Day 9, in which we find Walter Mitty

Finally, the weather officially turned for the worse and the balmy Icelandic holiday was over. We knew we had experienced the absolutely best of the late summer weather, and it was Russian roulette after that.

Little boxes all in a row.

But, I am ahead of myself. Lets go back to the previous night. We spent the night at Hvammastammir, or what we lovingly called Hamstring. Because sometimes when you are driving and looking at a map and need to make immediate choices, those Icelandic words morph into something else. This town has a fantastic public pool! Complete with three different jacuzzi’s of various temperatures and a heated water slide! We all needed a shower, but this pool went above and beyond our requirements.

A mere 2 minutes away, the town campsite was crowded for the lateness of the season. I was, once again, so happy in my Feathered Friends -20 coat. I know that I vaguely look like a car tire in it, but at least I’m warm! We had yet another amazing meal of lamb stew in front of a roaring briquette fire, ok, maybe roaring is too strong of a word. But even red briquettes give you that warm, halcyon feeling.

We woke up to a cloudy morning that promised some crappy weather. Megan was bent on finding a local bakery, and of course we all supported her in the search. It was a fruitless search, but we did find some interesting Icelandic wool stores. After a pleasant hour, we hit the road to do some car touring from the warm safety of Kevin.

Diary entry:

We almost died today. We were headed up a pass, in search of the road that Walter Mitty skateboarded down.

A semi was heading towards us, and the semis in Iceland have a certain Grim Reaper in a Truck feeling to them. I have total light-envy. For Christmas I am going to ask Santa for some cool lights for Vanna. It would be like her Halloween costume, evil Vanna. Anyway, it was not the truck that was so scary. It was the stupid IDIOT car who was hidden behind him and passed him with only a few feet to spare before crushing into our windshield. It was close enough that words failed us for a long time, other than ‘Thanks Clint’ for the good driving skills.

We discovered a bright turquoise bay where a fishing industry thrived, and we also discovered an incredibly interesting public museum. The water was more bright than a Caribbean bay, and we wondered where our flip flops and beach drinks were.