Iceland in the 90’s

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Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Whatever the

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case may be. This is Mike, and this

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is Mike Dell's World number four thirty two

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for November twenty six twenty twenty five. And,

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of course, it's the twenty sixth day of

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NAPOD promo, national podcast posting month, and I'm

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on track to actually finish it this year.

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So and I think I got some pretty

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good content this year. And, you know, some

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of it I've covered in the past, of

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course, but, you know, a lot of my

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listeners haven't been around that long. And even

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though I've been doing this for twenty years,

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a lot of people, maybe not even alive

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twenty years or at least not listening to

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podcasts that long. Maybe not this one anyway.

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I don't know. Anyhoo, today, I'm gonna talk

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about something not Northern Michigan related directly or

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even indirectly. I lived in Keflavik, Iceland in

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the early nineties for a entire year. And

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I just wanna tell you some of my

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memories of the place now. I'm sure it's

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changed a lot. It's become more of a

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tourist trap in, for Europe. But, back in

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the nineties, it was pretty untouched. I mean,

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you know, there was obviously people there. There's

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a big city there. Well, big ish city,

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Reykjavik, which is the capital. And then, of

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course, I lived in Keflavik, Iceland, which is

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the home of the big international airport and

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the, at the time, NATO base. It was,

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actually a US Navy, run, air station. You

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know, Kovvik Naval Air Station, Iceland. And I

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was, of course, air force, and we had

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a little, little we had a contingent of

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air force people there, plus there were people

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from all the different countries. There were marines.

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There were obviously a lot of navy. They

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had a p three wing or squadron or

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a couple squadrons up there. And, of course,

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we had a a fighter interceptor squadron, the

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fifty seventh, the the black knights of Iceland.

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That's what our squadron patch was. They still

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have the hat hanging on the wall over

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here from, the knights. And, of course, I've

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got my patch collection. One of these days,

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I'm gonna make a shadow box with all

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the patches in it and rank and whatnot.

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But, anywho, I was stationed up there for

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an entire year, and it was an interesting

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place to live. Now this, mind you, is

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before the Internet, and this was before, you

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know, worldwide almost free calling and, you know,

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video conferencing and, you know, all the stuff

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that the Internet brought. This was before that.

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And, you know, I guess I'll I'll tell

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you tell you the story from from where

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it all started. So here I am in

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Mountain Home, Idaho working on f one elevens,

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and I get orders to Galena Air Station,

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Alaska. And Galena Air Station Alaska is right

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on the Yukon River and, you know, it's

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Outback Alaska. It is out there. You know,

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the only way in and out of there

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is either by the river or by airplane.

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And it was not even a Galena Air

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Station. It was Galena Airport, Alaska. It wasn't

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even an air station, but they did have

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a fighter interceptor, contingent there. They usually had

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two or yeah. I think it was two

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f fifteens, on interceptor duty on call all

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the time, and that's where I was gonna

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go. They had put in for a short

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tour. I always wanted to get out of

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Mountain Home. I'd been there for seven years,

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and it was time. And, anyway, for whatever

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reason, I got those orders canceled. I didn't.

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The the air force canceled those orders on

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Monday. And on Tuesday, I had orders to

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naval air station Keflavik. So they they were

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bound and determined to send me somewhere cold,

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which was fine, you know, and come to

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find out Iceland wasn't that cold. But, that's

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a whole another story. I'll keep talking here.

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So anyway, I had to go to school

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in Florida to, learn the f fifteen electrical

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and environmental systems, of which I worked on.

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And so I got to go to school,

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at Tyndall Air Force Base in the Panhandle,

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Florida. The only problem was this was, I

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think, July twentieth or something like that, and

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I had to report down there no later

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than August tenth. So I had to out

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process Mountain Home, get myself down to well,

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the other the option was to fly to

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Florida, do the school, fly back to Idaho,

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out process, move out, and and then, you

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know, make all the arrangements to have my

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stuff stored and shipped and blah de blah,

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you know, all the normal stuff. Well, I,

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I kinda flipped the script on them. I

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said, well, let me out process here. I'll

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drive to Florida with all my stuff, and

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then I'll ship stuff. You know, I lived

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in the barracks at the time and all

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that much stuff. I had a pickup truck.

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Had plenty of room to put all my

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stuff, you know, the furniture. Now that I

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was renting a place, and like I said,

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it was just, you know, personal stuff. So

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that's what I did. So I out processed

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really quick, in Idaho, drove to Florida, did

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the school, and then, drove home. I took

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a little leave in between and drove home

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and stored my truck. And and I had

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all my stuff shipped from Florida to Iceland.

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That worked out fine. And, you know, that's

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how I ended up in Iceland. So I

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I left Traverse City on a flight to

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Philadelphia. And from Philadelphia, I flew to Keflavik,

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Iceland on a d c eight. Even even

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then, this was, you know, in the early

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nineties. Even then, a d c eight was

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an old airplane. In fact, they just retired

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the final d c eight that was flying,

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for Samaritan's Purse, which is a, a charity

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that goes and, you know, helps out when

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big storms happen or whatever, but they just

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retired their d c eight. That was the

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last d c eight flight. Anyway, so I

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flew seven hours in an airplane that was

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older than me, which I guess at that

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point, everything was older than me, but, I

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froze my toes off and roasted up top.

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You know, the thing didn't have a very

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efficient heating system, but, hey. We got there.

