Tuesday, March 6, 2007

06 March 2007 Cruising - A Quick Squirt of "Essence of America"


Cruising is at the centre of the American Psyche. It’s about doing something because you choose to, not because you have to. Its about saying to your self 'I COULD BURN EVERYBODY OFF THE ROAD, BECAUSE THIS BABY WILL TOP THE TON EASY, but I choose to drive sedately at 45mph in a 55mph zone, BECAUSE I KNOW THAT ALL THESE OTHER DRIVERS KNOW THAT I COULD BURN THEM ALL OFF THE ROAD, so I don't need to prove it TODAY. Instead I will let them look on in awe at my car as I drive past all the places where the cool people will be sat eating their Big Macs, watching out for cool cars LIKE MINE, THAT THEY WISHED THEY OWNED. While I am doing this cool driving thing I will let my wife think that I am actually taking her to Wal-Mart.'
Today Sally and I woke early, still jet lagged, cos 6.00 our time is 11.00 in UK.
We had a lazy breakfast (including another Cinnamon Bun) and decided to 'cruise' to the local Wal-Mart to pick up the next set of essentials.
The sky is bright blue and cloudless (as it has remained all day) and warm, though not hot.
The car we have is a Chevrolet Town and Country, which is very smooth, with A/C and cruise control, lots of power (it could probably do a ton). Making sure I keep to the right is one of Sally's support roles, her other one is to make sure that know I need the next exit just before I can put my indicator on (I have now taken to giving a running commentary on my driving to let Sally know, that I know, that we are indeed going to take the next turning "I will shortly be going to put my indicator on so that we can take the next turning right". The trouble is that I am now starting to give the running commentary for everything I am about to do!!).
Speed is unimportant and we happily travelled the 10-12 miles at 35 - 55 mph without any feeling of being too slow. We chose the route which took us through the commercial section, which meant that we cruised past a whole variety of eating places, Wendy's, Mexican, Chequer's, Denny's, the odd ice cream parlour, Subway. Mexican, Chinese, MacDonald’s, Pizza.
We had a reasonable look round Wal-Mart, even stopped for a reasonable meal in the Nathan's in store diner.
Now I now that I am getting old, but the age profile of the people who work at Wal-Mart would suggest that they are part of a war veterans work programme. (Second world war of course). I saw several people who looked at least 80. It made for a nice and relaxed (if slow) atmosphere. But since the age profile of the customers was very similar it was OK. Florida's demographic time bomb has gone off already, and there are bits of it all over Wal-Mart.
As I wandered the aisles it’s seemed that it was a lot more like an English supermarket, and had many brands similar to English brands, which is a shame really. As usual though the cakes were very different, but I managed to restrain myself.
Got enough stuff for a spag bog, with chilli for tomorrow night.
Sally and I cruised back (much easier when I had found the cruise control.
Sally then had an hour by the pool.
I was able to talk to Brian, the friend of Kathryn and David, he gave me some
tips about local car and RV dealers.
Nice day, tomorrow we take a look at our first RV Dealer

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