Keep On Trucking...

Here is a little ode to North American driving.

AAARRRGGGHH!!!!

I am eternally grateful that we've lived here before. Some kind of muscle memory seems to have taken over and is keeping us on the right hand side of the road, no problem. It can take months to stop getting into the car on the right, looking uselessly for the steering wheel.  Usually you will turn on the windscreen wipers with your right hand whenever you want to indicate, and bash your left hand into the door looking for the handbrake. In fact, Husband and I quite often put the hand brake on from the passenger's seat. But at least we haven't turned left into on-coming traffic!

This is our hire car. The little Fiat. We absolutely adore it, so zippy and easy to park in a big city.

picture from here

Now, in Australia we have a sedan and we're always moaning about not being able to see because of all the SUV's on the roads (yes, we're those anti-SUV-in-the-city people) but on Canadian roads you're more likely to see heaps of these. 

picture from here

We were explaining to Poppet that these vehicles are not called 'utes' as they are back home. They are called 'trucks'. You can see why. They are very common. Especially on the 12-lane highways with all drivers doing in excess of 110 kms. 

 

traffic images from google

Yesterday it rained, and visibility was very poor. Canadians don't slow down in the rain, they continue to 'merge' and duck and weave and tailgate. It truly is an adventure.

The trick is to concentrate on what is in front of you and beside you and keep reading the road signs (whilst trying to understand what the GPS wants you to do). 

Forget what's behind you.

It's usually a 'truck' clinging to your tail.

J.