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But the, the funny thing was that it

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was on Hawaiian Airlines. So you never never

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think that you're gonna be flying from Philadelphia

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to Keflavik, Iceland on the, on on Hawaiian

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Airlines. Oh my gosh. So that was that

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was quite the adventure. And we took off

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at seven PM, I think it was. I

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I don't remember the exact time, but we,

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we ended up landing in Keflavik at seven

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AM. And, of course, you know, the big

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time change. And they kept us up in

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processing, you know, till, like, two or three

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in the afternoon before I got to my

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barracks room, got signed in there, and and

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got to go to sleep. But I sleep

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good on airplanes, so I I had plenty

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of sleep. My day was definitely screwed up,

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and clearing customs in Iceland was pretty easy.

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No big deal there. And, yeah. So I

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was, assigned to the fifty seventh CRS component

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repair squadron, which, did all the in shop

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maintenance on the, f fifteens at the time.

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And, before that was f fours, I guess,

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but, I was there when the f fifteens

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were there. And we did, you know, phased

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inspections and, you know, all all the stuff,

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all the electrical, all the environmental, all the

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all the stuff. And but we weren't, we

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weren't part of the actual on call fighter

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interceptor squadron except for once in a while.

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We would have to take our turn at

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what we called Fisneyland, you know, fighter interceptor

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squadron, FIS, f I s. And, the area

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of the base where the alert barn was

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was called Fisneyland. Of course, you know, the

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military, we make up names for for, different

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things. But, you know, all the military stuff

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was pretty standard except for, you know, Iceland

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being Iceland. It was a little harder to

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get parts and a little harder to, you

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know, keep things flying, but, you know, we

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did. We had, like, eighteen f fifteens, and

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everything kept flying pretty good. And we always

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had four on call, and they would go

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out loaded, chase bear bombers through the, through

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the straits there in the Northern Atlantic. But,

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yeah, nothing too crazy there. And some of

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the other things that were interesting, that was

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about the time that computers were, starting to

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be a thing. And I went to the

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Navy Exchange there and bought a a two

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eighty six PC computer with DOS five on

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it. And, boy, I was styling. I had

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one megabyte of RAM and a forty megabyte

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hard drive. And, I mean, that was that

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was the stuff, man. I would play flight

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SIP and, SimCity and, you know, we had

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this drag racing game that I would play

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and, you know, had some friends, you know,

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a navy guy that lived in the same

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barracks, and another friend of mine lived in

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another barracks nearby that I worked with. And,

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you know, we would trade software, and we

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got a bootleg copy of DOS six. And,

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oh my gosh, we were we were style.

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And we could use more than the six

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hundred and forty k of memory, for primary

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memory with DOS six, memory manager. Anyway, it's

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not this isn't a geeky show, but, that

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was we did a awful lot of, computer

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[Speaker 0]
stuff, but, you know, no Internet. Whenever I

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[Speaker 0]
had whenever I made phone calls off the

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[Speaker 0]
island was, on I would do collect calls

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[Speaker 0]
or or well, not collect calls. I don't

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[Speaker 0]
know how that worked exactly, but I would,

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[Speaker 0]
it was a dollar six a minute, back

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[Speaker 0]
to the states. And, of course, we didn't

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[Speaker 0]
make a lot of phone calls because of

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[Speaker 0]
that, because it was expensive. And, you know,

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[Speaker 0]
at that time, mail was really important. And,

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[Speaker 0]
you know, being that Iceland was a pretty

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[Speaker 0]
boring duty station when you were off duty,

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[Speaker 0]
we we had a nice club we had

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[Speaker 0]
nice clubs, and the food was great. Even

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[Speaker 0]
off base, I I would I would fly

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[Speaker 0]
to Iceland specifically to get one of their

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[Speaker 0]
hot dogs. Well, actually, I'd have to get

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[Speaker 0]
more than one, but, the the Icelandic hot

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[Speaker 0]
dog is legendary. It's, it's really good. Call

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[Speaker 0]
it a as I remember it. But, I

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[Speaker 0]
digress. And what was I talking about? Jeez.

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[Speaker 0]
Kinda lost my train of thought there. Oh,

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[Speaker 0]
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mail being really, really, really

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[Speaker 0]
important. I volunteered to work at the, base

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[Speaker 0]
post office. And the funny thing about mail

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[Speaker 0]
there is it was contingent on what we

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[Speaker 0]
called the tater or the rotator, and that

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[Speaker 0]
was that, Hawaiian Airlines d c eight combi.

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[Speaker 0]
That was, it had cargo in the front

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[Speaker 0]
half of the airplane and passengers in the

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[Speaker 0]
back half of the airplane, and that's where

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[Speaker 0]
all the mail came in. So it would

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[Speaker 0]
come in from the States on Wednesdays. So

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[Speaker 0]
on Wednesday afternoon, I worked second shift. So

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[Speaker 0]
Wednesday afternoon, I'd go over to the post

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[Speaker 0]
office and sort mail for a while and

243
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[Speaker 0]
then go to work. And then the next

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[Speaker 0]
day, finish sorting the mail. I wasn't the

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[Speaker 0]
only one working there, but it took a

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[Speaker 0]
day or two to do that. And, of

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[Speaker 0]
course, that post office was the busiest place

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[Speaker 0]
on base on Wednesdays and Thursdays. And then,

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[Speaker 0]
the rest of the week, nothing was going

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[Speaker 0]
on there, really. People could ship stuff out,

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[Speaker 0]
but it wouldn't leave until the rotator left

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[Speaker 0]
on Wednesday afternoon. Or was it Thursday morning?

