AdventureDad

We arrived Gålå  Friday afternoon according to plans.  Gålå overlooks a beautiful valley and is pretty far north.  Our superstar traveler Daniel behaved like an angel as usual.  We stopped frequently so he could eat, stretch, and play.  Our first stop for the night was in Arvika, about a four hour drive from Stockholm.  We didn’t want to be boring and check into a hotel so we camped at a local tent site. Tent was up in five minutes and we got things ready for the evening.  We camped in a field of grass overlooking a lake.  It was beautiful.  Daniel was excited about all the new stuff around him and of course happy to get out of the car.  We had plenty of room around our tent and settled in for the night around nine.  But Daniel did not want to sleep.  Apparently it was so much fun being in the tent he just could not relax.  Finally around 10 pm he was out and we prepared his stuff for the morning.  It gets a bit more complicated when you don’t have access to a fridge and a microwave.  We had an electric cooler in the car which kept all of our food cold and made some hot water on our propane cooker for Daniels "välling".  It worked perfectly.  We slept well and it was just sooooo quiet and peaceful during the night. 

In  the morning we packed the car and got ready to leave just after breakfast which we had on a table right outside the tent.  Daniel checked out all our neighbors while we got ready.  This area of Sweden seem popular with foreigners.  We had people from Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Norway  around us.

Entering Norway was smooth and they did not check us at all.  Customs here is like Sweden, a joke.  You could bring in Bin Laden on a tank and no one would notice.  Speed limits in Norway are incredibly low and their road systems sucks.  When I say it sucks I mean it REALLY SUCKS.  The roads are in great condition but all highways are only single lane in each direction and the Norwegian drivers are fucking clueless.   This means it’s difficult to pass slower cars.  Especially since all highways are curvy.  You get stuck behind one slow driving idiot, and there are many, and you are fucked.  The speed limit is never higher than 90 km/h and most of the time 80.  In the rest of the world you go a bit faster than the limit but the morons here go SLOWER.  If it’s 80 people drive 75.  And that is with no traffic, perfect sunny conditions, and not even an elk within 20 miles.  I just don’t get it. I’m not advocating limitless speed like the stupid Germans or breaking any speed records but we are all driving new modern cars that surely can go 10-30 km/h over the speed limit.  And if you don’t want to go faster, find with me.  Just get the fuck out of the way! To top it  all off, they drive as close to the center of the road and refuse to help anyone to pass.  If you drive in Sweden and someone wants to pass, you hold to the right to help them out.  Not here.  They don’t seem to know what the rear view mirror is for.  I can’t even picture people going 50 mph on I 95 outside NYC.  If you did, and didn’t hold to the right, people would pull you over and beat you up.  And if they didn’t the police would pull you over and ask what the fuck is going on.

We finally make it out on the major highway E6, one of the largest in Norway.  It’s straight, perfect visibility, and little traffic.  The limit is still 80, sometimes fucking 60, and people are  going slower than that. No Norwegians should be allowed to have a drivers license, ever.

Arriving Gålå was beautiful.  We drove through a valley and then uphill last 10 minutes.  Up on the top you got Gålå.  Our cabin is large, almost new and have everything you can possibly need. Except a sauna which is down the hill from us.   Daniel got plenty of room to run around and there is of course no traffic outside.  There seem to be plenty of stuff to do here and the whole area is like a postcard.  We are close to a national park, Jotunheimen, which has 260 out the Norway’s 300 mountains over 2000 meters.  The views are stunning.  Tonight we are settling in and putting Daniel to bed and relaxing with a bottle of red and some steaks. 

Tomorrow we start the adventures.  Life is great.

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