travel planning

Chicago to Reykjavik: and Hurricane Floyd!

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ICELAND!  IRELAND! 

“Why Iceland?” was the question we heard most. There was something about the isolation, the hardiness and raw beauty of the place that intrigued us. Glaciers, massive waterfalls, volcanos, fjords and green grass. Would we see the Northern Lights?

And then a return to Ireland–Carol’s 7th trip to beloved Eire. Green grass, fresh air, mist, music (ceol agus craic), and that special something that is in the nooks and crannies of Dublin. Slainte!

The route: Iceland to Ireland
The route: Iceland to Ireland, via Baltimore Minneapolis and London…

Chicago to Reykjavik and Hurricane Floyd!

We awoke on the morning of our long awaited journey…to find that Hurricane Floyd was pummeling it’s way up the East coast.  We were scheduled to fly from Chicago to Baltimore on Southwest and then to Iceland.

Hurricane Floyd map
Hurricane Floyd on September 16, our departure date.

But Floyd was expected to hit full gale in Baltimore about the time our flight was to land there. The Chicago to Baltimore flight was cancelled, and we expected the IcelandAir flight to Reykjavik from Baltimore to be in the same situation (though they told us they couldn’t confirm cancellation until after 2pm–which meant we couldn’t swap departure cities until the first flight canceled.)  Since we were booked in one-nighters all the way around Iceland, missing the planned date of arrival was like yanking the table cloth off of a fully-dressed table.

I spent the morning on the phone with United, American, Southwest, and IcelandAir trying to re-route us through Minneapolis. After a tense 3 hours of being on hold with nerve-racking music, watching the Weather Channel (also nerve-wracking music), hoping that Floyd would just up and blow away, throwing last minute things in the suitcase, chewing my nails, and speaking with over three dozen people across 6 airlines, I ultimately used air miles and spent another $500 on airfare…and got it worked out. Now, we’d leave the U.S. on IcelandAir via Minneapolis. The connection to Minneapolis on American would leave Chicago in just 2 hours!

Holy Cow! I’ve been on the phone all morning–still needed a shower and to do the final packing. It was an intense hour…passport, undies, socks, film, camera, tops & bottoms, toothbrush…Hug the dogs, turn out the lights.

We made it with little time to spare. Barely time to get to the gate.

Landing in Minneapolis, Bryan comments “We’re gonna make it after all” in that sing-songy voice of the Mary Tyler Moore show…Immediately lifting the day’s stress…we’re going to ICELAND!

Minneapolis to Reykjavik
The IcelandAir ticket is confirmed and we board for the 5 hour 40 minute flight to Iceland. And there’s a 5 hour time difference.

I noted in my journal that the sky was “Maxfield Parrish blues”, with tons of stars and crisp light. Thin clouds below us, water below that. Sunlight on the fringe of the horizon.

“You’re gonna make it after all….”