Today we will be on a different tour than most of our fellow passengers. I stepped out of my comfort zone a little when I booked it. It's the same "Golden Circle" tour that most of the local companies and Holland America offer with the addition of a snowmobiling adventure on a glacier. There's no way a big tour bus is going to make it up to the glacier for snowmobiling so we will be traveling in a monster truck. Yes, a big four-wheel drive can with huge tires. I think it's neat and will add some excitement to our travel itinerary. I just Mom will agree and is up to it. I read to her the web site's description including the snowmobile part and she gave me the thumbs up. She wants to drive and I will take pictures. What could go wrong?

After breakfast we're off the ship and out in the parking lot waiting at 8:30am along with many other people. Between 8:30-9am many others travelers find and board their vehicles for the day's activities. We wait. Karen's starting to get nervous, saying, "Go ask that guy if he knows. See if that's the guy." Now I'm getting nervous. Right at 9 our vehicle arrives. I point it out to her saying, "See. We didn't miss it." But she's not smiling. It's a real "Monster Truck"!

The driver hops out, checks our names and says, "Perfect. Your the last two. Now we have everybody". Now he opens the side door, the steps drop down but not near enough for Karen to comfortably climb aboard and, as she glares at me, she struggles but manages to get her foot to the first step, a good 20" from the ground and hoist herself to the first level. The second step is the same distance and she finally gets in, mumbling something all the while. Not good. With wheels as tall as Karen, we're sitting up quite high, way above the rest of the Saturday morning Reykjavik traffic as we head out of town towards Gullfoss waterfall. Karen's not talking. I'm afraid to. Our guide, Bjorn, isn't and breaks the silence.

While Mom stares out the window quietly, he tells us that Reykjavik bears the distinction of being the world’s northernmost capital. Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland and, established in AD 874, it's among the cleanest, greenest, and safest cities in the world. We notice that it truly is very clean. No litter or graffiti. Volcanic activity provides Reykjavík with geothermal heating systems for both residential and industrial districts and natural hot water is used to heat roughly 90%2525 of all buildings in Iceland.

Reykjavík is also famous for its weekend nightlife. Icelanders tend to go out late, so bars that look rather quiet can fill up suddenly—usually after midnight on a weekend. That shouldn't be a problem for us. Apparently, alcohol is expensive at bars so people tend to drink at home before going out. He says beer was banned in Iceland until March 1989 but has since become popular among many Icelanders as their alcoholic drink of choice.

There's nine of us on board today. The first seven are all traveling together from Singapore and staying in an Air BNB apartment. Their ages vary but we are definitely the oldest here. They speak English and are very polite and friendly. More so than Karen. Hopefully time will temper her anger. Maybe she'll like the waterfall. We pull up to a smaller waterfall first so we can, as the driver says, "stretch our legs". Since we were the last to be seated, we must be first to exit. I jump out quickly to help Karen out. She does pretty good but, with no one to help me, I need to get her more comfortable with the tour. I take pictures of the waterfall which is beautiful. I want to get one of her standing next to the truck but now is not the time. Maybe later. After 20 minutes, we load up for the next stop. The Chinese people offer the center seat so we can sit together and rearrange themselves to accommodate the change. One man always offers his hand to Karen when boarding which is nice. She does better this time. Next stop, Gullfoss.

This next waterfall is huge, like Niagra Falls. I take pictures of Karen at the falls and some video. She's starting to come around now and thoroughly checks out the scenery. We climb some steps to the top for a better view and to meet our vehicle. There's a lot of steps but she doesn't complain, moving slowly but steadily, step by step. After checking out the souvenir store, we climb back in our vehicle without issue and our driver says we are now going to the glacier to ride the snowmobiles. This could be more trouble.

The road to the Langjökull glacier is a long one, changing from asphalt to gravel. We stop at the top of a mountain to don our snow gear: suit, gloves, boots, balaclava and helmet. There's a lot of confusion as people from other vehicles arrive, needing equipment fitting too. The equipment room is about 15x15 with 25 riders all trying to get the right size gear. I get Karen's and my suits and other stuff and we go outside to put ours on. I just don't get it. The tourists put on their snow gear and then just stand in the building. Get out and let others get their supplies too. They need Steve Henderson in there to organize the people. It's not easy but we're now good to go.

