But, I did what I had to do! 6 people wanted to go to Stonehenge and Bath via two truly minuscule cars. 3 of us knew how to drive a stick shift. Kate and I took first shift, with Travis as the third capable driver ready to take over if either of us should need it.
About an hour and fifteen minutes into the drive, I was feeling pretty good! Driving a stick shift left-handed was kind of fun, and the only really stressful thing was going through the roundabouts. I don't like those suckers in the U.S., and I REALLY don't like them going in the opposite direction w/tiny British cars whipping menacingly around the bend.
Then, as we were about to merge onto the Motorway, I accidentally merged into a van. Ooops! I'm not trying to name names, but my passenger had been quite adamant about turning left RIGHT that moment, and so, well, I turned left! Into a van... We were so lucky. We pretty much just touched off of each other with a resulting dent on our passenger side and a small scratch on the gigantic van. Also lucky, we took out the full insurance policy on the rental car so we wouldn't have to pay anything, not even a deductible. Phew!
When I called the rental company to report the accident, they didn't even seem to care! The lady did seem to enjoy the fact that I'd only had the car for about an hour and 20 minutes before getting into an accident... and she also seemed truly disappointed that there were no gory injuries for her to report. Sorry, bored rental car lady!
And just like that, all of my dreams of renting cars for Mark and my parents' visit vanished into the smoggy air under a motorway's overpass. I will likely never drive in the UK again--no tempting fate or my luck here!
Enjoy the pictures detailing the damage. We managed to have a lovely day regardless, with Travis taking over my driving post. I was not the only one having difficulties as the picture with Dan and Travis retrieving a lost hubcap demonstrates.
oh, LauraBionix, you were so brave to even attempt driving!
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