8 - Harvey, the knowledge
We adapted to the RV quite quickly, as one might adapt to a new house or
girlfriend once used to their foibles and eccentricities. Sadly we could not alter
the van in order to accommodate our needs, as we were renting it, so all
adaptations were one-sided - unlike in a new home or relationship. Emma
was able to enforce the 'toilet seat down' rule however, leaving it up while
driving was just not an option.
Learning to drive such a different vehicle was the first, and most essential
adaptation that had to be made. Fortunately, well selfishly, Emma was the
only one of us that could drive at the time, as I craftily passed my test the
week after we got home. First there was the whole ‘driving on the right’ issue,
not a problem as Emma has driven before in Europe, but only in a right hand
drive car. The only difficulty that she had on this score was with keeping in the
middle of her lane, due to her altered perspective in the left hand drive van
and an American tendency to have very narrow lanes. There were many
occasions over the first few days when I held my tongue rather than crying out
as we appeared to get too close to the right hand side of our lane, or cars next
to us, or cliffs.
Second, Harvey had several mechanical differences from our English
car. Most noticeably it was an automatic - again not something totally new to
Emma - however the gears were column shift rather than stick shift. The
speed at which she adapted to this strongly suggests a previous existence as
a truck or JCB driver. Harder to get used to was the location of the park brake