Behind the Wheel

Today is the first day I drove the car on a major road. I have been taking the bus to the base and driving the car around to get used to the feel of a right-hand drive car. It didn't take very long before I became accustomed to driving on the left, but then again the speed limit on base is a pretty tame 15 mph. One Sunday, I took the car out for a spin in our neighborhood. Traffic is really light on Sundays so I was able to encounter a few roundabouts with little traffic to distract me. Today I drove from the base to a nearby cattery. I wanted to inspect it to see if we might leave Ginger there for two nights this weekend while we head out for a short visit to Scotland. I only had to drive on a couple of small roads and for a brief period on the A59, the main road between Skipton and Harrogate. All went quite well. Woohoo! Next time around I suppose I'll drive the car from base to our house where I will have to drive through the busy city center and maneuver some of Harrogate's busiest roundabouts. That doesn't sound near as scary to me as some of these small country roads that are often so narrow it is difficult to imagine they can accommodate two-way traffic. Not to mention the hairpin curves and blind summits!

Oh, and as for the cattery.... well I'm still considering it. The cattery is in a stone building on a farm in Fewston. My first impression was not helped by the strong smell of manure as I stepped out of the car. I guess the farmer had just fertilized his fields. There are two cattery buildings, one of which allows cats to go through a flap to an outdoor room with a spectacular view of the countryside. Each cat enclosure has three levels, so the cats have plenty of room to move around. I'm still having pangs of guilt over this as we've not had Ginger home from the quarantine kennel for a month yet. And now we will be leaving him in another kennel. I'm sure he will be just fine, though...