To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
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Saturday, October 15, 2011
Surviving driving on the left side of the Road
Devizes, at the Bear Hotel (1559) was where we stayed after we left London. We thought Devizes was sort of equidistant between Glastonbury and Bristol where our express train north to Edinburgh would be found and where we could drop off our rented Mercedes. It had been a frustrating night where all the roads around the Bear Hotel had been being worked on, so we had to carry all our luggage about 6 blocks and up the stairs to our rooms. So at about 6 am the next morning I noticed they had stopped working on the roads and all the roads were now clear. So I walked on down to the Mercedes parked 6 blocks away and started it up and noticed the parking brake was on. Now, to give you a little of my history on parking brakes, I find at my present age 63, if I ever put on a parking brake I tend to forget to take it off which can cost me about 2000 to 3000 dollars to fix what not taking your parking brake off does. However, with the Mercedes the other driver besides me didn't know my strategy of never using a parking brake to avoid paying thousands of dollars to fix the ruined emergency brake and had put the brake on. So, logically with most American cars one simply stomps on the brake on the floor and it releases. But by the time I discovered this I was now in the right lane and pulling a way from the curb. However, one needs to be in the left lane to drive in England. So when I stomped on the parking brake it only meant that it now was so lodged to the floor that even putting the car in Drive and pushing on the gas didn't work anymore. So now I was really desperate. I didn't know this car very well because it was a rental. It was also a Mercedes which means it has ten times the normal amount of buttons and levers that can do everything imaginable to even adjusting the high and low beams of the lights automatically and an (ECO) button that automatically shuts off the engine when you come to a complete stop with the brake on at a light until you take your foot off the brake it automatically starts itself up. (This was really hard to get used to at first by the way because I had no idea any car anywhere did this). So here I am at 6 am in Devizes, England way out in the country in a country village in the right lane with my car not able to move because I couldn't find the emergency brake release and I sort of felt like panicking from embarrassment. Luckily, no one at all was out on the road or sidewalk at that time. So, one by one I touched every single button that I didn't know what it did in the whole car. Nothing. I did it once again methodically. Nothing. Finally my right hand brushed something unfamiliar under the dashboard and when I touched it again I realized it was an emergency brake release. So, after trying to dislodge the brake release for about 10 to 15 minutes I finally found it. The problem I realized in retrospect is that like the rear view mirror which is always on the right of the driver in the U.S. (but to the left in Great Britain), the emergency brake release is also always on the right where I never in a million years would expect it to be growing up and learning to drive in the U.S. So, in the end all's well that ends well. One wonders how many other embarrassing experiences other American drivers have had in Britain or India or Nepal or other places where one drives on the left side of the road. Or another thing, imagine all the left side road drivers driving on the right side of the road on the left side of the vehicle here in the U.S. where the problems would be reversed. When I watch the movie "Paul" about the UFO guy and the two British buddies it brings new meaning to it all.
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