I visited North Yorkshire and wanted to go places the train didn’t go, and even the bus didn’t go often (long story) so I decided to rent a car. Friends who had driven in the UK assured me it was a piece of cake, that I’d have no trouble. The car rental gent assured me I’d be fine.

It was a nightmare. All that lovely countryside, and all I could do was clutch the steering wheel and desperately try to look in all directions at once. The thing about the other side of the road is NOT just that the white line needed to be to my right instead of my left. The real issue had to do with what direction to expect “trouble” to come from at intersections.

I had altogether too close a call with a big red lorry on a roundabout, and pulled off the road, shaking. I could have killed the driver; I could have been killed.

So in deference to the preservation of human life and as my contribution to public safety in the UK, I do not ever, EVER drive when I’m there. Y’all have some poor fellow in a red lorry to thank for that—I bet I scared three years off his life.