We return to our vehicle for the ride to the glacier. It's been difficult to take pictures while I'm dressing myself and helping Karen too. Our driver lets some air out of the tires to allow for a more comfortable ride and we drive over rocks and boulders on our way to the snowmobiles. It's slow going as he literally crawls the vehicle over the boulders, some three feet in diameter, right onto the glacier. Now they give us directions on driving snowmobiles and caution us about the dangers we may encounter. Karen listens as the guide instructs us with, "Watch out for water covering holes. Don't drive into a crevice. If your machine starts to tip, don't put your leg out. If your unit catches on fire, we have fire extinguishers".

That's it. Mom's not liking this at all and nothing either the guide or myself say to her will convince her otherwise. Snowmobiles operate similar to jet skis except the snow offers more resistance when turning. With a little practice I catch on and we cruise all over the glacier, way out to where no one else is. Some throw snowballs and make snow angels with their helmets on. I'm sure I'm the oldest guy up there. We make our way back to the camp. The guy ahead of me is driving all over the place, over correcting and almost tipping. I'm hoping for some excitement with this but with no camera, I wouldn't be able to share. It's impossible to shoot and drive.

Alternate version:

That's it. Mom's done. She's not going and nothing either the guide or myself say to her will convince her otherwise. She's out! Now I'm left to drive bypass myself. I can't shoot pictures and drive so she keeps the camera and off I go up the glacier. Snowmobiles operate similar to jet skis except the snow offers more resistance when turning. With a little practice I catch on and we cruise all over the glacier, way out to where no one else is. We line our skis up and shut down for about 15 minutes while everyone but me takes pictures of each other. Mom has my camera so I'm out. They throw snowballs and make snow angels with their helmets on. I'm sure I'm the oldest guy up there. We make our way back to the camp. The guy ahead of me is driving all over the place, over correcting and almost tipping. I'm hoping for some excitement with this but with no camera, I wouldn't be able to share.

We arrive back at the base camp and Mom gets off and shoots me as we arrive. Well, actually she shoots a guy that looks like me. That's great. After a few quick pictures of us and the snowmobile, we climb, yes climb back into the monster truck and return to the office where we remove our gear and back down the mountain we go. Karen says she had a great time talking to an Indian woman up on the glacier.

We get down to sea level again, stopping at the .........geysers. We all walk around the geysers and bubbling pools. The main geyser goes off for a few seconds about every 5 minutes and we take pictures of that. We cross the street to another site for shopping, eating and toilets. We look for Iceland hats or shirts but see nothing of interest. Mom wants one of those reindeer hides but they're $200 and she really can't figure out what to do with one anyway.

Finally we make our last stop at the ..........park, home of the Iceland parliament. Mom sits this one out while I walk with our Chinese friends around the park, spending about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Karen has been chatting with our guide/driver. He's been excellent, talking about all kinds of things, from life in Iceland to the details of Icelandic culture. He's been the most informative of our entire trip.

We now make our way back to Reykjavik and our ship. It's an hours drive and we relax, knowing that the ship is docked overnight and there's no deadline to meet. He drops us off and we thank him for a great time with a $40 tip. We also say goodbye to our Singapore travelers who wish us well.

At the dinner tonight, Karen has plenty to talk about, especially the snowmobile portion of our outing since no one else had ever heard of such a tour. When asked how she liked driving the snowmobiles, she goes on and on. I'm OK with it as long as she's forgotten about her difficulty in accessing the "monster truck" and we can look forward to our next day in Reykjavik, an all day tour of the southern part of the island of Iceland.

Alternate version:

At the dinner tonight, Karen has plenty to talk about, especially the snowmobile portion of our outing since no one else had ever heard of such a tour. When asked how she liked driving the snowmobiles, she somehow fails to mention the fact that she never even sat on one. Instead she goes on and on about the experience. I'm OK with it as long as she's forgotten about her difficulty in accessing the "monster truck" and we can look forward to our next day in Reykjavik, an all day tour of the southern part of the island of Iceland.

Tonight the entertainment offered is a movie so we just retire to our room. We need to meet our tour group at 6:45am tomorrow although we do set our clocks back an hour tonight, giving us a little more sleep time. This will be our 4th day in a row for excursions.