Ring Road Day 1-Reykjavik to Vik...

It's all about the journey and for the next 7 days we will be on a journey to discover Iceland. Roughly the size of Kentucky, Iceland is located in the Atlantic, just below the Arctic Circle. It is a country of 304,000 citizens of which 190,000 live in Reykjavik. The country is known for it's spectacular waterfalls, lava fields, glaciers, geysers, Icelandic horses, lamb, and beautiful people.

Day 1 began with an incredible European breakfast buffet although in a nod to the US, greasy sausage, bacon and eggs were available. Will had picked the car up by the time we checked out but we returned to the rental agency to add John as a driver. By 10:30 AM, we were driving through Reykjavik in search of Highway 1.

Our route will be a counter clockwise around the island, mostly on Highway 1, otherwise known as the ring road. Unlike most trips, we had done too little research on sights due to too many demands on the home front. I had a short must see list and Will had his Frommer's Iceland (I found my Lonely Plant Guide totally worthless). For the first few hours our faces were pressed against the car windows as we watched lava fields interspersed with lush green fields roll buy. At times we could see the Atlantic, often we were looking at tributary rivers and streams. Frequently we stopped to take photos.

Our first major stop was Seljalandsfoss, one of the higher waterfalls in Iceland. Even though it was not on our radar, it is quite visible from the road and we couldn't pass up exploring the first waterfall we saw. Icelanders consider this a lower volume waterfall, though we thought it impressive.

Not far from Seljalandsfoss, we stopped explore this roadside shed. The shed is more historic than useful these days, but was built for milk can pick up and served as a shelter to protect farmers and travelers as they waited on the bus from Vik to Reykjavik. Iceland once had a network of over 200 similar sheds, only 90 remain today.

Next stop, Rutshellir, a cave built into the side of a mountain and thought to be the first man-made dwelling in Iceland. Recent research indicates that an ancient forge was located here.

The incredible sights just kept coming! By late afternoon, we arrived in the town of Skogar and sight of Skogarfoss. Skogarfoss is another one of Iceland's highest (60 meter) waterfalls and we were totally wowed. Local legend has a treasure buried behind the falls but we chose not to look for it. The wind was blowing spray over a wide area and people returning from behind the falls were wet.

While exploring the falls, we came to the realization that Iceland does not try to separate tourists from the things they want to see. While a few signs post warnings, there are no ropes, walls or off limit zones. A person can exercise as much restraint or carelessness as they desire. We guess that in Iceland, a person is responsible for their own actions and lawyers and lawsuits do not play a large part of society.

If you look at the falls, you can see a double rainbow. At one point we saw a bit of a third rainbow. In the pic below, we are standing at the end of the rainbow thinking that exploring Iceland is the pot of gold.

To the right of the falls, a trail leads to the top. From the top, the trail continues on to a series of smaller but impressive falls and is part of a 5-6 day hut to hut hiking trail. We considered doing this hike in our early days of Iceland dreaming but based time, we had to make some choices and this fell off the list. But if we go back...

Our first night's lodging was located near Skogar in the Vik area. Our car and lodging were booked through Icelandic Farms Holidays with a request for ensuite facilities but we were open to the type of lodging. It was with some hesitation and surprise that we found a roadside sign pointing to a small, single story building with our lodging name, Drangshlio. We drove up the gravel drive and walked in the only door we could find.

A very pleasant young guy greeted us and checked us in. He spoke flawless English with an American accent. Later discussions would indicate that Drangshlio is his family farm and he was home on a 10 day holiday helping his parents out. His day job...a real estate attorney for the government, he lives in Reykjavik. The family home is the small building behind the lodging building (photo below).

It was dinner time, we still had some local sightseeing to do and we were very hungry. Our food options were eating at the farm or driving some 40 minute to find a town with a restaurant that may or may not be open. We decided to eat at the farmhouse.

We very quickly learned that eating in Iceland was going to be our major expense. We had 3-4 options on the menu and all cost between 4800 and 5000 kronur or $38-40 US per person. Three of us ordered Arctic Char and Will, a vegetarian, did the best he could with the limited offering of vegetables. Iceland is definitely not about the vegetable. The food was incredible! We dined on locally caught fish, an arugula salad with light vinagrette, grown in nearby greenhouses and locally grown potatoes. Everything was prepared to perfection.

Next we checked out our rooms. John and I were on the sun side of the building, Will and Kim on the shade side. The rooms were small and sparse but completely adequate for our needs. The only problem for us was the sun, it didn't really go down and the bright red curtains did an inadequate job of blocking it out.

