Any other Saturday in 'murica.....

So today I partook in another great American tradition - the cooler.  The a-me-ri-cans love their coolers.  If you need evidence of this take a look here.  The last week or so the temperatures have started creeping up again - a sign that Spring and Summer can't be too far away.  Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in Texas has a cooler.  Most people have many coolers for transporting drinks, ice, fish, deer, hogs etc.  I guess with the Summer temperatures being what they are it's pretty justified around here.  It doesn't seem to matter whether you're fishing, surfing, playing football, gardening, hanging around on a beach or even at a family function the true Texan's trusty cooler won't be too far away.

So, with the imminent prospect of house guests, warmer weather and a now working windsurf board (my fin and mastbase went MIA during the move!) I decided it was time to join them by buying us our first cooler.  The options range from tiny little lunch boxes to one's that are (literally) bigger than my fridge.  The ultimate in the cooler tree is a Yeti cooler.  They have a pretty awesome reputation for keeping ice, well, icy for long periods of time they look cool and have ace hardware.  Unfortunately they're also ludicrously expensive!  The coolest Yeti I've yet seen is this Shiner affair - the twins actually bought their dad one of these for Christmas (I can confirm it's pretty cool if insulated boxes are your cup of tea).

As you can tell, cooler buying in Texas is a very serious affair!  In the end I settled for an 11l Igloo Marine series.  Basically because it looked ok, seems pretty rugged and apparently is designed for boats (tie down straps etc).  It's also not so big that I'll need second person to help lug it from the car nor is so small that only Laura's Riesling will fit in it!

So we should be all set for a fun, cold, Summer of surfing, beach trips and sailing now!  Not to mention some shark fishing in April with Chris and Kirsty when they visit.....

While out and about I also decided that after 6 long months of servitude it was about time to treat "Durango unchained" to a wash and polish.  There are a multitude of car wash places around the house.  Without exception they all seem to be manned by hard working Amerixican's - which got me to wondering what the US (and Texas in particular) would be like if they all decided to leave......

Anyway, they did a good job (especially for $12) when you consider that I'd forgotten that the car is actually white!

For the car lovers out there....the company fleet car is a 2006 Dodge Durango 4.7l v8.  It's very thirsty, rides like a boat (particularly around corners), weigh's almost 3 tonnes and is slow.  However, it has navigated us safely around almost 20,000 miles since we got here and for that I am grateful.  It's also humungous (think 20 sets of golf clubs, not 4), which whilst not very European does make quite a nice change.