Arrivals in Iceland
At 6:30 this morning, Reykjavík time, Dan Bandel landed at Iceland’s Keflavík Airport. It was 11:30 pm Friday night New Mexico time, but in the best interest of defeating jetlag, he stayed up and met his young partner driver and Alaskan buddy Caleb Kresl who was just as bleary eyed after making the trek from Ninilchik, Alaska.
The Chinese baseball team they would drive around Iceland for the next seventeen days did not arrive until that evening, so they rented a car and scoped out Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital and largest city. Dan had been there before, so he took Caleb to the Laundromat Cafe where books are organized by color and the food is good. Dan discovered that there actually is a laundromat downstairs, which means that you can do your laundry while eating, drinking, reading, perusing the Internet, and hanging out.
They drove to the bed and breakfast where they and the team would be staying just to the west of Reykjavík in order to get a sense of the drive for later.
Spitting snow, they visited Reykjavík’s central church, Hallgrímskirkja, which was named for Iceland’s Passion Hymn writer Hallgrímur Pétursson and built to resemble the basaltic formations along the coast of Iceland. In front stands the statue of explorer Leif Eriksson. It was a gift from the United States in 1930 in honor of the 1,000th anniversary of Iceland’s Alþingi parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.
New to Iceland and having not slept for nearly 36 hours, Caleb was impressed by the colorful artistic graffiti and the fractured volcanic landscape.
The exhausted duo returned to Keflavík Airport to take a nap until Kang and the team arrived.
Also for your viewing pleasure, Dan’s photograph of Manhattan as he was landing at Newark Airport en route to Iceland.
For those wondering how Dan and Caleb ended up in Iceland driving a Chinese baseball team, here’s a little background.
Dan and Kat met Kang Kang along with three other China Central Television (CCTV) journalists when they visited King Salmon, Alaska five or more years ago. Dan teased that Kang, also a skilled photographer, was his Chinese son and they have stayed in touch ever since. Kang sent Dan a shirt from China with a black felt-tip invitation, both in Chinese and English, to come to Beijing.
Meanwhile, Kang established a baseball league club in Beijing and began traveling with team members in good will and educational trips around the world.
In the summer of 2017, just before Dan and Kat departed, they hosted Kang and team members in King Salmon, Alaska. To read about this visit from the perspective of the Australian Shepherd dog Kiva, click on the link here: Chinese Baseball Team Visits King Salmon.
During Dan and Kat’s drive from King Salmon, Alaska to an unknown destination, Kang asked Dan if he would be available to join him in Iceland for the baseball league’s winter trip. Dan and Kat had been to Iceland before and loved it there, so it made sense to go, but they wanted to be of use to assist the team, so Kang asked if they would drive. Kang had an injury that made it impossible for him to drive, so once the trip was set and tickets were purchased, it was crucial that two additional adults drive the vans.
For the past three and a half years, Australian Shepherd Kiva had been part of the family. Finding a good home for her while her parents were away was critical to making the trip work. Unfortunately, they were unable to find one and cared too much about the well being of their family member to hastily put her in a kennel situation in an unknown place.
That’s when Caleb entered the picture. Quietly minding his business on the windy, gray coast of the Kenai Peninsula in Ninilchik, Alaska, he was intrigued by the invitation to drive a Chinese baseball team around Iceland. An expert driver who worked with youth, had a sense of adventure, and was delighted by out-of-the-box travel, he was an ideal fit for the job.
And so, we leave Dan and Caleb fitfully napping in the Keflavík Airport while the Chinese baseball team flies in from Beijing via Helsinki, Finland.
The story will continue as time, energy and Internet communication allows…