We still had 3 hours of good sunlight after dinner so we decided to explore the Dyrholaey headland area located northeast of our B and B. After a bit of driving, we found a gravel road marked with a small sign designating road 22. Luckily the B and B host had given us the heads up on the road numbers or we would not have found it.

The gravel road took several twists and turns and finally dumped us in a parking lot with a view of the ocean and extraordinary rock cliffs. We took a short path to the beach, which is mostly smooth pebbles and fine rock. Caves and diagonal pillar rocks line the cliffs along the waterfront. Rock stacks, shaped by wind and water, are visible just out to sea.

After spending some time walking the beach, we drove to the Dyrholaey cliff, where we had spotted a lighthouse and rock arch. The Dyrholaey cliff is about 120 meters high. A lighthouse sits on top and an arch-shaped opening protruds into the sea. The arch is large enough for boats and small planes to pass through. The lighthouse was built in 1927 was the first landing lighthouse to be built in the country. The entire area is a nature sanctuary.

We returned to the B and B about 10:30 PM, tired after a long but exciting day. Unfortunately it was only 6:30 PM on our body clocks so sleep would be difficult.

Finally, Iceland...

What a difference a day makes! Left Charlotte around 8:30 AM and arrived at JFK in plenty of time for our 2:05 PM flight to Reykjavik. The weather was good and the flight mostly smooth. We were excited to finally be on the way.

With time to kill at JKF, we got in a good walk and a couple of hours of people watching. By 1:35 PM, we had boarded our flight. Our boarding passes indicated seats 9D and 9F. Clearly the airline had moved us from the cattle car to "economy comfort." Before the flight took off, we had been moved again...to first class.

Another smooth flight in progress. I was able to catch the photo below (sunset on the Atlantic) before cloud cover obscured our sight. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Greenland completely.

Around 11:30 PM, (7:30 PM Knoxville time),with the plane in full decent mode, the coastline of Iceland came into sight. We were glued to the window as the sky, clouds, sunset, mountains (just to the right of the sun), coast and water came together for a most incredible view.

We arrived at Keflavik International Airport on time. As we stepped off the plane, all passengers were directed through another security check. Iceland believes that US security standards are not rigid enough. We cleared through a system not unlike the ones in the US and moved quickly through immigration and customs.

A car service was waiting for us at passenger pick-up and we began a 45 minute drive to Reykjavik. Along the way, our driver noted points of interest and gave us a little history about Iceland. After an early start and a 5 hour flight, our hotel the Hilton Nordica, was the best point of interest.

From our hotel window, we could see the silhouette of Reykjavik against the coast. In the morning we would meet up with Will and Kim, pick up the rental car and begin our drive around the Ring Road. It has been 7 years since we first discussed Iceland and now, here we stand. Finally...Iceland.

The best laid plans...

It's day 1 of our Iceland adventure and we are in er...Charlotte, NC!? The weather just didn't cooperate today. Flash thunderstorms and high winds rolled through Charlotte just as our flight was scheduled to leave Knoxville. We were grounded for in Knoxville for 30 minutes before lift off and sat on the tarmac in Charlotte for another 10 minutes. To our dismay, these delays ate up 40 of the 45 minutes we had between flights. Luckily we were seated near the front and sprinted to the door as soon as it opened.

We hit Charlotte Concourse E running and flew to Concourse B-Gate 8 for our Boston departure. Will and Kim were ahead of us (faster runners) and grabbed the last 2 stand-by seats before the door closed. Yep, US Airways gave away the seats for all the weather delayed passengers to all the people who had been delayed on previous flights, there were probably 15 of us.

Angry and frustrated, we climbed in the airline service line and waited our turn to re-book our reservations. Getting upset with the ground crew was pointless so we bit our tongues as we considered our possible flights. As it turns out, getting to Iceland is not easy. After some options through Boston arriving at 6:30 AM Saturday morning or flying through Frankfurt (yes, Germany) and on to Reykjavik Friday night (20 + some hours of flying and several airports), we settled on JFK to Reykjavik with a Friday, 11:40 PM arrival. We will miss a day of sight-seeing in Reykjavik but will get some sleep before beginning our tour around the island begins on Saturday morning.

Iceland Trip, day 1 Knoxville to Charlotte. This is not a very exciting picture. Hope to have an ocean and island in our sights tomorrow!

Happy Father's Day Daddy...

You are absolutely the best!

We had a nice family gathering for Father's Day. Maybe not the place we would have chosen to celebrate a few years ago but lunch at the nursing home was not too bad and Mother enjoyed having us around!

