First Time on the Road

Tonight at work I mentioned that I wanted to head out for a bite to eat before teaching my last class. My coworker James piped out "Why don't we go for a drive?". At first I was a bit hesitant but once we headed out from the office I said "Sure". James' vehicle tonight was his second family car, a Subaru Stella which his wife usually drives. It's a small boxy little vehicle. I can't say there's anything like it in North America.

So, once behind the wheel I managed to pull the usual trick of trying to turn on the blinkers and ending up turning on the windshield wipers. That was before I got out of the parkade. I didn't make that mistake again once we were on the road since it's raining tonight.

As far as the car goes I didn't quite get used to how its braking goes. I'm used to the power brakes and ABS system on my former vehicle, a Subaru Legacy Outback wagon. If I pressed on the brakes of the Stella it seemed like we were going to stop on a dime. I couldn't quite find the point where I could step on the brakes without the car coming to a lurching halt, or worse yet, seem to be on the verge of locking up.

One thing I had noticed a while back is how much darker the roads are over here. They're not using sodium street lamps over here. That took some getting used to when behind the wheel. The other thing was that the lane markers seemed to vanish in the rainy conditions. Anyways, I was quite happy to putz around the city at 40kmh as that is the speed limit in most of the city.

It was nice to be able to get out on the road again. I've seen enough crazy stuff on the road here while walking around or cycling so I'll certainly be very careful and defensive whenever I get behind the wheel of a car.