Akureyri and Godafoss

Another 300 kilometers today, but first, some time in Akureyri which is a nice town with another great church.  We get some pastries, walk along the waterfront and take pictures with their stoplights where the red light is always a heart.  The driving is getting easier with coming in and out of fjord towns that are built on fishing, the one lane tunnels turning out to not be so bad and John already having paid for the one that we have to pay to go through today, so we’re looking as if we know     

what the hell we’re doing on this trip.  The first stop is Godafoss and this is a huge waterfall with two parts that even Oscar says looks like Niagara.  John is pumped because he sees some Sacred Space material here, so we take the time to walk around the entire falls.  Iceland does a great job making it accessible to see all of the waterfall,

but there’s no casinos, hotels, and touristy stuff around.  It’s still pristine nature.  You can feel like you would be the person several hundred years ago who first discovered this because the signage is so minimal and presence of personnel so absent.  With this and the speed

limit signs that smile or frown at you when you’re going the right or the wrong speed, we’re realizing that we live in a police state in America.  There seems to be such a different aspect to rules and limits in this country.  We’ve noticed this before in places, but it seems really apparent in Iceland.  They just tell you to be careful and follow

the rules and then expect that you will do so.  I suddenly see how I’ve come to view the police in America as people I’m supposed to avoid, get one over on and try to outwit instead of a force that is there to help or protect.  I know that Iceland has a lot less people, but I think there’s

probably as many security of police officers of one sort or another in Mecosta County Michigan as all of Iceland.  We not only have too many jails and prisons in America, we have too many police officers.  We’re setting up a mentality of being expected to 

be bad I feel.  There’s probably  a great amount of research one could do with this that relates to childhood development, but I don’t do that inhere.  It was just really an eye opening situation.  We leave Godafoss feeling great and notice that there are little flies that are annoying.  Someone had mentioned that there are biting flies and stuff up here, so we stop at the first place as we enter Myvatn to find bug spray.  We get gas and lunch at an Oli’s big gas station with a Grill

 66.  We point out to Oscar how Route 66 is something that everyone can relate to and all the burgers are named after cities on Route 66.