car racket

There is a prevalent culture here of taking new Japanese trucks (Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Patrols, etc.) with big diesel engines, and jacking them up on enormous bubble tires. They look great, I must say. There are a couple of truck customizers here that do some incredible conversions. There are many places in Iceland where a vehicle like that would come in handy: roads marked 4x4 only, roads with rivers flowing across them, places where no roads go (like the top of Vatnajökull - Water Glacier - a slab of ice twice the size of Rhode Island). Of course they also make the rounds in downtown Reykjavík, parallel-parked in spaces originally laid out for Datsun B210s, their enormous rubber tires hanging out into the traffic lanes. Hogging the city streets like any good SUV should.

Just having RZ (MB's RAV4) here makes for some good fun. I have already forded a miniscule stream in the Icelandic outback, and it put a huge smile on my face, feeling the stones of the streambed rolling around under the wheels like a mouthful o' marbles.

I saw one of these the other day parked outside the swimming pool and fell in love with it. It's got to be the coolest Volvo ever made. And the one closest to the Volvo refrigerator ideal. I flagged the owner down as he was on his way to the car and told him how much I liked it. He asked me if I wanted to buy it, just as he opened the driver's door and the pungent smell of old fish fell out on top of me. But he has my number anyway. I just may be picking up the PBs at the airport in the old Volvo Fishmobile.