Rifted

Learning from the Master

When it comes to traveling, Erica and I have studied and apprenticed for years at the feet of the master - our mom.  Her technique is relatively simple:  cram as much sightseeing & activity as you possibly can into your allotted time, foregoing physical comfort and sleep if necessary.  We've gotten pretty good at the deprivation part but still need to work on the sheer volume of vacation-related activities we try to fit into the schedule.  For that reason, we devised our own Mom Travel Grading (MTG) Scale.  For example, sleeping past 8 a.m. on vacation will get you a C, with half a letter grade off for each hour after that.  Waking up at 6 a.m. and taking a nature walk to look for animals will get you an A.  Picking up and throwing away any trash you find along your way, will earn you bonus points! 

With that scale in mind, Erica and I were pretty excited to have gotten on the road Tuesday by 8 a.m.  Considering we had to get dressed AND break down the tent, that was quite an accomplishment for us.  (It's amazing what you can do when there's no wifi to tempt you into slothfulness...)  A+ on the MTG Scale!  Despite the loss of points we knew we would accrue, we decided to reward ourselves for our early departure with a little coffee, if we could ever find a place close to the road that was open.  (You should know that no extra points are given in the MTG system for completing vacation-related activities without the aid of coffee.  In fact, in our mom's coffee-free world, coffee acquisition and ingestion is a crutch that costs valuable vacation time and money so it will actually lose you points!)

Like addicts who've found a fix they didn't know they were looking for, Erica and I discovered that in addtition to caffeine, the roadside coffee shop was peddling free wifi.  Uh-oh...  An hour - or two - later, after Erica and I had inundated the internet with our latest selfies and witticisms, we finally disconnected and got back on the road towards Þingvellir National Park.  C- on the MTG for that blatant loss of time.  

By the time we finally made it to Þingvellir, after hours of driving on a rainy gravel road, we were not in an awe-struck mood.  I really wanted to be.  We could see the actual rifts between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates from the car!  "How cool is that?!" I thought, trying to work myself into a vacation frenzy!  Despite the pouring rain, I decided that I could not miss seeing this amazing phenomenon up close.  I would suck it up, put on my cheap plastic poncho, hike the short distance to the top of the rift, take a million pictures, and do my mom proud!  

However, the second I stepped out of the car, the furiously blowing wind tried to suffocate me with my own poncho.  I had one of those "Oh, this is why they say not to put plastic bags over your face!" moments.  I would have called Erica over to rescue me except that she wouldn't have been able to hear me through the plastic being forced down my throat.  And she wasn't available anyway since she was emptying her bladder onto the amazing natural formations of the park, while trying to avoid detection by tourists and park rangers.  After freeing myself from my homicidal rain gear, I decided that my near brush with death was all the excitement I needed for the moment and that pictures of the Rift from the safety of the dry car would be just fine after all.  C- on the MTG for not getting up close and personal with the national park but A+ for survival skills, which averages out to a solid B.  

Not bad for a car shot, huh? ;)  A- on the MTG Scale!