Driving

Well I've never driven in the US before - quite a few trips have been to NY (no car needed) and the last time to NC with Arcadia, Shane, the customer, had the car. This time, though, I've had to hire one. It's been a laugh!

Firstly, we picked up our 'compact' car from the airport. (1) it's NOT a compact - it's quite large. (2) It's an automatic - I've not driven one of those since Dan had his Chrysler Crossfire!

So we set off around the car park for a couple of goes until I got the hang of it. I kept trying to put my clutch foot down on the brake!

OK so we got out of the car park and because we'd requested a car with the sat-nav, I was quite happy to follow all the instructions, even though I'd got the route sorted from the airport to the hotel (basically one long road, once you've escaped the airport's clutches), so that was OK! I think Chris was somewhat relieved that I could actually drive on the other side of the road! I only put him in the gutter twice on the 1st day!

We still have a couple of issues though....

What's with the 'turn right on red'? I have done it a couple of times now I'm getting brave (makes me feel quite naughty!) but the effect is that as you're approaching the lights, and you have a green light, you can see cars trying to creep out to see if they can see a gap, and you get the feeling that they might just leap out at you.

The law about not talking on your phone unless it's handsfree hasn't kicked in yet (I think it's due soon) but EVERYONE is on the phone, one hand up clamping it to their ear. Now I suppose the fact that the majority of cars are automatic means that you only need one hand to steer, but it IS still quite disconcerting. Not that people *don't* do it in the UK, it's just that if you look around as you're waiting for the lights to change, there's barely a person NOT on the phone!