CHAPTER TWENTY 2011 - 2020
The Rest of the Story – Well, Almost
Epilogue 2020 and Beyond
What I Really Want to do When I Grow Up
Things got fairly quiet in these years. Words of wisdom in the travel business is that everybody brings pleasure, some by coming, some by leaving. I had my share I guess. There were a few arrivals that were memorable and had you thinking on your feet, sometimes within seconds of you first meeting them. A couple of the more memorable moments were as follows.
Th.ere was a fellow who traveled with his especially handmade golf clubs in a steel, waterproof case.
The case weighed more than he did. Needless to say the local airline, Air Iceland was not thrilled when he presented them as to be checked baggage AND his luggage as well.
Another was a couple who had been awarded a trip to Iceland for a rather large charitable donation. He decided to come for the Arctic Open (a 5-day trip) as he was an avid golfer. This is a once in a lifetime tournament, played on the world's certified, northern most, 18-hole golf course.
He arrived with a relatively small suitcase but the wife came with 5 huge suitcases for the short period and she wasn't even playing golf.
Another gentleman booked as a single and when we met him at the airport, he was with his wife. He said she decided to come the evening before. Problem is he had single accommodations and flight tickets for the entire time.
There were other visitors to the country when I was working as a planner and a guide that one will probably never forget. Another gentleman who wanted to "celebrate" what he said in an e-mail
"he thought" was his eighth wedding anniversary.
Just from that mail I thought, be prepared for anything and everything, this may not go well.
Well, it didn't after three of four exchanges. He said he finally told his wife where he would take her to celebrate the anniversary. She told him she was hoping to go to Las Vegas. He never actually showed up but about three months later I got another e-mail from him. Vegas had won. They went out there for several days and she divorced him.
Then there were these two couples that came in 2014. They were going to stay in a junior suite at a four- star hotel. They were to arrive very early in the morning around 1:00 AM.
With the 46 minute trip to the city from the International airport, the expected arrival and check-in time would be just after 2:00 AM.
What could possibly go wrong? Well. Murphy, you remember him, was in the vicinity all day apparently. Turned out, that afternoon the wind blew rather steadily and picked up microscopic dust from the volcano of nearly a year before. You couldn't even see it with the naked eye but it managed to filter in through the hotel air conditioning systems.
The first thing, and as I say you could not see anything was for one of the women to run her fingers around the bathtub and of course, then in greater quantities you could feel the grit, although extremely fine and actually see it on your fingers. At 2:30 AM all hell broke loose with her calling the desk manned by but one-night billing clerk. He got berated times ten for the filthy room and public areas. He abandoned the desk, skyrocketed to the 14th floor in seconds and rinsed the bathtub. All was then well. Of course you can't control anything you can't see or know about so all I could say there was he survived I guess and let it be. The couple pair was there for a week and the woman never mentioned the incident to me, the hotel did so I let it go.
Finally, at least, my favorite "almost visitor" followed by my favorite actual visitors.
In an e-mail one day a single dad wanted to bring his three young sons to Iceland. Apparently they were studying it in school in both science and geography. He had always wanted to visit so he was as he said, killing a lot of birds with one stone.
In the mail he said he also hoped to see the Northern Lights. So I answered that he could come anytime from October to the end of March. He responded that he wanted to come in July when they were on summer vacation. I thought, "Houston, we have a problem". In July there is no darkness so the Northern Lights although probably there could not be seen.
He was disappointed but then asked. "By the way, where do you keep the polar bears in Iceland, and are they friendly?"
I couldn't believe it, but after the smiling subsided, I found a way to truthfully answer. Iceland every so often gets visited by a polar bear that gets stranded on the ice flow and a berg traveling towards the country mainly in the summer.
So I said, polar bears are so unfriendly we keep all of ours in Greenland about 500 miles to the west of Iceland. That is very true. As icebergs break off from the Greenland ice sheet, bears after a little fishing expedition and a full meal often crawl up on a piece of Ice, even a berg. Sometimes they fall asleep or take a nap.
When they wake up they can be very far away from land and become stranded on the ice as it flows toward Iceland for a few months. When they arrive close enough to come ashore they are tired, mean and ugly as well as very hungry.
So the first thing warm blooded they smell,
(their eyesight is rather poor) becomes lunch. Usually that would be a sheep, but it could be a person or anything within their scent range which is substantial.
In Iceland, the meteorological center monitors the annual ice flows for possible bears and of course all the other scientific studies. If a bear is spotted, he is met by a veterinarian with a tranquilizer dart and the sleeping bear is returned to Greenland.
At any rate the man and his boys did not book with us nor anyone else to my knowledge so I never got to meet them.
So now the best part. My overall favorite visitors. It was a hands down win in memory. Just before I joined Gateway to Iceland in 2010 a couple visited from New York. They wanted a private guide and tour. On the first day the gentleman told me that the tour had to be very special.
He said that he and his wife travelled all over the world but NEVER visited the same country twice.
They were great people and that became a challenge to make it the very best of everything on the tours I would do in the time they had.
I think we might have succeeded as in 2019 he and his wife revisited on a cruise ship for a single day. The trip was their SEVENTH trip to Iceland.
Len and Lorri were far and away the winners of the favorite people contest. It's been a pleasure to call them both friends and "frequent tourists".
I have never let him forget what he told me on that first trip. He never fails to remind me that he's heard me say that before.
Epilogue:
What I want to do When I Grow Up
Now rapidly headed toward 76, the eyes are just barely passable and the body is catching up with me as well.
I often wonder what's next? The answer should probably be R & R or not much, but that simply would just not be me.
I think of my Aunt to whom this book is lovingly dedicated who always used to say,
"I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in."
Well, I'd love to make another flight and eye penetration, this time with the Hurricane Hunters out of Keesler AFB in Mississippi
I'd love to make a few more cruises but it looks like I'll have to have a "seeing eye person" on any subsequent cruise to anywhere.
My pilot and driving days are over. I can accept that. I need to move back to the USA at some point to some place that has an Arby's and even a Texas Roadhouse within walking distance.
What else. Oh, a train ride across America would be nice. I think a children's book will be next. I know of a very beautiful, spoiled rotten Maltese dog who thinks he's really a person in a dog suit as the perfect subject.
Even he thinks so, … think.
I am sure there are other things I'll think of
Until then, I hope you enjoyed reading this extraordinary life of events that weren't really even thought about when they all occurred. I see now they were really quite something. As to the future, all I can say today is, "Que Sera Sera"