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[Speaker 0]
I forget. But, anyway, it was once a

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[Speaker 0]
week. We do had mail coming in and

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[Speaker 0]
out, at least from the states. We had

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[Speaker 0]
another airplane that went back and forth to

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[Speaker 0]
London that, you would get some stuff that

258
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[Speaker 0]
way too. But, for the most part, it

259
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[Speaker 0]
all came from Philadelphia. And and another thing

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[Speaker 0]
that was really, really, really, really valuable up

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[Speaker 0]
there was magazines. And and current magazines were

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[Speaker 0]
even more ridiculously important because it really wasn't

263
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[Speaker 0]
a lot of reading material. The library on

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[Speaker 0]
the base was was busy all the time

265
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[Speaker 0]
because, you know, not much else to do.

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[Speaker 0]
We did have cable TV in the barracks,

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[Speaker 0]
and we would get, we call it a

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[Speaker 0]
farts. Yeah. Okay. You know, military. They love

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[Speaker 0]
to have it, but it was armed serve

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[Speaker 0]
or armed what was it? Armed services radio

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[Speaker 0]
and television service or whatever. And and that

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[Speaker 0]
was you know, we had the a couple

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[Speaker 0]
of AFarts channels. One of them that would

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[Speaker 0]
play the Today Show, The Tonight Show, and,

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[Speaker 0]
you know, a few other things, and then

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[Speaker 0]
they would always have the live sports. Of

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[Speaker 0]
course, live sports when you're on GMT time,

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[Speaker 0]
was at oddball times of the day. But

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[Speaker 0]
I, you know, I work second shift, so

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[Speaker 0]
I'd get home in the morning, and The

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[Speaker 0]
Tonight Show would be on. And then about

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[Speaker 0]
noon, The Today Show would come on, something

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[Speaker 0]
like noon, one o'clock. So if I was

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[Speaker 0]
still up at that time, I would watch

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[Speaker 0]
The Today Show. But, yeah, it was, you

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[Speaker 0]
know, TV and radio. And then we had,

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[Speaker 0]
like, two or three other stations. We had,

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00:15:30,990 --> 00:15:34,930
[Speaker 0]
BBC out of England, and we had RTL

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[Speaker 0]
four out of the Netherlands, and that was

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[Speaker 0]
in Dutch mostly. And then we had Sky

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00:15:41,245 --> 00:15:45,085
[Speaker 0]
News and Sky Sports. So, you know, there

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[Speaker 0]
was, like, four, five channels, something like that.

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[Speaker 0]
So that was another pastime. Plus, you know,

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[Speaker 0]
we had day rooms in the barracks, and

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[Speaker 0]
we had, on the second floor was a

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[Speaker 0]
full kitchen. So if you wanted to cook

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[Speaker 0]
your own stuff, you'd go over the commissary,

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00:16:01,130 --> 00:16:03,210
[Speaker 0]
get stuff, and cook it down there. But,

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[Speaker 0]
of course, that was always crowded, and I

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[Speaker 0]
didn't do that much. I just eat a

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[Speaker 0]
chow hall. Chow hall was good. We also

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00:16:10,755 --> 00:16:14,834
[Speaker 0]
had a Wendy's on the base of all

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00:16:14,834 --> 00:16:17,475
[Speaker 0]
things. Or I would go over to the

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[Speaker 0]
barbershop. There's a little barbershop there, and, there

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00:16:20,459 --> 00:16:23,100
[Speaker 0]
was also a hot dog stand. Well, guess

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00:16:23,100 --> 00:16:25,100
[Speaker 0]
what I eat a awful lot of was

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00:16:25,100 --> 00:16:29,260
[Speaker 0]
Icelandic hot dogs. That, but, you know, for

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00:16:29,260 --> 00:16:31,019
[Speaker 0]
breakfast, I'd go over to the chow hall.

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[Speaker 0]
And the navy food wasn't as good as

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[Speaker 0]
the air force food, but it was okay.

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[Speaker 0]
I didn't mind it. When I was pulling

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00:16:38,105 --> 00:16:40,425
[Speaker 0]
alert duty over on the air force side,

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00:16:40,425 --> 00:16:43,705
[Speaker 0]
you know, at Disneyland, they they had a,

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00:16:44,025 --> 00:16:46,745
[Speaker 0]
chow, air force chow hall over there, so

315
00:16:46,745 --> 00:16:50,070
[Speaker 0]
the food was better. You know, again, military

316
00:16:50,210 --> 00:16:53,250
[Speaker 0]
food, not terrible, but, not, you know, not

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00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:55,650
[Speaker 0]
top notch. And then, of course, you know,

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00:16:55,650 --> 00:16:58,130
[Speaker 0]
eat at Wendy's, and there was also a

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00:16:58,530 --> 00:17:00,290
[Speaker 0]
well, in the air force, we call it

320
00:17:00,290 --> 00:17:05,465
[Speaker 0]
AFE's. Army Air Force Exchange Service had a

321
00:17:05,465 --> 00:17:07,545
[Speaker 0]
snack bar, but I forget what the navy

322
00:17:07,545 --> 00:17:10,825
[Speaker 0]
called it in the navy exchange. But it

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00:17:10,825 --> 00:17:12,345
[Speaker 0]
was, you know, a snack bar. You know,

324
00:17:12,345 --> 00:17:15,645
[Speaker 0]
you can get a slice of pizza, hamburger,

325
00:17:15,865 --> 00:17:17,820
[Speaker 0]
hot dog, or whatever. They didn't have the

326
00:17:17,820 --> 00:17:19,980
[Speaker 0]
Icelandic type hot dog, so I never ate

327
00:17:19,980 --> 00:17:23,500
[Speaker 0]
hot dogs there. But, again, are you sensing

328
00:17:23,500 --> 00:17:25,840
[Speaker 0]
a theme? I like the Icelandic hot dog.

