Stamford, UK: Day 2
Our second day in England, we started the day by scoring car insurance with Val’s help from the comfort of the Norris’ living room and ended it by coming damn-near requiring insurance whilst familiarizing ourselves with the HiJet. This insurance was tricky because we bought the car as residents of the US and had to have it registered in the UK at an “appropriated” address. Eventually we found something called “walkabout” insurance which insures the driver in multiple countries for only a couple months at a time. It cost about $200 and carried us through Turkey. All other countries on our route provided insurance “at the door” and only honored their own national insurance.
In the middle of the day Kev drove us to the mechanic to pick up our HiJet. The minuteness of the thing was shocking. It did not appear trustworthy, comically so. In what may have been an example of legendary “dry British humor,” the mechanic patted me on the back and said, “It’ll hold well over 1,000 miles.” Our route, of course, ran 10,000 miles.
The repairs, however, were significant. The welding job on the exhaust was expert. The mechanic provided us a selection of odd fluids for maintaining the engine, radiator and tires. He showed us the clutch had been fixed and handed me the old tires he had replaced. I had expected them to contain wheels but they did not. Oh well. I threw them in the hull, slammed the tinny door shut, and hopped into the drivers’ seat — that’s right above the engine, excited to get moving in a vehicle with absolutely nothing between my legs and oncoming traffic.
Driving on the left side of the road proved easy. It was the steering on the right side of the car that was difficult. The windshield wiper switch seemed to work its way into the middle of every move I needed to make. Yielding the wheel to Sara, we launched directly into the wrong lane.