Leslie and Daddy updating programs on their iPhones

Daddy reading a newspaper article on the iPhone while Carol looks on

On the menu, salad, baked "fried" chicken, corn souffle and blackberry cobbler

Flashing light and a loud thunder woke me around 5:30 this morning. I briefly considered crawling out of bed to take some photos but I was simply too tired so I lay in bed waiting for the storm to pass. The light show continued for an alarming period of time and I finally buried my head under the covers and fell back to sleep.

What's with the weather these days? Depending on your leanings, it could be global warming, divine punishment or some 100 year pattern but here in the south we are sweltering under high temps, miserable humidity and unrelenting thunder storms. As I drove out of the neighborhood this morning, I noticed the scene below, a causality of that 5:30 AM storm.

Rain gauge in our front yard (rain level from this morning)

No, not the foot...

Today is a vacation day for John. He is off to Huntsville for his annual family reunion while I remain in town to celebrate Father's Day with the world's greatest dad!! Before he left, we went downtown for an early morning breakfast at Market Square Kitchen. The cafe, located on Market Square Mall, is open for breakfast and lunch and has a simple, mostly southern menu. We split a bacon, cheese and onion omelet, English muffins and an order of greasy hash browns. The coffee was a little strong, the food nothing special but the downtown atmosphere was nice and a reminder of why we chose to live near town instead of in the burbs.

Yesterday I did something really stupid while running, I got distracted and took my eyes off the road. You see, one of the neighbors has placed a couple of political signs in his yard and the signs are the size of a large child. As I cruised by, I turned my head to read the info (just the effect the neighbor was looking for I am sure) and a large rock jumped under my right shoe. My foot rolled, the pain was immediate and my running come to a quick halt. I decided to walk out the pain and was mostly successful but determined that a run home would be unwise. So I walked home quickly, showered and headed west to have lunch with my dad, visit my mother and run a laundry list of errands. Got through lunch and visiting my mother but my foot was seriously throbbing and the pressure from walking was almost unbearable. Looks like a a quick trip to the doc was in order.

After a couple of x-rays and some poking on the bones, it was determined that nothing is chipped or broken, just soft tissue damage. Then I was sent home with the comment that I have no sign of arthritis in my feet, something that is unusual for "someone of your age" and a prescription of RICE and Advil. Oh, and some stern advice to stay off the foot for a couple of days to let the swelling recede.

So here I am laying down, foot proped up, computer on my stomach and bored to death. I know, the sooner the foot gets better the sooner I can go out and play. It's going to be a long few days!

Ugly huh!

A pic of my run on Wednesday. It is the beginnings of a hill workout (our house is on top of the 952' peak.

Another weekend of renovation...

Our weekend flew by in a blur. Not much of interest to report really, we are still totally consumed with painting, scraping and cleaning. The house is coming together nicely although the counter top and the sink will not go in until next week. We are very tired of eating out and John's sister is arriving in two weeks for a visit. Unfortunately we are a week or so away from unpacking and sorting through my stuff. Many decisions yet to be made on what to keep, sell or give away.

Went for a 40 minute run this morning, around the neighborhood and along the river. Feel like I am gaining strength again thou a bit slow. Up and down the stairs at the house must be helping (went from a single story to a 3 level with some 30 steps between the levels).

Because I am so endlessly fascinated with the visuals from my Forerunner 305, below is a picture of my run today. I woke up early (sometime before 7:00 AM), laced up my shoes and headed out to a cool, but humid morning. Lots of debris on the road from yesterday's severe thunderstorms, a few branches down and one tree. We are expecting similar weather this afternoon.

This route follows the Tennesee River. I was early enough to catch the morning river sounds...fisherman, Canadian Geese and other waterfowl. Nice morning!

I am back home looking for a corner to escape. Five men wielding power tools and paint brushes occupy much of the space, a radio is blasting funk music (thanks Daniel and Lee), cell phones ring constantly and chatter about the pitfalls of women is endless (who says men don't gossip). The kitchen is coming along well but not yet ready for the "Big Reveal". The frig and stove were delivered and installed during the past 2 days. Below is a preview!

Refrig still ensconced in plastice to protect the finish till the kitchen is complete

A very fine dual fuel stove!

An afternoon thunderstorm...

Thunder started rumbling an hour or so ago, a sure signal that the predicted storm was rolling in. I wandered out to the veranda with a book but ending up spending more time watching and listening than reading.

As I watched, the sky grew dark, lightening flashed and thunder boomed. A moderate wind arrived from southwest and trees began to bend and sway. Suddenly heavy showers arrived dumping water furiously. Then, as quickly as it had arrived, the rain moved out and everything was quite again.

The veranda just before the thunderstorm

Safely under cover while reading a little and enjoying the storm

Slow runner crossing...