329
00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:31,105
[Speaker 0]
But, yeah, it was, it was cool. Iceland

330
00:17:31,105 --> 00:17:32,705
[Speaker 0]
was one of the few places on the

331
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[Speaker 0]
planet I remember that had handrails on the

332
00:17:36,145 --> 00:17:40,225
[Speaker 0]
sidewalks. And the reason for that, we would

333
00:17:40,225 --> 00:17:44,630
[Speaker 0]
have crazy straight line winds across the North

334
00:17:44,630 --> 00:17:48,330
[Speaker 0]
Atlantic. We were kind of right in the

335
00:17:48,389 --> 00:17:51,110
[Speaker 0]
jet stream or the, what do they call

336
00:17:51,110 --> 00:17:54,230
[Speaker 0]
that? Not the jet stream, but, where the

337
00:17:54,230 --> 00:17:57,684
[Speaker 0]
ocean currents come north. And that kept the

338
00:17:57,684 --> 00:17:59,945
[Speaker 0]
island a little warmer than you might think.

339
00:18:00,485 --> 00:18:03,044
[Speaker 0]
The winters here in Traverse City, especially in

340
00:18:03,044 --> 00:18:05,924
[Speaker 0]
nineteen seventy eight, but, in the nineties, it

341
00:18:05,924 --> 00:18:10,404
[Speaker 0]
was often warmer in Keflavik, Iceland near the

342
00:18:10,404 --> 00:18:14,049
[Speaker 0]
Arctic Circle in the winter than it it

343
00:18:14,049 --> 00:18:17,270
[Speaker 0]
was here in Traverse City. You know, I

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00:18:17,490 --> 00:18:19,909
[Speaker 0]
had my weekly call with my folks, and

345
00:18:20,770 --> 00:18:22,610
[Speaker 0]
and, you know, they were always saying, oh,

346
00:18:22,610 --> 00:18:24,370
[Speaker 0]
well, it's twenty degrees here, and, you know,

347
00:18:24,370 --> 00:18:27,805
[Speaker 0]
it'd be thirty five degrees and windy and

348
00:18:27,805 --> 00:18:30,365
[Speaker 0]
really windy, but those handrails on the sidewalk

349
00:18:30,365 --> 00:18:33,165
[Speaker 0]
keep you on the sidewalk. It was not

350
00:18:33,165 --> 00:18:35,725
[Speaker 0]
unusual in the middle of the night. You

351
00:18:35,725 --> 00:18:37,725
[Speaker 0]
know, I lived in a, you know, barracks

352
00:18:37,725 --> 00:18:39,645
[Speaker 0]
building, and there was another barracks well, a

353
00:18:39,645 --> 00:18:41,805
[Speaker 0]
three story barracks building, and then there was

354
00:18:41,805 --> 00:18:45,460
[Speaker 0]
dumpsters in between. It was not uncommon for

355
00:18:45,460 --> 00:18:48,100
[Speaker 0]
the wind to blow the dumpsters over at

356
00:18:48,100 --> 00:18:52,180
[Speaker 0]
night. You just hear this big crash. And

357
00:18:52,180 --> 00:18:53,860
[Speaker 0]
I remember one time we had a high

358
00:18:53,860 --> 00:18:56,020
[Speaker 0]
wind warning, and that's really odd for up

359
00:18:56,020 --> 00:18:57,780
[Speaker 0]
there because it's always high wind, but this

360
00:18:57,780 --> 00:18:59,915
[Speaker 0]
was really high wind. It was a hundred

361
00:18:59,915 --> 00:19:03,995
[Speaker 0]
and three miles an hour sustained for over

362
00:19:03,995 --> 00:19:07,515
[Speaker 0]
two hours. And it literally it had snowed,

363
00:19:07,515 --> 00:19:08,875
[Speaker 0]
and there was a little ice on the

364
00:19:08,875 --> 00:19:11,595
[Speaker 0]
parking lot at the barracks, and all the

365
00:19:11,595 --> 00:19:13,675
[Speaker 0]
cars blew to one end of the parking

366
00:19:13,675 --> 00:19:16,210
[Speaker 0]
lot. It blew the cars around in the

367
00:19:16,210 --> 00:19:19,169
[Speaker 0]
parking lot. It was, yeah, crazy wind. Jeez.

368
00:19:19,169 --> 00:19:21,650
[Speaker 0]
We talked about that yesterday with the blizzard

369
00:19:21,650 --> 00:19:25,110
[Speaker 0]
of seventy eight, but, yeah, similar wind conditions,

370
00:19:25,410 --> 00:19:27,945
[Speaker 0]
but a lot less snow. We didn't get

371
00:19:27,945 --> 00:19:30,345
[Speaker 0]
a lot of snow there, which, like I

372
00:19:30,345 --> 00:19:32,105
[Speaker 0]
said, being near the Arctic Circle, you would

373
00:19:32,105 --> 00:19:35,625
[Speaker 0]
think you would, but, we didn't. Being that

374
00:19:35,625 --> 00:19:38,025
[Speaker 0]
it was in the well, Gulf Stream, that's

375
00:19:38,025 --> 00:19:41,150
[Speaker 0]
what I'm thinking. Not not the not the,

376
00:19:41,530 --> 00:19:42,970
[Speaker 0]
oh, was that is that what I said

377
00:19:42,970 --> 00:19:45,610
[Speaker 0]
the first time? Oh, Jet Stream. Yeah. Jet

