English Driving Tour
Typical English backcountry roads are narrow, winding, and very green. Perfect for sports car motoring!
In August of 2000 I rented a little Vauxhall Corsa and did a driving tour of the southern expanse of England. In addition to visiting Carolyn, I drove to Oxford, Dover, Stonehenge, Sommerset, Exmoor, and the Lynmouth Coast. It took me about a day to get used to driving on the left; e.g., the first day I smacked a curb as I wasn’t used to the expanse of “car” to the left of me, and a few hours later made a right turn into the wrong lane. From that point on I kept having to tell myself, “remember, WIDE right turn”. Roundabouts (traffic circles) were also a little tricky; I actually spent 20 minutes just watching how cars negotiated a 3-lane roundabout in Oxford, and came to the conclusion that people just know where other cars are and don’t really have hard-and-fast rules. I actually came to really like roundabouts and their efficient flow of traffic; much less stopping than with traffic lights.
Excerpts from the only email I wrote during this trip in England:
It just so happened that I was passing by an internet cafe in the Soho district of London, and I couldn’t resist that 35 min per £1 rates even though I am supposed to be on vacation away from computers! :) Anyhow, just wanted to say that I was very happy to meet you on the flight to Houston… I hope your flight made it to New Orleans safe and soundly, as long as your subsequent flight. Hey, I guess you are probably back in Houston right now as I write this… or maybe you are on your way back to New Orleans and then Baton Rouge… or maybe you’ll only read this when you get home to Baton Rouge. Yah, that’s probably it!
So far I’ve had a very relaxing time here, getting lots of rest and relaxation. So far I’ve only visited London and some parts of Oxford, although when I drove up to Oxford I could not find the university, which is why I ended up stopping at a park to eat a sandwich and read a book. :) Everything is fine over here, with (thankfully) no drama between the-unpredictable-ex-gf and me… in fact, she works most of the time and whenever we’ve met up we’ve been civil and friendly. The more interesting things that have occurred so far include trying to understand how the roads here work (I’m finally getting used to this drive-on-the-left-side type of driving!) and trying to fend off a homosexual Turkish man who made some pretty explicit propositions to me while in Hyde Park. Long story! Anyhow, drop me a line sometime if you’d like… can’t wait to see how some of my pictures turned out (including the one of you! :)) I won’t get back to the states until Thursday night but who knows, perhaps I will be stopping by an internet cafe once more before then (probably not though).
