Losing track of time

My time in The 100-Acre Sandbox is winding down, not that I’m able to keep track of it.

There’s a new set of bosses in, which means longer days initially, but it doesn’t feel like they’re long. Recently, I was in the hallway, headed to the bathroom and ran into someone locking up. I said something like, “Wow, you’re leaving early,” and she pointed out that it was almost 6:30 p.m.! I had thought it was around 4 p.m.

The weather rarely changes; it goes from hot to hotter. It was 120 yesterday, which is not unusual. Fortunately, it’s not unusual. Everywhere else is having the same kind of weather but it is unusual. But yeah, three-digit dry heat with not a cloud in the sky. Our shade is from buildings and you can see people walk in the shadows of the building to make the two-block trek to the cafeteria.

Currently, I am on my last R&R and when I return I should only have about two months remaining in my tour. It seems surreal based on my last trek to The Sandbox, when I’d signed up for two years and my position was eliminated after one and then due to external issues had to leave after 11 months. It honestly never occurred to me that this tour would last two full years, but I’m on track to do so.

The R&R, though – very welcome. Not timed well because my new No. 1 arrived the day after I left, but I had little choice. For whatever reason, my visa expired on August 10. I got a new one, but I had to leave before August 10. I’m currently in Iceland and honestly cannot tell you my itinerary. Once I decided on Iceland, I went to Tour Radar and stuck in approximate dates and times and just picked a tour. They all sounded wonderful and there have been no disappointments.

The landscape of this country – my No. 90 – changes constantly. After getting out at a tundra formed by large volcanic rocks and viewing a powerful waterfall a 10-minute walk into what we theorized looked like the surface of the moon, we drove five more minutes and were in the middle of a lush countryside. I blinked and missed the transition. Last night, we stayed at a place that looked and felt like the ranch I worked at in Colorado. Mountains on both sides, a river running through it (no Adian Quinn, Henry Elliott or Brad Pitt), sheep, horses and – a 3-kilometer walk away – an Indiana Jones-like bridge with a little cage that you cranked across with a winch.

That was just one photo op for our group, which is about 15 people. We have a Spanish couple who lives in England; a niece (around my age) and her aunt from Oregon and California; a Chinese woman and her Iranian-born husband, who have been married over 30 years and have lived in Sydney that long; a gay male Mexican couple who retired extremely young somehow; New York transplants who live in Miami and brought along their 20-year-old nephew, who is studying to be a marine ship captain; a retired gay male couple from California who are still jetlagged because their flight was so late they had to catch up with the tour; a 25-year-old Chinese girl from the same province Guangzhou is in; and me. We have a WhatsApp group and are sharing photos.

Beyond lots of waterfalls and changing landscapes, other highlights so far include geysers, gurgling clay spewing from the ground, seeing the tectonic plates where North America and Europe meet, hot springs (plus a couple dips into the freezing cold water next the hot pool), a glacier hike, the pulley bridge and ice on beaches with black sand. It’s really been phenomenal so far, and we still have whale watching and ponies to go.

The hotels have been a nice surprise, but not because I was expecting anything much in hotels. I had signed up to share a room and somehow both I and the girl from China have gotten our own rooms; I had figured they’d put us together.

After this tour, I have a couple more days in Iceland and then head to Vienna/Bratislava. My flight came through there so I went ahead and gave myself a four-day layover..