time, but we do enjoy walking to dinner after being in the car all day.  We figure the average age in the restaurant was 75 and that included the table of young people with a baby!  Dinner was fine and we will watch a bit of TV before bed tonight.  Only 581 miles today, but the temperature is a balmy 62 degrees!

1/29/17 Sunday - On the Road

Well, despite our intentions to take our time this morning, we woke up at 3:45 and were on the road at 4:40 AM.  It was 31 degrees and cloudy.  After a few wrong turns in New Jersey (not intentional), we stopped for breakfast along the Turnpike.  We decided not to go the whole way on I-95 so took the slower, but more scenic route down the DelMarva peninsula before cutting back to the beltway below D.C.  We stopped for a quick bite just above Richmond and arrived in Rocky Mount, NC about 4:30.  We have just come back from taking a walk down some small side roads ending at a hospital complex and will go to a local diner for dinner in a bit.  We wanted to walk to the diner as it is just a mile, but there are no sidewalks here and it will be dark when we return.  It is 51 and sunny here.  Our entertainment (when the traffic wasn't crazy) was listening to an audio recording of The Pillars of the Earth.  What a great story - really makes the time go by.  We are taking our time going down as we are not expected at our accommodations in Largo, FL until Tuesday.

2017 volunteering in Florida

We will be leaving on Sunday for a volunteer job in Florida.  We will be staying in Largo and have a very short commute to work.  Although the weather here has been rather mild so far, we are looking forward to walks in shirt sleeves and shorts on the beach.  I am uploading a picture to make sure things will work smoothly for us.  This is a new laptop and hopefully the problems with putting pictures on will be a thing of the past.  I put a picture of Denali here to remind us of what snow looks like while we are in Florida!

Friday 9/9/16

It rained off and on again today, but again it didn't impede our plans.  We went to the Blue Lagoon - a lovely and very big outdoor man-made hot springs.  The water is full of sulphur, calcite and other minerals so the water is opaque.  It is supposed to have a healing effect on your skin, but is harsh on the hair so when you shower beforehand, you put lots of conditioner in your hair and just leave it in.  The water was very warm and felt wonderful on a cool day like today.  We went over to one part of the pool and used a white clay on our faces - it is supposed to make you look younger!  We were laughing about having the face of an 18 year old on the body of an old woman.  We stayed in the water quite a while and then tried out the steam room, which I did not like - too hot!  The sauna was nice, however.  The funniest thing that happened while we were in the pool was that we had a rain shower so our heads were cold while our bodies were hot - a strange sensation.  Our next stop was to Loftur's home.  He had some small bites: smoked lamb, crepes, rye bread with lamb pate, and a drink which is made from mixing orange soda and a malt drink.  This is a traditional drink at Christmas time.  Since it was Dave's birthday, we sang Happy Birthday to him in both Icelandic and English.  Loftur gave Dave a replica of a Viking pot as a present.  It was so very nice of him.  His wife came home on her lunch hour to meet us.  She was very nice and had actually been to Mystic once.  Their home was lovely and they had some beautiful artwork on the walls as well as a large salmon that Loftur had caught and had mounted.  Their son was at school - probably reluctantly as he went to the Justin Bieber concert last night and did not get home until midnight.  We stopped at the Pearl, which is a large dome sitting on top of water storage tanks (in case of emergency for the city of Reykjavik).  We went outside to the observation platform and could see nearly the whole city.  The far distance was obscured by some mist from the rain.  On our drive back into the city we saw several rainbows - one of them a complete arc.  We are back at the hotel now and have just finished straightening out our suitcases as we will be flying home tomorrow.  It is funny that our plane leaves at 5 PM and we get to Boston at 6:35 PM.  Our plan is to stow the luggage after breakfast and go by bus to the Northern Lights Museum.  We are happy to be going home and will be glad to see friends and family, but this has been an amazing trip - many parts of this country are so beautiful and untouched by man's influence.  This is probably the second cleanest country we have been in with Japan being the first.  If you haven't been here, I highly recommend a trip.

