Iceland - Ring Road south

We ate another yummy breakfast of skyr, granola, and raisins. Carrie made rolex’s for lunch, which is a Ugandan dish, with fried egg rolled in chapati (well we used tortilla because Bonus didn’t have chapati :).

We stopped for gas at an unattended gas station. Many gas stations in Iceland are unattended and require a chip-and-pin card. Most USA credit cards require a signature and won’t work. Bill’s credit union debit card worked fine.

Our first sight is the 200-foot-high 50-foot-wide Seljalandsfoss waterfall. You can walk behind the waterfall and look through it, which is very cool.

Next is the 227-foot-high 100-foot-wide Skógafoss waterfall. It drops from the highland plateau to the lowlands over what was once the cliffs along the ocean shore. We walked up lots of steps to a viewpoint at the top of the falls and continued upstream past pretty cascades. There is a second large waterfall further upstream but the trail was closed. We had a snack of crackers and smurostur, which is an Icelandic product like flavored cream cheese.

Dyrhólaey was originally a volcanic island but is now a peninsula with a beautiful view and a lighthouse. Lots of birds nesting on the rock by the arch.

Reynisfjara is a black sand beach with basalt sea stacks. The cliff has hexagonal rock formations formed as lava cooled.

We saw 2 guys hitch-hiking, so we picked them up. They were both Polish and one spoke good English and worked in a restaurant and the other spoke only a little English and worked in elder care. Iceland’s population is about 350,000 and apparently 10% are Polish. They said the pay is better in Iceland than in Poland.

We planned to see Fjaðrárgljúfur, a beautiful canyon cut by glacial erosion about a mile long and 330' deep, walking the short trail to the overlook. But it was closed. That night, in my google "news for you" there was an article about the closure. Apparently Justin Beiber filmed a video there, off-trail and in the stream, so lots of people were doing the same and ruining the canyon. So it is closed and I have no picture to post. :( While google correctly highlighted an article that interests me, it’s creepy. Were they using my map destinations?

It was cloudy all day, but a light rain started before Vatnajökull National Park. Undeterred, we stopped at Skaftafell for the S2 hike. It’s a 3.4-mile walk past the 78-foot-high Hundafoss waterfall and 31-foot-high Magnúsarfoss waterfall to the 65-foot-high Svartifoss waterfall, where water falls over black basalt columns.

Dinner was soup and tuna melt, cooked in the hostel’s nicely equipped kitchen. There were no other guests in the hostel.  Nearby the hostel was a small church.

Iceland - Golden Circle

We arrived at Keflavik airport in the morning, bought an Iceland SIM card for Carrie’s phone and picked up a rental car. Iceland drives on the right side of the road same as the United States, but we do need to use headlights all the time.

First stop is to buy groceries at Bonus, so we looked for the pig with the black eye. One of the things we bought was skyr, which is a tasty Icelandic product similar to yogurt. So we ate a late breakfast of skyr, granola, and raisins in the car.

Next is Þingvellir National Park. Here the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates collide above sea level, so you can see the edges of the plates.

Þingvellir is also the site where tribal leaders met yearly starting in 930 AD to govern and established one of the two oldest parliaments in the world.

Carrie is vegetarian, so we went to the Friðheimar restaurant for a late lunch. Iceland imports much of its food, but this farm grows their own greenhouse tomatoes and makes a very fresh tomato soup. Lunch is served in the greenhouse.

Kerið is a volcanic crater lake that we hiked around.

Geysir is Icelandic "to gush" and is the origin of the word geyser. Geysir the geyser still erupts occasionally, but the most consistent geyser in the area is Strokkur, which erupts about 50 feet high every 6-10 minutes. Some springs have a bit of color and some bubble, so it is like Yellowstone on a smaller scale.

Our last sight for the day is Gulfoss, the golden falls, a 105-foot-high 750-foot-wide 2-step waterfall.

After arriving at the bed-and-breakfast, Carrie made a cheese quesadilla for dinner. Bill didn’t sleep much on the flight, so he just went to bed.

Iceland - off we go

Hurray! Hurray! Our Iceland vacation starts today!

Bill and Carrie are flying to Iceland tonight for an 8-day 1400-mile counter-clockwise drive around the Ring Road. Our planned sights are mostly outdoor scenery that only requires a short hike, which includes lots of waterfalls. We will be staying in bed-and-breakfasts and hostels along the route, cooking most of our meals and eating out a few times.

Carrie has visited over 25 countries and is the seasoned traveler. Bill hasn't flown for over 20 years, so all this TSA stuff is new to him. 

The weather prediction is 50's F in the day and 40's F at night, with rain possible this weekend. Sunrise is 4:05 AM and sunset is 10:43 PM, so plenty of daylight.

We have lots planned, but will try to post along the way.

Florida - Habitat – The ReStore

While Bill works at the build site in Fellsmere, Barbara works in the ReStore in Vero Beach.