This was me running today...slow, very slow.

Summer has arrived in East Tennessee and the humidity is up! A cocktail of warm temps and humid air always pose an interesting challenge to me but it was nice to be up and out. As always, I felt great after the effort.

Oh, and the box turtle...I found her walking in the middle of the street in front of the house. She wasn't in a hurry and I worried about cars, so I moved her to the backyard where she ambled toward the back alley and the cover of a wooded area.

Welcome to the Griswolds...

For my birthday last month, I got a Forerunner 305. Thanks Daddy!! Unfortunately with packing, moving and contractors in the house 11/5, I haven't had much quality time to explore the features and software. Until today that is, when I got out for a little run to test things out. Below is an aerial of the run. How cool is that!!?

Since I am a charts and graphs girl, playing with the software post run will keep me motivated for a while. For the next few days, I have an added incentive. I am running the Knoxville Track Club Fast 40 Dash on Thursday evening, June 11th.

Meanwhile, back at the Griswolds, we are still unsettled. I have been here one week and things look just about the same way they did last Friday when 2 Men and a Truck completed the move. We are still in construction mode, boxes are everywhere and we can't do much settling in until the kitchen is further along and the house painted. Most rooms have undergone extensive plaster work as a result of rewiring and foundation work.

On the positive side, the refrigerator and stove will be delivered on Wednesday and counter top space has been measured. We started painting the rest of the house today and it turns out I am pretty good at taping, even if I am quickly bored by the task.

John painting the entry ceiling

Daniel and Lee painting the veranda

Lunch on the veranda

We have cabinets...

We just don't have counter tops, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, cabinet hardware, sink or water for that matter! (Sigh), a few more weeks and it will all be worthwhile!

Thanks for the memories...

Hickory Oak Lane is now in my history book! The paperwork is signed, keys handed to the new owners and I am on to a new adventure. Here are a few photos from the move:

Loading the truck was a long process. It would have gone much quicker if the box count was smaller. As I have said over and over already...too much stuff. Hope to do some culling when I unpack but I have a bad habit of attaching sentiment to things and sentiment can get in the way of throwing them away.

A very empty house. If you look through the kitchen door, into the living room, you can see John wielding a vaccum cleaner. He is such a good boyfriend. This view is from the den looking into the kitchen and living room. My desk sat under the window where I spent many happy hours watching the wildlife at the bird feeder and on the butterfly bush.

This view is from the kitchen into the den. Oops, I forgot the clean the ashes out of the fireplace. Someone else's clean up now :-)

Final pic of the front of the house. I left some pretty long grass to be mowed too!

One final picture for the memory book!

Good bye 1300 Hickory Oak Lane!!

We'll leave the light on for you...

John and I are at the downtown Hampton Inn, luxuriating in our neat, clean, comfortable room. We are exhausted! From start to finish, the movers took 8 hours and the last hour of unloading seemed to take forever.

With the plaster work incomplete in the bathroom at our Hillsboro house (read: bathroom filled with ladders, plaster, trays, putty knives, no space to move), we decided to camp on the floor of the Hickory Oak house using a big down comforter, pillows and linens, only we could not find the pillows and linens. They have gone missing among the many boxes in the garage, or maybe the POD. We didn't have to try too hard to convince each other that staying in a motel was a good idea. A transition of sorts from one house to the other. We have many days ahead with no kitchen and boxes that we can't unpack cause the house is still under renovation.

Tomorrow brings a day of moving those "small" items that one tends not to pack for a cross town move but decides to just move in the car. Based on what's left in the house, it will be a long day!

Move day...

I am holing up in the garage, trying to stay out of the way of the movers. I am amazed at just how fast one's home can go from a safe, cozy environment to an empty shell. The guys have been working for less than an hour and the truck is half full. Still a lot of stuff to be loaded...which leads me to the concern that all of my stuff will not fit.

John's house is not ready for the move. The cabinets are still stacked in the garage, and we don't expect installation until next week. We won't have counter tops and a sink for at least two weeks. Based on extensive plaster repair, we still have painting to do in every room. Here's hoping we find room to stuff my stuff until we can figure out a permanent place for everything.

5 days and counting...

The house has sold and move day is Friday, May 29th. Life as I have known it is rapidly changing.

I have been silent on the house because we have been holding our breath. The "For Sale" sign went up on April 9th and by April 24th we had a serious offer. After a weekend of phone calls back and forth between agents, we settled on a favorable price. A few days later the required home inspection occurred and we agreed on a few "must fix" items. Things appeared to be moving smoothly until a period of non-communication on the part of the buyer began. Some expected paperwork did not come through and my agent would not list the house as sold.