Thursday 9/8/16

We left Selfoss just after breakfast and thankfully, Dave is feeling much better today.  We went to visit a local horticulturalist.  He had a series of greenhouses and plants only flowers for cutting: Gerber daisies, roses, lilies, etc.  The whole operation was more complicated than I would have thought.  They are trying to be as green as possible so use geothermal water to heat and sodium lights to extend the days in the winter.  They don't celebrate Valentine's Day here, but Woman's Day.  Mother's Day is another big time for cut flowers along with June for graduations and christenings.  Surprisingly, weddings do not use a lot of flowers, but lilies are used for funerals.  It was quite an operation.  All of the flowers are sold at the local markets - none are exported.  Their competition is from Holland and some roses that are grown in Africa, which was news to me.  They are having great luck with growing the daisies in lava rock - plenty of that here!  Our next adventure was a river raft ride on a category 2+ river.  Ten of the fifteen of us suited up (Dave stayed on the bus, very wisely) in wetsuits, life jackets and helmets.  We drove for a ways up river and then hopped on the raft.  It was raining today (our first soaking rain that we have had here), but as we knew we were going to get wet anyway, it didn't make any difference.  What I didn't count on was how cold we would get, even with silk long underwear under the wetsuits.  The only thing to keep us warm was the paddling and for long stretches we couldn't paddle - we just let the current carry us down river.  Some of the rapids were a bit rough and we had to hold onto the OS (Oh, Shit) line quite often.  We had a lovely Indian guide named Ravi who was very entertaining.  The best part of the trip was when we went through a canyon - very narrow with steep basalt rock sides.  At one point, the basalt formed hexagonal columns, which was very cool.  There was a boatload of young Germans in one of the other rafts (there were three all together) who were pushing each other into the cold water - BRRRR!  We stopped at one point so that those who wished to could jump from a cliff into the water.  Several of the people from their raft did it, but to no one's surprise, none of the "old folks" were interested.  We were quite cold enough without submerging ourselves in the river.  When we got to the landing place (an hour and a half from our start) we had a short bus ride back to our starting point.  I couldn't wait to get out of the rafting gear and into the hot shower and then the sauna.  I was chilled to the bone, but the heat of the water and the sauna helped to raise my body temperature.  We had a late lunch at a bakery - soup and bread.  It was located in a small shopping mall and there were a few shops as well as a post office, grocery store and a library.  We also enjoyed a photo exhibit of the 2008 earthquake in this area.  It was a 6.3 and there was quite a lot of damage.  The display included a wide crack in the floor covered in plexi-glass and lit down below with red LED lights to simulate lava.  One side of the crack was labeled North America and the other side, Europe.  It was really quite interesting reading all the personal accounts of people who lived through the quake.  One woman made a collage of all of her broken china and glassware - quite an interesting piece of art.  Our last stop of the day was to Iceland's largest geothermal energy plant, cleverly named ON.  We had a guide who explained the whole process of generating energy from the thermal waters above the magma layer of a nearby volcano.  We then got to look into the turbine/generator room.  It was all quite interesting that they have been able to harness the natural power that abounds in this country.  We are now back in Reykjavik at our original hotel.  Dinner was on our own tonight so we walked up the street to a local restaurant for a light meal.  Tomorrow is our last full day here.

Wednesday 9/7/16

Dave woke up not feeling real well this morning and in retrospect, he probably should have stayed behind in the hotel because we had a very busy day today.  Our first stop was at a wonderful waterfall at Seljalandsfoss.  Kelly and I climbed up some stairs (most of the way) to walk behind the falls.  It was very loud and as someone said, we got "mystified".  It was a good thing we were wearing raincoats.  The way down was a bit of a scramble over wet and slippery rocks, but we made it down eventually.  It was lovely to stand behind the falls and see the huge volume of water that was coming down.  Our next stop was to Eyja falls Jokull.  This is the site of the 2010 volcanic eruption that stopped air traffic worldwide.  The little museum showed a short film featuring the farm across the road that sits directly under the glacier of the volcano.  It was quite amazing that no one was killed.  The whole family was able to evacuate with the help of large vehicles that were sent by the authorities.  The plumes of ash ballooned into the air showering the whole area with tons of black ash.  When the danger was over, the community came together to help each other with the massive clean-up operation.  It was a very powerful film.  We then stopped at Skogar waterfall, which was also lovely.  We were traveling in the south of Iceland today.  They get 270 days/year of rain - we have been so lucky with the weather while we have been here.  We stopped at Dyraolaey (the southernmost tip of the island) and took some wonderful pictures of standing stones and arches in the water.  The long and broad beach here has black sand - awesome!  If you were to head due south from here, you would not hit land until you reached Antarctica.  We had a delicious lunch (char, potatoes, leeks with red pepper, wonderful homemade bread, and chocolate cake) at the Volcano Hotel.  It was formerly the elementary school for this small town, but the school aged population declined so they sold the school and the children go to the next town - and even combining the two, there are only 58 students in total.  Dave stayed on the bus for all of our stops except for lunch.  He managed to eat a little of it.  Our next adventure was to take a Super Jeep tour (think 16 passenger van on huge tires).  We went off road, fact, we drove on the shore (again black sand) before taking a rough path up into the valley between the mountains.  Our destination was Kotlujokull glacier.  When we got close, we got out of the jeep and walked right up to the face of the glacier.  Our local guide, Johann - the 29th generation descendant of one of the original Viking settlers, explained the different types of rocks that are formed when an eruption occurs.  He then put on his crampons and walked up the face of the glacier to throw down some ice from an upper layer.  The ice is full of bubbles and at one point I could see a small rainbow in the area that he chipped with his ice ax.  The glacier is quite dirty, but he assured us that the snows will turn it white again.  We finished our tour back where we started.  Loftur, meanwhile, had managed to get some drugs back in Selfoss for Dave.  He is fairly certain that it is bronchitis that has hit him - he is so prone to getting it.  We rode the bus back to our hotel and Loftur went with me to the pharmacy to pick up the Zithromax.  On the was back, we stopped to take a picture of some circles that were caused by exploding gas bubbles from an earlier eruption.  Once I have got Dave dosed up and into bed, John and I went across to the hot dog stand to get take-out for dinner.  Loftur has been raving about the Icelandic hot dogs so we had to try one.  Lana and Kelly were headed to a nearby restaurant for salmon.  The hot dogs were good, but the ones we serve at the library fair are just as good.  We will have an early night tonight and hope that Dave feels better after a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow we (Dave will stay on the bus) will go on a rafting trip before going back to Reykjavik.