378
00:19:45,610 --> 00:19:47,610
[Speaker 0]
Stream's in the air. Gulf Stream's on the

379
00:19:47,610 --> 00:19:50,330
[Speaker 0]
ground or in the water. And we were

380
00:19:50,330 --> 00:19:52,410
[Speaker 0]
right in the we were in probably both,

381
00:19:52,410 --> 00:19:56,305
[Speaker 0]
but, yeah, it was it was crazy. But,

382
00:19:56,705 --> 00:19:59,025
[Speaker 0]
another thing that that I remember was really

383
00:19:59,025 --> 00:20:01,825
[Speaker 0]
popular was the USO club, and that happened

384
00:20:01,825 --> 00:20:03,745
[Speaker 0]
to be, you know, kind of in between

385
00:20:03,745 --> 00:20:07,345
[Speaker 0]
the two barracks buildings where I lived. And,

386
00:20:07,665 --> 00:20:10,520
[Speaker 0]
they used to have fish fry over there

387
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:15,720
[Speaker 0]
on Friday nights. And that Icelandic cod was

388
00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,840
[Speaker 0]
swimming earlier that day. Yeah. So it was

389
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,100
[Speaker 0]
probably the best fish fry I've been to.

390
00:20:21,265 --> 00:20:23,745
[Speaker 0]
I'm traveling on my food on my, I'm

391
00:20:23,745 --> 00:20:27,184
[Speaker 0]
traveling on my stomach here. I do remember

392
00:20:27,184 --> 00:20:29,424
[Speaker 0]
eating there. They also had a really good

393
00:20:29,424 --> 00:20:31,825
[Speaker 0]
half pound hamburger, so I did eat a

394
00:20:31,825 --> 00:20:34,705
[Speaker 0]
lot of meals there at the USO or

395
00:20:34,705 --> 00:20:37,380
[Speaker 0]
the USO. Of course, you know, military gotta

396
00:20:37,380 --> 00:20:42,260
[Speaker 0]
have names for stuff. And, another thing that,

397
00:20:42,580 --> 00:20:44,740
[Speaker 0]
you know, most people didn't bother with getting

398
00:20:44,740 --> 00:20:46,500
[Speaker 0]
a car up there, but I wanted to

399
00:20:46,500 --> 00:20:50,115
[Speaker 0]
do some exploring. And there was a gal

400
00:20:50,115 --> 00:20:52,595
[Speaker 0]
in my shop that, was rotating back to

401
00:20:52,595 --> 00:20:55,955
[Speaker 0]
the states, and she had a car called

402
00:20:55,955 --> 00:20:59,794
[Speaker 0]
a Skoda, Skoda one twenty. It's a really

403
00:20:59,794 --> 00:21:02,900
[Speaker 0]
weird looking little, square box car, like some

404
00:21:02,900 --> 00:21:04,900
[Speaker 0]
sort of Fiat, but the engine was in

405
00:21:04,900 --> 00:21:06,660
[Speaker 0]
the back, but it had a radiator up

406
00:21:06,660 --> 00:21:10,500
[Speaker 0]
in the front. It had, studded snow tires

407
00:21:10,500 --> 00:21:12,420
[Speaker 0]
on it, and she sold it to me

408
00:21:12,420 --> 00:21:15,355
[Speaker 0]
for six hundred dollars. I drove that thing

409
00:21:15,355 --> 00:21:18,315
[Speaker 0]
for probably eight or nine months. And then

410
00:21:18,315 --> 00:21:19,995
[Speaker 0]
when I got ready to rotate out, I

411
00:21:19,995 --> 00:21:22,795
[Speaker 0]
sold it for six hundred dollars. And it

412
00:21:22,795 --> 00:21:25,535
[Speaker 0]
was really interesting in Iceland with the cars.

413
00:21:26,155 --> 00:21:28,315
[Speaker 0]
You had to leave your headlights on all

414
00:21:28,315 --> 00:21:31,409
[Speaker 0]
the time. And if you were on an

415
00:21:31,409 --> 00:21:35,730
[Speaker 0]
international driver's license instead of an Icelandic driver's

416
00:21:35,730 --> 00:21:37,730
[Speaker 0]
license, your car had to be modified to

417
00:21:37,730 --> 00:21:39,090
[Speaker 0]
have the lights on all the time. And,

418
00:21:39,090 --> 00:21:41,169
[Speaker 0]
of course, that wasn't common back then. It

419
00:21:41,169 --> 00:21:43,835
[Speaker 0]
is now. But, back then, you had to

420
00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:45,595
[Speaker 0]
have it modified. And, of course, this one

421
00:21:45,595 --> 00:21:48,174
[Speaker 0]
was already. So anytime you started the car,

422
00:21:48,554 --> 00:21:50,875
[Speaker 0]
you know, the headlights were on. That car

423
00:21:50,875 --> 00:21:52,394
[Speaker 0]
was pretty good. And, you know, it got

424
00:21:52,394 --> 00:21:54,634
[Speaker 0]
me around, and it was a little better

425
00:21:54,634 --> 00:21:56,235
[Speaker 0]
than riding the bus. They did have a

426
00:21:56,235 --> 00:21:58,430
[Speaker 0]
bus service on base, and, plus, we could

427
00:21:58,430 --> 00:22:00,670
[Speaker 0]
go off base. The weird thing, when you

428
00:22:00,670 --> 00:22:02,750
[Speaker 0]
went off base, you had to go through

429
00:22:02,750 --> 00:22:05,790
[Speaker 0]
Icelandic customs. And then when you came back

