Driving on the left side of the road, oh my!

This is one post that I wish I had actually written as I was learning to drive on the left hand side of the road.

For those who are joining us late I grew up in Texas. I think I was around 12 when on an occasional basis my dad started letting us drive down one block under his close supervision from the passenger seat. Then when I turned 15 I got a learner's permit and he started having me drive everywhere, again closely supervised from his spot in the passenger's seat. When I turned 16 I got my first driver's license.

And then I stopped driving. I lived in Europe and biked everywhere. I went to college and biked everywhere. I got a job and biked to work everyday.

Then I got a job that required me to drive about a thousand miles a week - that's about 1,600 km metric. Luckily - and I do say luckily with sincerity - I got a ticket a few months after I started that job. I chose to go to a defensive driving class. The instructor taught a class called "Grin and Take It" He was a professional stand up comedian that had been in a huge pileup years before. Think Jon Stewart for driver's school. He covered all the requisite topics with an incredible amount of humor - so much humor that 15+ years later I still remember tons of what he said.

"Time and Physics are working against you, so you always have to drive defensively."

But I digress.

Driving on the right side of the road is different from driving on the left side of the road, but it's not a mirror reverse. In some ways I think that would have been easier, but no, some things stay in the same spot.

And this is the spot that I really wish I'd written this portion as I was becoming accustomed to driving on the left hand side of the road. I don't have the muscle memory that I had back in October about what goes where. Now when I get in the car, it feels right to drive on the left.

And I'm headed back to the US soon!