Day 66-to avoid the wind

   March 10-Mother Nature has not been kind to Bill and Jean during their visit so far, but they can say that they have had a real Icelandic winter experience.  It has snowed most of the time since they got here and we had collected a foot of snow or more on the ground here at Bifröst by this morning.  Then, over the course of the day they got to see what it looks like when the wind really kicks in (constantly 40+ mph) and the snow changes over to rain.  

   After everyone had gotten their beauty rest, the decision was made to go to Akranes today to see the town and visit the folk museum.  However, crossing the bridge across the fjord at

Borgarnes changed our minds.  The wind was blowing in off of the ocean and played havoc with our cars on the bridge.  So, instead of driving the coast down to Akranes, we decided to stay in our home valley today.  We went back to Borgarnes to eat
dinner before driving back across the bridge and up the valley to Hvanneyri.  This is the location of Iceland's agricultural college and a wool museum, which was our destination.  It turned out that it is more of an agricultural museum with an associated shop that sells wool yarn and woolen goods.  I knew that there was a tractor museum in Hvanneyri, but I thought that it was closed in the winter.  The discovery that it is actually open was great news, since I had been hoping to take my family to it when then visit later this month. 
   After touring the museum and purchasing more yarn, we got back into the cars and headed to Reykholt.  Yes, this is Bill and Jean's third visit to Reykholt in less than 24 hours!  This time, we had them stay outside in the wind and the rain to see Snorri's reconstructed hot pot and the covered hot spring. 

   From here we headed east up the Hvitá river to see the Hraunfossar and Barnafoss.  This location was somewhat protected from the south wind
but not from the rain.  Regardless of the inclement weather, Bill and Jean were still impressed by these waterfalls and were happy that we took them over to see them.  One advantage of the rain, strong winds, and temperatures in the lower 40s (Fahrenheit) was that the snowpack on the roads disappeared rapidly, so it was much easier driving as we headed for home.  Unfortunately, these same weather conditions ended up causing more trouble for us when we got back to Bifröst.  Minimal clearing of snow occurs on campus, meaning that there was a foot of snow on some of the roadways.  The weather had caused the snow to become rotten, so our cars fell through and high-centered.  We could not make it into our own parking lot, but we could park in the parking lot in front of the main building, so it was not that problematic.  Back at the house, Sally made supper and everyone else relaxed until we hit the sack.