Preparing my Packing List

One Minnesota Crone is packing her bags, getting ready to road trip around Iceland the last half of this month. 

And I do love a road trip. I grew up going on them, my dad always the driver and my mom always riding shotgun with an atlas on her lap. We never knew where we were going until we got there, but we managed to fill two-three weeks with roadside attractions, motels in tiny towns, AM radio stations that offered local stories wherever we were.  We got lost somewhere in Kentucky, played softball with a bunch of kids who lived across from a motel in West Virginia, drove through the middle of Manhattan during a garbage strike, took a local shortcut to get back to Boulder that had such a rough road with a sheer drop on one side that my mom almost cried. I learned that in some parts of the country, all sodas are referred to as “Coke”, which confused me when I was asked what kind of Coke I wanted. I learned to always look at a motel room before agreeing to stay in it, and my parents walked away from more than one room. I learned that being in really close quarters for a couple of weeks requires some flexibility when tempers flare.

Road trips are really different now, not just because I’m often the driver and my parents are no longer here. They’re different because there’s not the same sense of surprise thanks to the internet and travel apps. We (my partner Mick and two friends) already know where we’re staying all the way along the Ring Road. But our activities will unfold when we get there, depending on the day, the weather, what’s available. We’ve left room for surprises. We’ve left room to learn a thing or two.

Surprises are the best part of travel. See you later.

Photo of Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland, courtesy of adriankirby at Pixabay.com.