Driving . . . Driving . . . on the Right Side of the Road

Our Skoda

One of the comments that is repeated and repeated in the USA when we mention the UK is driving on the right side of the road is a terror.  I don't think of it like that.  I believe that I only thought of this difference in driving as a terror for a very short while, and it felt more like personal incompetence than terror.  Of course often those things are interchangeable.  We rent an automobile for these tours.  I have pointed out in a past blog that we travel with enough gear that it is important to have some security that is only available traveling by car.  It is also an enormous inconvenience to carry two guitars, an amplifier weighing in at a minimum of 40 pounds, and two roller bags as well as a camera  bag and a bag that we keep the computer, movie camera, and adapters via public conveyance.  It's a lot of stuff.  It's especially a lot of stuff when we are getting on and off of airplanes.

We have noticed that the motorways are becoming more numerous, and they are wider than they were when we first came here.  On the other hand we have driven all kinds of roads in the years that we have been traveling here.  My little joke is that the road system that you travel here is often the remnant of Roman engineering.  The first time we were in Edinburgh we had a rough time with their plethora of one way streets, and a grid system that doesn't have a grid.  If you make a mistake it could take you miles to wind your way out of it or so it sometimes seemed.  On the other hand we have driven for miles on a one way track through farmers' fields, through tiny villages where you wind through the streets with automobiles parked filling up half of what is already a narrow lane.

Then there is the experience of riding with a seasoned UK driver through the streets of Leicester, Southampton, or the country roads of Cambridgeshire where you understand how a human can indeed acquire instinctive comprehension of time and space.  I remember quite clearly having a conversation with a truck driver in Tarbet, Argyll, Scotland in 2001 and having him explain how he drove the country road down to Tarbert with mere millimeters between him and oblivion.  Once again in Scotland this year we met up with an old friend who we had first met in Tarbert those many years ago.  Scott was talking about how tired he would get driving at night as a musician after his gigs and the challenge of the narrow roads in fog, snow, with fatigue as his very close friend feeling the shadow of the man with the scythe stalking him in the deep, dark Scotland night.

What about that first experience?  You get off of an airplane from the USA.  You have been on it for 8 or 9 hours with very little opportunity to sleep.  Even say you have had a opportunity to sleep your body is telling you that it is 8 hours earlier than it is where you are.  You have jumped the fence and are on another planet.  Your body does not function here like it does back in Tacoma.  Your reactions are slowed and the places that you find yourself have reference points that don't necessarily make sense.

We hopped in our rental car and headed south from Heathrow.  This was in the days before GPS was in common use.  I don't remember what kind of map Kristi had,   but she must have had a map.  Before we had driven for an hour I drove into a curb and popped a tire.  We put on the spare and continued on our journey to play our first folk club.  I made a wrong turn and pulled off the road to turn around and discovered that I didn't know how to put the car in reverse.  If I'm not mistaken I pushed the car and got it turned around and jumped back on the road to retrace my steps and damned if there wasn't another car coming right at me on my side of the road running like a bat out of hell up a hill around a corner.  My first reaction was to notice that he was on the wrong side of the road.  My next reaction was that I was on the wrong side of the road.  I made the necessary correction and headed for our B n B.

There was room for our little rental car at the Bn B parking lot but it didn't look like it to me.  The proprietor calmly got behind the wheel, showed me how to put the car in reverse and parked the car for me in the "impossibly small space".  Things improved quickly as we recovered from our jetlag and got used to driving there (here).

The truth is that these days I quite enjoy winding up the little engines in the rental cars and pushing them around the country corners as fast as I can make that little jackrabbit run.  I do have to make an effort not to get distracted as even with GPS it can be a challenge to find your way through the maze of roundabouts, narrow roads filled with cars half parked in your lane, onto the motorway, off again into the Green hills of Durham, Scotland, Wales, or the warm lush forests of Cornwall.

I've only found myself on the wrong side of the road a couple of times this trip.  Both times it was Kristi who pointed out the error of my ways.  It seems that I remember a car coming at me both times as well.  I think that both were at the very  beginning of a journey.  I really don't find the roads to be scary anymore.  I drive comfortably most of the time but I'll admit that it does take some attention to keep everything running smoothly.

One night on this trip we blew out two tires in one fell swoop.  There was a drain cover that was misplaced and was like a little steel arrow sticking up out of the road.

It was a dark and stormy night with an entire busload of people not more than 1/2 a mile away who were in the same predicament that we found ourselves.  It was 3:30 am before we got back to our B and B and in the light of the next day we got new tires and all was well with the world.  There is more to the story.   With some help from our good friend in Syston, Mr. John Montague we managed to repair all of what needed to be repaired.  If you drive enough miles, and I believe I have, you will eventually have something happen on a dark road.  I hope for your sake that there are others on the road that night, or that there is a cellphone tower close enough to your proximity to remedy the situation via cellular communication.

Caution -  Squirrel Zone

For all of that consider that by now we have spent an entire year in the UK.  I don't know how many miles we have driven,  but be assured, it is a respectable number.  Any difficulties we've had with driving have been minor enough to have a sense of humor about them.  The differences here make the journey more interesting than they would otherwise be.  This country, like the rest of the world, is in a constant state of change.  There are apparently more vehicles on the roads here every year, but like in the US there is a large contingent of young people who do not, and apparently will not drive.  I believe that a person can do that here much more easily than in parts of the US where it is virtually necessary to have a vehicle.

Scottish Highland Humor

I think I have time for one more blog before we get on an airplane and come back to the USA.  If you think I don't consider the cost to the planet for our journey, you'd be wrong.  I really do question whether we should be traveling like this.  I try to justify it with my own personal goals.  I'm not certain that that actually works.  I'm sure that I'll have more to say about that in the near future.   In the meantime, keep the home fires burning.