430
00:22:05,790 --> 00:22:08,370
[Speaker 0]
on the bay base, you would, go through

431
00:22:08,750 --> 00:22:11,630
[Speaker 0]
navy security, and they were really weird about

432
00:22:11,630 --> 00:22:14,885
[Speaker 0]
certain things coming off the base. You couldn't

433
00:22:14,885 --> 00:22:17,445
[Speaker 0]
bring any gas cans. You could just have

434
00:22:17,445 --> 00:22:20,325
[Speaker 0]
the gas that was in your car. You

435
00:22:20,325 --> 00:22:23,544
[Speaker 0]
couldn't you could have one pack of open

436
00:22:23,765 --> 00:22:27,304
[Speaker 0]
cigarettes and one pack of not opened cigarettes,

437
00:22:27,365 --> 00:22:30,560
[Speaker 0]
but no more than that. And for some

438
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,440
[Speaker 0]
weird weird reason, you couldn't bring cassette tapes.

439
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:35,380
[Speaker 0]
So if your car had a tape deck,

440
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,500
[Speaker 0]
you're SOL. You could not bring cassette tapes

441
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,760
[Speaker 0]
off the base. I I have no idea.

442
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,435
[Speaker 0]
Well, that was their three big bugaboos. And

443
00:22:44,435 --> 00:22:46,535
[Speaker 0]
the reason being is, you know, gas prices

444
00:22:46,675 --> 00:22:50,035
[Speaker 0]
off base was, I think, at the time

445
00:22:50,035 --> 00:22:52,615
[Speaker 0]
was two dollars a liter or the equivalent

446
00:22:52,755 --> 00:22:55,075
[Speaker 0]
of that, which would make it, like, eight

447
00:22:55,075 --> 00:22:56,771
[Speaker 0]
dollars a gallon. And, you know, in the

448
00:22:56,771 --> 00:23:01,770
[Speaker 0]
early nineties, that was ridiculous. I think, on

449
00:23:01,770 --> 00:23:04,090
[Speaker 0]
base was a buck forty five the whole

450
00:23:04,090 --> 00:23:05,850
[Speaker 0]
time I was there, and that was that

451
00:23:05,850 --> 00:23:08,410
[Speaker 0]
was a bit higher than than what was

452
00:23:08,410 --> 00:23:11,845
[Speaker 0]
average at that time in the states, but,

453
00:23:11,845 --> 00:23:13,524
[Speaker 0]
you know, it was a lot cheaper. So

454
00:23:13,524 --> 00:23:15,684
[Speaker 0]
that was that part. Same thing with the

455
00:23:15,684 --> 00:23:17,365
[Speaker 0]
cigarettes. You know, I could buy a carton

456
00:23:17,365 --> 00:23:20,664
[Speaker 0]
of Marlboros for six dollars at the exchange

457
00:23:20,804 --> 00:23:23,365
[Speaker 0]
and sell them for twenty dollars a pack

458
00:23:23,365 --> 00:23:26,250
[Speaker 0]
off off base, but, you know, nobody did

459
00:23:26,250 --> 00:23:28,190
[Speaker 0]
that or I didn't do that. You know?

460
00:23:28,409 --> 00:23:30,570
[Speaker 0]
And I didn't smoke that much. You know,

461
00:23:30,570 --> 00:23:32,250
[Speaker 0]
I did at that time, I believe I

462
00:23:32,250 --> 00:23:34,970
[Speaker 0]
was smoking, but I've been quit for many,

463
00:23:34,970 --> 00:23:38,010
[Speaker 0]
many years. But back then, everybody smoked. That

464
00:23:38,010 --> 00:23:42,795
[Speaker 0]
was kinda normal. So, again, you know, showing

465
00:23:42,795 --> 00:23:46,155
[Speaker 0]
my age here. But let's see. Some of

466
00:23:46,155 --> 00:23:49,275
[Speaker 0]
the other cool things about Iceland, we went

467
00:23:49,275 --> 00:23:53,800
[Speaker 0]
to the Hard Rock Cafe in, in Reykjavik.

468
00:23:54,580 --> 00:23:56,260
[Speaker 0]
It was in a in a mall down

469
00:23:56,260 --> 00:23:58,760
[Speaker 0]
there. It it's gone now. I'm I understand.

470
00:23:58,900 --> 00:24:03,480
[Speaker 0]
But, at the time, they they were collecting

471
00:24:04,180 --> 00:24:07,915
[Speaker 0]
US license plates to tack on the ceiling.

472
00:24:07,915 --> 00:24:12,955
[Speaker 0]
Well, I had customized, Idaho amateur radio license

473
00:24:12,955 --> 00:24:15,055
[Speaker 0]
plates with my call sign on it, and

474
00:24:15,275 --> 00:24:17,355
[Speaker 0]
I had my dad, take one off my

475
00:24:17,355 --> 00:24:20,500
[Speaker 0]
truck and send it to me and go

476
00:24:20,500 --> 00:24:23,460
[Speaker 0]
into Hard Rock Cafe in Reykjavik, and, they

477
00:24:23,460 --> 00:24:25,620
[Speaker 0]
give you a free meal for donating a

478
00:24:25,620 --> 00:24:28,500
[Speaker 0]
license plate. So for the longest time, my

479
00:24:28,500 --> 00:24:32,420
[Speaker 0]
call sign license plate was, nailed to the

480
00:24:32,420 --> 00:24:38,085
[Speaker 0]
ceiling in the Reykjavik, Hard Rock Cafe. But

