Having never driven in a country other than the UK before, I was a little nervous about driving
Not to mention the concern that my mother thought I would more than likely kill myself
And everyone else on the road
Because she thought I had forgotten how to drive
Cheers maw!
In Reality
Fair enough, it took a little bit to get adjusted
Not only had I not driven on the other side of the road
I hadn’t driven for nearly 13 months
And never in an automatic
So, yeah, a few daunting factors
But after a few adjustments
Nearly driving into a badly positioned traffic cone
We were fine
FYI. The traffic cone was not my fault, the fucker was in the middle of the lane
I somehow swerved to miss it. And the big ass pick-up truck next to me.
I also took a little adjusting to get used to the lane position
Being very aware of the fact that every other driver on the road was probably looking at their left hand mirror from time to time
Whilst I was looking at the right, constantly, to make sure I wasn’t in the wrong lane!
Couple hours in, I was grand!
The Big Sur
That was tougher than I had imagined
Driving up to huge cliff faces and sheer drops and cars that haven’t worked out how to handle the road that are partly in the wrong lane (MY LANE)
On a poor night sleep
With a guy that can’t stop coughing – concern over Jack’s well being was the distraction, not the noise, I’m not that mean!
But it was so worth the exhaustion and the challenge
The views were incredible!
We drove it south to north, whereas it is recommended to do it north to south, and looking at it, I can understand why, but either way it is gorgeous, as long as you can stop to see it (as a driver)
But then you hit LA
How do you put into words the absolute madness that is driving in LA?!
Holy shit, that was brutal
For the most part, it wasn’t that bad, just busy and a little scary when I had to change lanes
But driving back down from Monterey, where the roads are long (like really, really, really long) and full of…. nothingness. Just sand, and some orange trees
And then you hit the back of the traffic
And the sat nav tells you to keep left and then all of sudden to keep right, but you haven’t noticed any change to road
“HOW THE FUCK DO I DO THAT? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS ROAD? STUPID $%&$ing SAT NAV” was a little of how it sounded
[Slightly Mark Gorman-esq, but not as bad, on any scale]
And then you miss the turn
And it adds 40 minutes to your 6-hour journey
And then just exhaustion and denial
It’s a bit shit to be a driver in LA
And at night when there are a million headlights in your mirror and you can’t tell how close they are
That just makes you want to pee your pants
It probably helped
That I had lived in the US for a year before I got behind the wheel
Because I could get used to it and then it didn’t feel so bad
I think getting off a plane and then swapping sides immediately would be a bit horrific
Especially for people coming to Edinburgh, where you straight away hit about 20 roundabouts and nothing makes sense
Or if you land in California and you have to get out of LAX
Or if you got to New York. But then that’s your own stupid fault for even considering the idea of driving.
Now
I just need to remember how to do it at home
Even just for crossing the road
Or getting in the passenger seat
But it should be OK, thanks to Chauffeur Jeana 😉