The Indian River Habitat for Humanity's ReStore sells pretty much anything: furniture, home improvement items, housewares, books, toys, exercise equipment, linens, and so much more.

Employees and volunteers create a great place to shop and get great deals on used things.

This picture shows some other volunteers. This particular group hales from Tennessee (Nashville), Ohio (Akron), South Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada. Most of the volunteers in this picture are “Care-a-vanners.” They stay in their RV behind the store and put in at least 30 hours/week in the ReStore.

There also are employees, future homeowners, and regular volunteers. This store has a great crew! 

This was Barbara’s second year at the ReStore – working both years in linens. 

Here’s the linens section of the back room.

Barbara sorted, folded, priced and displayed all sorts of linens. She was ultra happy when lots of well displayed curtains were purchased on her last day. Woohoo!

Profits from the ReStore go to Habitat for Humanity to help build homes for people in need.

image from Indian River Habitat for Humanity's website

Florida - Habitat – The Build Site

We like volunteering at Indian River Habitat for Humanity in Vero Beach, Florida for two reasons – it’s near Barbara’s dad and Bill can work on a build site while Barbara works in the ReStore. This is our third season with this Habitat affiliate. You can check out our first year and second year posts.

Bill works at a build site in the town of Fellsmere. Habitat acquired this parcel of land to create a development with over 60 homes. Each year they build a number of houses and they expect completion next year.

One of the cool things is to see the transformation.

Two years ago (the 3rd house is just a slab with a tool shed)

Now

Another thing we like about this affiliate is that the Site Supervisor, Ricardo, cares about quality. If something is done poorly, he fixes it. The porch posts line up all the way down the street. Ricardo, like most Habitat supervisors, is very good at getting volunteers to do significant work even if they don’t have prior construction experience.

You meet lots of people. Here Bill confers with Mike, a retired electrician from New Jersey who now helps supervise.

Richard (age 92) has volunteered for decades and is still making a significant contribution.

And we have to mention Rex and Susan. We don’t have a picture of them, but they totally renovated a house needing repair. Here’s a picture of the renovated home. Looks like new!

The building process includes two ceremonies – the wall raising marking the beginning of construction and the commissioning which hands over the house keys. We watched this wall raising last weekend.

It’s great to be a part of a crew that gives back to the community.

Back to Colorado

Barbara returned to Colorado Springs for a Community Bible Study conference. (She had just been there in November for Training.)

It was a lovely facility. Here is the view from Barbara’s window.

Seeing Cheyenne Mountain reminded her of camping there.

The conference was jam packed with inspiring talks, informative sessions, and conversations with Community Bible Study leaders from all over the world.

Here’s Barbara with Liz and Rebecca. We all had been Core Leaders in the North Shore Massachusetts class. Liz is now the North Shore Teaching Director and Rebecca is now Teaching Director in the Dubai class.

Liz, Rebecca & Barbara

As Area Director, Barbara encourages the Teaching Directors from Springfield MA and Hartford CT: Katie and Linda.

Katie, Barbara & Linda

And she works along side other Area Directors from the Northeast.

Marcia, Nadine, Carol, Jen, Sue, Katy,
Pam (Regional Director), Barbara, Beth, & Mindy

This was the suite where we had one of our meetings.

Barbara’s flight home got canceled due to bad weather. We were unable to find any reasonably-priced flights to Boston, Manchester or Providence but Bill found a flight going to LaGuardia. Unbeknownst to Bill, Barbara's conference roommate Nadine had the same flight and offered Barbara transportation from LaGuardia and an overnight at her house in Connecticut. So Bill picked Barbara up the next day. It could not have been a better outcome. Thanks Nadine!

2018 Year in Review

2018 began in Florida visiting Barbara’s family and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

Then back home Bill volunteered with our local Habitat for Humanity, Barbara letterboxed and volunteered with Community Bible Study, and we both delved into projects and tried to get involved with a new church.

We planned a June trip to Newfoundland, but on the morning of April 5th…

The picture says it all. So with the exception of a trip to Ohio to see Bill's family, we spent the summer in Massachusetts exploring our new area and making plans to replace our trailer. We picked up a new trailer in the fall in British Columbia combining it with Barbara’s Community Bible Study training in Colorado and touring the Pacific Coast.

North Cascades, Crater Lake, Oregon Coast, Redwoods, Colorado Springs

Kate, Carrie and Tina (their dog) share an apartment in Boston. Kate transitioned to a tech job, working for Toast – a restaurant software company. She traveled out west several times, bikes to work, and learned to surf. Carrie continues at the economics consulting firm – Cornerstone Research. She traveled domestically and abroad including Cuba, Italy and Spain and returns to Uganda in January. Here they are with Bill and boyfriends.

One time when Bill was hiking ahead of Barbara he left a stick message for Barbara along the trail. So then we left messages for each other when we had the opportunity.

 In that spirit we leave a stick message for you.