Adventures in Driving

I suppose it had to happen at least once during our sojourn down under, but I certainly hope it never happens again.  Today I drove almost the entire length of our street on the right hand side of the road.  The worst part is that it never occurred to me that there was a problem until I came upon a roundabout and realized that it made no sense to yield to the right when I was driving on the right. I completed the circuit of the roundabout in the wrong direction, and then quickly switched over to the left side with no harm done.  Thankfully there were no other cars in sight in the usually busy intersection--no one to honk at me, and no one to witness the flaming face of the driver.

The irony is that for the first time I was planning to drive outside of our local area and brave the motorway.  I deliberated for some time as to whether this was wise, but in the end continued on in a rather more alert state than normal.  The rest of the journey continued without incident other than a few drivers impatiently passing and cutting in front of me.  

I took the picture below when waiting to enter another roundabout further on.  This time, at least, I was on the left side of the road, and because of traffic, had time to decipher the sign and confirm the exit I needed ahead of time.  Roundabouts can be confusing at first, but one good thing about them is that you can keep driving around in circles until you figure out which way you need to go.  We did that frequently when we lived in England, and I imagine we will be doing the same from time to time here.

After I returned home from this excursion, Sophie informed me that she was in urgent need of triple A batteries.  I was glad to be able to walk to the local grocery store rather than take the car out again.  It appears that visiting a store will unfortunately be a daily occurrence for some time as we work to replace the necessities we left behind in our house in Pittsburgh.  Yesterday we headed out for spices and seasonings (which must be the only item in the grocery store sold at half the price or less compared to the U.S.). Tomorrow we will need to replenish supplies in our much smaller refrigerator.

Comments

[Karin Smith]

cheer up. the good folks here in mt. pleasant don't know how to use our new roundabout, and they get to have the steering wheel on the left side of the car!

[Shanda]

I'm so glad you didn't meet any traffic head-on. I'm proud of you for being brave!

[Monique Nagel]

Christy - you had me laughing so hard on this one I was crying. I did that (driving on the wrong side of the road) several times while living in Italy for a time...it is quite nerve wrecking and can shake your confidence for awhile. Good luck tomorrow on your explorations. It's nice to see the family all together again. : )