The Challenge of Driving

Well, we are still alive and no damage to the car – YET.     Yes, RJ is driving on the “wrong” side of the road.     No problem, he has done that before in Ste Maarten and St Kitts.     Some gentle reminders and he was good.

Now, however, the poor man is dealing with a few other criteria.      For example, the steering wheel is on the “wrong” side of the front seat.        Sorry, but he’s driving like a 14 year old.    His lane changes, while usually good, are sometimes jerky and quick.     Not graceful !       Even more stressful, for me, is the fact that he doesn’t have a good feel for the middle of his lane.    No way is this man driving on a road with a passenger side drop off ! ! !      The rumble strips play constantly – unfortunately  only I can hear them so I have become the proverbial  back seat driver telling him to move over.     I lost count of the number of times he drove up onto a curb.     It’s amazing that we still have the side mirror.    

   

Did I mention the fact that this is a 6-speed straight stick?     He hasn’t driven a stick in many years.     We have stalled at many an intersection.     Fortunately, traffic is fairly light in the Ballycastle area.     I’m so glad we changed our pick-up date so that he didn’t have to drive in Dublin City Centre.

We are now in Northern Ireland, where they use the mph that we are familiar with.    Unfortunately, the car is only in kilometers.     Thank goodness we brought our Miss Garmin along.      Now, instead of watching the scenery (or our close encounter with the lane to our left) I am telling him how fast he is going.     We've been duly warned about speeding, so I am also the speed police.      What a fun job.    Only two more weeks of using a car in Ireland – plus another two in Scotland.     Hope we survive!

The good side of all this ---  it was ridiculously expensive to put a second driver on the contract so I don't have to figure all of this out ......................