- a pedal rather than a stick. Perhaps this location was the reason why we
sometimes forgot to engage it - fortunately this never happened on a steep
slope. We sometimes neglected to disengage it as well, mainly because it
was possible to reverse without taking it off. On the occasions that this
happened the only result was that we thought the van was broken once we
started to drive forward. Fortunately it never was, though at times we definitely
rode our luck.
There were the two times already mentioned when we hit stationary objects.
Then there were hairy driving moments - generally on icy roads - and notably
when we were the English people who drove up a mountain and found.... a
wall of snow. Finally we also had two dodgy car park experiences in Universal
Studios, Orlando, Florida. On our first day in the park we returned to the van
to discover the remote unlocking device on the keys had flat batteries. No real
problem, we just had to open the doors by the primitive method of turning the
key! However, when we opened the door the courtesy light did not come on,
and then the engine would not start. We quickly discovered that we had left
the headlights on and had not received the (usually irritating) 'beep beep'
warning of this because we had exited through the side door rather than front
doors. Following a panicked call to the rental agency we were advised to seek
a car park security member as they often have jump leads. We did and they
did, and we were on our way within about 10 minutes – quicker than the AA.
The very next day we remembered to turn the headlights off, but did
not close the driver's door properly. We returned to find it unlocked, and the