So imagine you get up in the morning, jump in the car and
drive for 45 minutes in the car to the airport through these strange
multi-laned round-abouts through a foreign country with signs you can’t
read. Now forget everything you just
learned and completely reverse it.
Driving on the left side of the road, all the controls are backwards,
and you’re driving a standard changing gears with your left hand. Well, that was me today but instead of
driving with one or two lanes, there were 4 or 5 driving out of London. Thinking I was driving with the flow at 60
mph and having people wailing by you doing 100 mph on the freeway being 3 feet
away well... let’s just say it took a bit of time to get comfortable. All I can say is thank god they didn’t change
the clutch, brake and gas pedals or I would have been really buggered.
So I digress for a minute.
Here are a few tips for any of you that might be thinking of travelling
on a cheap flight airline. When the
stewardess comes around to ask if you want juice or water, just say no. Thinking it was the complementary juice,
water, coffee thing, I said yes. Six
pounds later, we’ve got the smallest juice I’ve ever seen and a small bottle of
water. Surprised they didn’t charge for
the ice. Lesson learned!
Lesson number 2 – Read the fine print! As we were flying over to England, I actually
took the time to read the fine print on the car rental agreement... international
driver’s license. Well, I didn’t see
that before and sure don’t have one of those.
So we get into the Luton Airport and clear customs, etc to wonder if
they’ll rent the car and if not how in the world are we getting to
Shropshire? That and where did they hide
the car rental company? Well after
walking out of the airport, which was way smaller than I ever thought landing
in London, and seeing nothing we started asking around. Getting pointed in the right direction, we
jump on the correct bus to get deposited in front of the car rental building a
few minutes later. So the moment of
truth.... and it goes off without a hitch.
Lucky, the fine print isn’t as important as I thought after all!
So we get upgraded into the beautiful new Toyota with not a
scratch on it... not sure how long it’ll look like that! After doing a few loops, stalling the diesel
car in a few round abouts, we finally get on the right freeway and start off. My first round about, I looked the wrong way and
got surprised when I saw a car coming our way....got away with that one! First driving lesson in England learned! It funny the sights you see and the nice
people you meet when you’re totally lost.
Needless to say we met a number of them!
Part way through the drive, Shannon asks me, “wow, isn’t the English
countryside beautiful!” We’ll all I can
tell you of England at this point is it’s got a white hatched line down the
middle and cars coming at you really fast!
Three hours and nerves completely shot we finally reached our destination. Rich!!!!
I unhook my claws that have been clenched around the steering wheel and
gave him a big hug. Man it’s good to see
you! So begins the adventure in England!
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