Meanwhile John's house had become unlivable so he moved in with me. We spent several unsettled weeks, uncertain as to whether to pack or panic. We had a couple of short notice showings and some hours of scrambling to clean things up. While we had the potential for some backup offers, our hearts just weren't into the showings. We were ready to be done with this process and move on.

As it turns out, the buyer is paying cash for the house so the usual loan paperwork did not materialize. The silence was due to the buyer researching options to put the house in his son's name so he could take advantage of the O'bama first time home buyer tax credit of $8,500. Oh, and the son just graduated from high school, will enter UT this fall and own the house.

We are frantically packing now, 4 more days to complete the deed. Move day is Friday, closing is Monday week and John's house is running behind schedule. The kitchen will not have a sink or stove, or counter tops for that matter. We will be on a steady diet of sandwiches and whatever we can muster up on the Coleman camp stove (our backpack stove is just too small). Anxiety levels have been high around here but we have stepped up our exercise and acceptance of the situation seems to be settling in.

Boxes are stacked up everywhere. While we have had some discussions regarding combining our stuff and have dumped a lot of stuff, we know that more stuff is going to have to go. We are combining two houses with the same square footage.

My once restful den. The brown down couches have been sold to my real estate agent and we are using folding chairs for furniture. I have lost 2 pair of reading glasses in boxes. I expect they will surface one day when I am unpacking. Things keep disappearing and reappearing.

This is our "new" kitchen as of today (the cabinets are in the basement ready for installation). We had hoped the floors would be honey color (like the rest of the house) but right now they appear really red. This is a misstep on the part of our contractor. A floor finish and paint need to be applied before the cabinets can be installed.

While the houses are all consuming for us, we have been doing other things. I am re-establishing a run routine and John is becoming good friends with his bike again. Yesterday John rode laps around Cherokee Blvd while I got out for a nice run. When I completed my run, I hopped on my bike for a lap or two with John. It turned out to be only a lap...my legs were on fire! The early heat and humidity is challenging for me.

And finally, we booked our plane tickets for a trip to Iceland!! We leave mid-July and will be traveling with our good friends Will and Kim. We consider this our honeymoon trip although I am not sure we will be married at the time we depart. We are renting a car to drive the ring road around the island. We will overnight at farm lodges along the way. I have wanted to do this trip for some 9 years now! It is going to be a lot of fun!!

Rain, rain go away...

We have been under a rain cloud for many days now. While it is challenging to get outside to play, the lawns and gardens are greening up beautifully. There is a purpose for everything!

This old house...

Good things are going on with my house but I am not quite ready to divulge the details just yet. Meantime, work continues on John's house. It is an exhausting project even if we are not doing the physical labor.

The rewiring is complete except for the kitchen and bathroom. We expect the electricians to be done on Friday and can't wait. No major offense intended toward Mutt and Jeff (actually Patrick and Jeff) but guys, you are REALLY messy!! I guess handling a broom isn't in the contract. We plan to hire a "disaster " cleaning company to clean out the plaster board from the hardwood floors and whisk away the rest of the fine white dust that is in every nook and cranny. If we had this to do over, we might not!!

Along with the rewiring, we are having the kitchen gutted and rebuilt. Among the many issues uncovered when the walls were stripped down to the support is that a load bearing wall was removed sometime before John moved in (20 years ago), A little creative carpentry has shored up the ceiling and will hopefully support the sagging back of the house for many years to come.

Here we are, smiling in our wreck of a kitchen. Behind us is a wall that is being rebuilt. The brown wall section was once a separate room. The white wall section sits forward more than the brown. New sheet rock will be nailed up to even everything up.

The sink and refrig will go on the left side. Look up and you can see the new joist supports. When the ceiling was pulled down, the joists that are now supported were just hanging there, not connected.

The oak flooring strips designate the old room. The floor, under layers of linoleum and tar paper, is wood (currently stripped down to the tar paper). The wood will be refinished to match the rest of the house.

This was once a very narrow door opening into the dining room. Our contractor has moved some plumbing and enlarged the opening. We hope this will result in an open feeling between the kitchen and dining room.

We always assumed John's floors were oak. Jason, our contractor, picked up one of the floor boards in the kitchen and discovered the floors are beech. Cool! We may have to replace missing or damaged floor boards with oak cause beech is not as easily accessible.

Here is John on our side porch (off the living room). We have added two ceiling fans. The missing fixture is the light fixture. Did I mention that we had to replace almost every fixture in the house? The old service was 100 amp, the new service is 200 amp...the old fixtures don't work. Most fixtures are the oiled bronze look and are mostly modern. It's a fun look with the 1940's house.