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2026 Road trip: Connecticut

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Hi! We started our road trip to explore the NE US on August 4. By the end of this trip we will both have been to all 50 states. I am missing New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Carsten needs those plus Vermont and Connecticut. Our rule is that you must spend a night or have a meal to count the state, airport transfers do not count! In addition to the US we will explore New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia with Falk and Svenni (our travel buddies from Germany). Our first stop is a quick visit to see my family just south of Nashville. It adds an hour to go thru Nashville but we wanted to see them.  On Thursday 8/6 we made good progress, spending the night in West Virginia. There is a little piece of WV that sits between Virginia and Maryland. Check it out on a map! Friday 8/7 was the last leg to the first "exploring" site near Mystic, CT. We went through six states (West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut). Th...
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Iceland: Final thoughts

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 Some notes about Iceland and our journey: We are driving a small white SUV called a Dacia Duster. It has manual transmission and is one of hundreds of Dusters all over Iceland. It is not unusual for 7 out of 10 cars in a parking lot to be Dacia Dusters and the majority of those are white. Here is ours living up to her "duster" name! The Duster has a scoring system called "Eco score". It gives you points, XX/100 depending on how you drive. It considers Acceleration, Anticipation and Gear Shifting. Of course for me this is a challenge. The best score we managed in a month was 83/100. Apparently we do not shift in the optimum manner. Let's take a minute to talk about cold ❄️ toilet 🚽 seats. I have never lived where it is cold so this is new for me. I am NOT loving it! If I lived here you can be sure the toilet would be heated!!! This is not luxury, it is necessity!!! Brrrrr!!! 🥶 (Don't tell me to turn the heat on, the room temperature is fine...) I would rec...
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South Iceland - Vik

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Hello again! Leaving the Hofn area we had a long drive to our first stop at Fjadrargljufur. Neither of us would even attempt to pronounce that one!  We are finding the South to be pretty busy for several reasons: 1. It is the most famous part of Iceland 2. It is not far from Reykjavik and 3. European schools are out and vacations have begun! This Fjadrargljufur had quite some people. With a little patience it was still possible to see the beautiful canyon and waterfall. This place, like so many we have seen, looks almost fake. Next stop is Hjorleifshofdi. This is a hike up to the top of an inselberg. An inselberg or "island mountain" is a rock that rises up from a plain, like Uluru in Australia. It was quite steep with a quick 667 ft elevation gain in one mile. At the start: The Lupine were lining the trail. The view from the top! We made some friends along the way. These are the guys that "maintain" the trail. This was physically challenging but wonderful! One of t...
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