{"id":314,"date":"2012-05-30T01:17:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T01:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/?p=314"},"modified":"2012-05-30T01:17:19","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T01:17:19","slug":"the-l-plates-come-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/2012\/05\/the-l-plates-come-off\/","title":{"rendered":"The L-Plates come off!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Or for those of you who aren&#8217;t British &#8211; I pass my driving test and am unleashed on an unsuspecting American driving public]<\/p>\n<script type='text\/javascript'>_wpaudio.enc['wpaudio-69fab9bac975b'] = '\\u0068\\u0074\\u0074\\u0070\\u003a\\u002f\\u002f\\u0077\\u0077\\u0077\\u002e\\u0076\\u0069\\u0067\\u0067\\u0065\\u0072\\u0073\\u002e\\u0063\\u006f\\u006d\\u002f\\u0072\\u006f\\u0075\\u006e\\u0064\\u0074\\u0068\\u0065\\u0077\\u006f\\u0072\\u006c\\u0064\\u002f\\u0073\\u006f\\u0075\\u006e\\u0064\\u0074\\u0072\\u0061\\u0063\\u006b\\u002f\\u0062\\u0061\\u0062\\u0079\\u0064\\u0072\\u0069\\u0076\\u0065\\u0072\\u002e\\u006d\\u0070\\u0033';<\/script><a id='wpaudio-69fab9bac975b' class='wpaudio wpaudio-nodl wpaudio-enc' href='#'>Baby Driver - Simon &amp; Garfunkel at their road trippiest<\/a>\n<p>They say that amongst the most stressful things to go through in life are (i) leaving \/ changing job; (ii) moving house; and (iii) getting divorced. Well, I am of course a fantastic over-achiever &#8211; whilst (i) and (ii) were firmly in reach (see the stress-wrinkles!!), (iii) seemed sadly unlikely given my single status. Hence I decided to throw one more challenge into the mix: how&#8217;s about learning to drive? Too easy?? How&#8217;s about learning to drive IN MANHATTAN. With a total of 3 WEEKS to get your test.<\/p>\n<p>In all seriousness, this was something I&#8217;d always promised James I&#8217;d do before we set off together on our RTW trip, incorporating as it does a 2,500+ mile drive across America. Lesson one &#8211; starting (in rush hour) on 52nd street before turning down Park Avenue &#8211; had me questioning the depth of our relationship: was I really willing to go through this? Really?? Many phone calls \/ active counselling sessions with my poor unsung parents later, I was calmer. The lessons continued, my prowess (confidence? lack of fear??) grew, and within a few weeks, I was the proud owner of a NY state driving licence (which, for those interested, in its temporary form looks JUST like a receipt. Haven&#8217;t accidentally thrown it away&#8230;yet).<\/p>\n<p>This was a week before our road trip. Yep, that&#8217;s right, a road trip involving all SORTS of challenges rarely seen in a Manhattan driving lesson: motorways, bendy roads, supermarket car parks, calm and non-aggressive drivers (how does it work when no-one cuts you up whilst swearing at you in something very foreign and very fluent?). The challenges are endless. This post, then, is the first of a confessional series. First off the go:<\/p>\n<p>Driving on an interstate [check out the SERIOUS expression]. Turns out I&#8217;m a SPEED DEMON. Who knew?!!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-315\" title=\"Very serious Lucy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1170002-400x300.jpg\" alt=\"Very serious Lucy\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1170002-400x300.jpg 400w, http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1170002.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Skyline Drive. We&#8217;ll post a map of this. Suffice to say: BENDY. Think Alpine roads, then supersize (this is America after all). This puppy has a &#8220;runaway truck ramp&#8221; &#8211; 100m of gently upward sloping gravel bed &#8211; coming off it in event of truck-speed-bendiness emergencies! Day one: no-one died. Day two: starting to get the hang of it. I think. Also, no-one died. Bring on day 3!!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-316\" title=\"Skyline drive - 1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1200159-400x300.jpg\" alt=\"Skyline drive\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1200159-400x300.jpg 400w, http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1200159.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Driving&#8230;I guess it ain&#8217;t ALL bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Or for those of you who aren&#8217;t British &#8211; I pass my driving test and am unleashed on an unsuspecting American driving public] They say that amongst the most stressful things to go through in life are (i) leaving \/ &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/2012\/05\/the-l-plates-come-off\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.viggers.com\/roundtheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}