481
00:24:38,085 --> 00:24:39,924
[Speaker 0]
like I said, I do believe that's gone

482
00:24:39,924 --> 00:24:42,885
[Speaker 0]
now. They had a really cool door or

483
00:24:42,885 --> 00:24:44,325
[Speaker 0]
a thing around the door. They had a

484
00:24:44,325 --> 00:24:49,370
[Speaker 0]
fifty nine Cadillac standing on its nose, and

485
00:24:49,430 --> 00:24:52,950
[Speaker 0]
the door going into the place was through

486
00:24:52,950 --> 00:24:56,070
[Speaker 0]
the Cadillac. I you know, they had just

487
00:24:56,070 --> 00:24:58,070
[Speaker 0]
had, you know, had it cut out, and,

488
00:24:58,070 --> 00:24:59,930
[Speaker 0]
you know, it was a normal door, but

489
00:25:00,195 --> 00:25:02,774
[Speaker 0]
that was, I do I do remember that.

490
00:25:03,075 --> 00:25:04,595
[Speaker 0]
You know, of course, it was inside a

491
00:25:04,595 --> 00:25:07,715
[Speaker 0]
mall. So you know? And the other thing

492
00:25:07,715 --> 00:25:09,955
[Speaker 0]
I remember the most about it was driving

493
00:25:09,955 --> 00:25:12,595
[Speaker 0]
in Reykjavik. It was the first time I'd

494
00:25:12,595 --> 00:25:15,414
[Speaker 0]
ever seen a traffic circle or a roundabout.

495
00:25:16,490 --> 00:25:18,490
[Speaker 0]
Now they're all over the place. I should

496
00:25:18,490 --> 00:25:21,370
[Speaker 0]
do a whole episode about roundabouts here in

497
00:25:21,370 --> 00:25:26,730
[Speaker 0]
northern Michigan, but I probably won't. But, that

498
00:25:26,730 --> 00:25:29,054
[Speaker 0]
was the first place I'd ever dealt with

499
00:25:29,054 --> 00:25:33,235
[Speaker 0]
roundabouts. And then in London, a Piccadilly circle

500
00:25:33,455 --> 00:25:36,575
[Speaker 0]
or Piccadilly Circus, of course, that roundabout there

501
00:25:36,575 --> 00:25:40,335
[Speaker 0]
is, way bigger. And, you drive the wrong

502
00:25:40,335 --> 00:25:41,774
[Speaker 0]
side of the road and the wrong side

503
00:25:41,774 --> 00:25:44,410
[Speaker 0]
of the roundabout, and I never did drive

504
00:25:44,410 --> 00:25:47,690
[Speaker 0]
through it, but, saw it. Pretty crazy. But,

505
00:25:47,690 --> 00:25:50,810
[Speaker 0]
anyway, and, you know, when I was telling

506
00:25:50,810 --> 00:25:52,570
[Speaker 0]
you about that airplane that flew back and

507
00:25:52,570 --> 00:25:55,610
[Speaker 0]
forth to London, you could, hop a flight

508
00:25:55,610 --> 00:25:57,790
[Speaker 0]
on that airplane. It was a p three

509
00:25:58,010 --> 00:26:00,284
[Speaker 0]
Orion, which is is a navy aircraft, but

510
00:26:00,284 --> 00:26:03,325
[Speaker 0]
it was set up like an airliner. And

511
00:26:03,325 --> 00:26:05,245
[Speaker 0]
you could hop a flight on there. I

512
00:26:05,245 --> 00:26:07,485
[Speaker 0]
think it was twenty bucks round trip, and

513
00:26:07,485 --> 00:26:09,804
[Speaker 0]
they'd, you know, leave Kevlovic at seven in

514
00:26:09,804 --> 00:26:13,390
[Speaker 0]
the morning and get to London about you

515
00:26:13,390 --> 00:26:14,670
[Speaker 0]
know, it was an hour and a half

516
00:26:14,670 --> 00:26:18,190
[Speaker 0]
maybe, something like that, and, stop in Shannon,

517
00:26:18,190 --> 00:26:21,950
[Speaker 0]
Ireland. And then, somewhere near London, I don't

518
00:26:21,950 --> 00:26:24,370
[Speaker 0]
remember what base it was, Milton Hall maybe.

519
00:26:25,135 --> 00:26:27,695
[Speaker 0]
But, we'd we'd land there, and then you

520
00:26:27,695 --> 00:26:30,975
[Speaker 0]
could, you know, grab a bus into London

521
00:26:30,975 --> 00:26:33,934
[Speaker 0]
or train or whatever it was and spend

522
00:26:33,934 --> 00:26:35,615
[Speaker 0]
the day there. And then if you were

523
00:26:35,615 --> 00:26:38,495
[Speaker 0]
back, to the airplane by ten o'clock at

524
00:26:38,495 --> 00:26:41,400
[Speaker 0]
night, they would head back. So it was

525
00:26:42,660 --> 00:26:46,900
[Speaker 0]
pretty cheap to, travel to to, London and

526
00:26:46,980 --> 00:26:50,179
[Speaker 0]
or shot Shannon. You know, sometimes jump off

527
00:26:50,179 --> 00:26:52,740
[Speaker 0]
at Shannon and spend the day there or

528
00:26:52,740 --> 00:26:54,660
[Speaker 0]
spend a night there usually and then come

529
00:26:54,660 --> 00:26:58,965
[Speaker 0]
back. But, yeah. So it was it was

530
00:26:58,965 --> 00:27:04,085
[Speaker 0]
definitely a a cool place, and, you know,

531
00:27:04,085 --> 00:27:08,565
[Speaker 0]
cool and as in cool, man, not cool

532
00:27:08,565 --> 00:27:11,040
[Speaker 0]
as in cold. Although it was cold, it

533
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,840
[Speaker 0]
it never got above sixty five degrees and

534
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,360
[Speaker 0]
never really got below twenty degrees the entire

535
00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:21,620
[Speaker 0]
time I was there, not counting wind chill.

