Itineraries Are for Suckers

And I'm the biggest sucker of them all.

My sister is a little more free-wheeling than I am so the need for a detailed itinerary of our Iceland trip isn't high on her list of priorities.  (For more about Erica's priorities, see this post about her Icelandic playlist)  I can't help my desperate need to control things though.  After more than a decade of juggling husband, kids, dogs, mortgage, extended family, full-time job, part-time school, ex-baby-mama, car payments, etc., I LIVE for my calendars, schedules, and spreadsheets.  And if I can cross-reference and link my email calendars with my spreadsheets, it just feels so good!

With that being said, when Erica and I decided to buy the Icelandic campground pass, I told her - and myself - that I was OK with winging it.  "If the campground is full," I said, "we'll just drive to the next one.  It's summertime so it won't get dark.  No worries.  Just being in Iceland will be amazing so if we don't get to see it all, whatever we do see will be awesome."  "We don't need no stinkin' reservations," I thought - despite the guidebooks' claim to the contrary.  Making the decision to go itinerary-free was very, well, freeing, in the same way that doing 80mph down a road with a "BRIDGE OUT" sign is freeing.  

"But what if we don't get to see the really cool things we want to see," a part of my brain kept whispering.  We'd already decided that we were going to do some day trips out of Reykjavík and then head back so we could be in the city Friday for the Elf School.  After that, we'd truly head out to see the rest of Iceland.  I told Erica - and myself - I was cool with seeing anything, open to anything, no particular agenda... Well, except Heimaey where that big eruption in the 1970's was.  And while I'm checking out the tour book for the region, wasn't there a national park nearby?  Something about a North American/Eurasian tectonic plate meeting?  OK, so that's on the list too but otherwise, I'm fine with whatever...

OMG, there's a naturopathic clinic in Hveragerði!  I bet that Erica will want to add that to the itinerary now!  I mean, not that there is one.  But if there was an itinerary, I'm sure we would add Hveragerði to it.  But there's not one.  Hmm, maybe Erica would want to start an itinerary so she doesn't miss that awesome place with the mud baths and relaxing massages which was only recently opened to non-prescription patients.  That thought led to the following phone call:

Me:  "Um, hey, Erica!  How are you?"

Erica:  "Fine..."

Mark in the background:  "Run, Erica!  She's trying to take over the trip!  Just say NO!"  

Me to Mark:  "Be quiet!  You're ruining my pitch!"

OK, so my end of the conversation didn't go as planned but my sister, ever the accomodating and willing participant in big sister's schemes, said she was fine with the places I'd proposed we hit.  Our non-itinerary itineary is shaping up nicely... BWAHAHAHAHA!  ;)

Who'd want to skip THIS!?

UPDATE:  Blogging under the influence can lead to posts ending up the wrong blog.  Oops. :/