Driving in the USA - VF
I just wrote a few sentences in an e-mail to Viv about driving so I thought Id add them in here FYI, along with a picture of my lovely car sitting outside the garage surrounded in leaves! The previous week it was covered in red maple leaves which kind of stuck to it and resulted in my wonderful husband going out and cleaning it for me (hence it is so shiny in the picture - note the wheels especially!).
I am managing to get around on the right side of the road/left side of the car with not too many episodes of hitting the window with my left hand when trying to use what is now the wrong hand to change gears! It’s still a challenge to look over my right shoulder when backing down the drive as my neck doesn’t seem to turn quite as far that way. However on Friday I realised that the people across the road have a driveway that is practically an extension of ours and so I tried lining that up in the rear-vision mirror instead of trying to turn so far around and that seems to work better thus far! The other challenge is remembering to go to the left side of the car to get into it when I am in a shopping mall or car park. I usually end up putting the shopping on the passenger seat so that it looks like I meant to go to the incorrect side! I also often repeat Dad’s mantra for driving here when I turn corners of right, right, keep to the right, which Jamie adapted in NZ to be left, left, keep to the left! Thus far I have only had one minor mishap and that was when I didnt say it due to talking to Maria on the phone at the same time (whoops, best find out if driving and talking on phone is illegal here like in Australia or not).