536
00:27:22,505 --> 00:27:25,385
[Speaker 0]
And the sun, that was the other one,

537
00:27:25,385 --> 00:27:27,625
[Speaker 0]
is this time of year up there, the

538
00:27:27,625 --> 00:27:30,745
[Speaker 0]
sun may may come up just slightly above

539
00:27:30,745 --> 00:27:33,145
[Speaker 0]
the horizon and then go sideways for a

540
00:27:33,145 --> 00:27:35,650
[Speaker 0]
couple hours and then drop right back down.

541
00:27:35,650 --> 00:27:37,650
[Speaker 0]
So it was mostly dark, and we weren't

542
00:27:37,650 --> 00:27:39,730
[Speaker 0]
above the Arctic Circle. So the sun did

543
00:27:39,730 --> 00:27:43,650
[Speaker 0]
actually come up for a little bit. And

544
00:27:43,650 --> 00:27:45,730
[Speaker 0]
then in the summer, you know, like in

545
00:27:45,730 --> 00:27:48,965
[Speaker 0]
June and July, the the sun never really

546
00:27:48,965 --> 00:27:51,524
[Speaker 0]
set. It would go just slightly below the

547
00:27:51,524 --> 00:27:53,365
[Speaker 0]
horizon, and then you could see it kinda

548
00:27:53,365 --> 00:27:56,485
[Speaker 0]
go sideways across the horizon and then pop

549
00:27:56,485 --> 00:27:59,044
[Speaker 0]
right back up. It was very weird coming

550
00:27:59,044 --> 00:28:00,325
[Speaker 0]
out of the bar at two in the

551
00:28:00,325 --> 00:28:02,270
[Speaker 0]
morning and have to put your sunglasses on,

552
00:28:02,270 --> 00:28:05,870
[Speaker 0]
but, you did. And, you got used to

553
00:28:05,870 --> 00:28:08,669
[Speaker 0]
it. I did I don't remember much of

554
00:28:08,669 --> 00:28:11,230
[Speaker 0]
the language. I did learn enough of it

555
00:28:11,230 --> 00:28:15,150
[Speaker 0]
to get by, but, Icelanders at that time

556
00:28:15,150 --> 00:28:18,404
[Speaker 0]
even, and it's probably even better now, had

557
00:28:18,404 --> 00:28:21,924
[Speaker 0]
a higher literacy rate in English than the

558
00:28:21,924 --> 00:28:25,465
[Speaker 0]
US. So, you know, that was a required

559
00:28:25,524 --> 00:28:29,865
[Speaker 0]
language, although they they spoke more British English,

560
00:28:29,924 --> 00:28:34,240
[Speaker 0]
but close enough. You know? But, anyway, that's

561
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,620
[Speaker 0]
just my remembrances of Iceland in the nineties.

562
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,840
[Speaker 0]
I did, do an episode of all about

563
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,720
[Speaker 0]
Iceland or oh, no. All things Iceland. I'll

564
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,159
[Speaker 0]
have a link in the show notes over

565
00:28:46,159 --> 00:28:49,335
[Speaker 0]
at mike dell dot com. This post, there'll

566
00:28:49,335 --> 00:28:51,335
[Speaker 0]
be a link to my episode there, which

567
00:28:51,335 --> 00:28:53,815
[Speaker 0]
was in May of twenty twenty. I was

568
00:28:53,815 --> 00:28:57,255
[Speaker 0]
interviewed, about being on the NATO base in

569
00:28:57,255 --> 00:29:00,419
[Speaker 0]
Iceland back then, and, you know, who knows

570
00:29:00,419 --> 00:29:03,139
[Speaker 0]
if I contradicted myself? That was, you know,

571
00:29:03,139 --> 00:29:06,100
[Speaker 0]
almost six years ago. So or at least

572
00:29:06,100 --> 00:29:12,100
[Speaker 0]
five. That was six. Anyway, math again. But

573
00:29:12,100 --> 00:29:15,195
[Speaker 0]
go check that out. She's still doing that

574
00:29:15,195 --> 00:29:19,475
[Speaker 0]
show. I understand she's gonna become a mother

575
00:29:19,475 --> 00:29:22,195
[Speaker 0]
here soon. It's just I haven't listened to

576
00:29:22,195 --> 00:29:24,275
[Speaker 0]
it in a long time. But, anyway, check

577
00:29:24,275 --> 00:29:29,410
[Speaker 0]
that out. All things Iceland, May of twenty

578
00:29:29,410 --> 00:29:34,370
[Speaker 0]
twenty. And, I'll be back tomorrow. And what

579
00:29:34,770 --> 00:29:37,330
[Speaker 0]
forget what I'm gonna talk about tomorrow. Let

580
00:29:37,330 --> 00:29:41,825
[Speaker 0]
me see. Oh, yes. Thanksgiving. I'm gonna talk

581
00:29:41,825 --> 00:29:44,385
[Speaker 0]
a little bit about how Traverse City is

582
00:29:44,385 --> 00:29:48,305
[Speaker 0]
kind of a small town still. So, I

583
00:29:48,305 --> 00:29:51,205
[Speaker 0]
look forward to that, and hopefully, you'll listen.