anyone going on holiday this year?

[SquirrelDip]

Funny thing about driving on the "wrong" side (doesn't matter what 'yer "right" one is) is getting used to your turn signals, especially if your driving AT... With two hands on your wheel your reflex won't turn on the signal - it'll turn on your wipers.

[Doramius]

I've done that a million times when I was in Europe too. At least the gas was still on the right side of the brake. That would suck to get wrong.

[SquirrelDip]

I did it periodically - the car I had in Malaysia was a manual transmission. Having only one hand on the wheel helps you remember where your signal is.

The problem with driving with your "wrong" hand on the stick is you expect the gear layout to be reversed (your left/right hand reflex are mirrored) - when accelerating/decelerating quickly you have a tendency to want to shift to the wrong gear.

[rallynavvie]

Yeah, I didn't like having to draw the shift lever closer to me in order to upshift.

[Doramius]

Also using the stick with your left hand is like a lefty wear a right hander's gove. My right hand is the control and focus (for me anyway). I'm not a lefty, so if it's stationary or has little movement required, I don't have to think on it. My right hand is where all my focus is. It's stronger, and quicker for response. When the stick is on the left, I find it difficult to place in a gear even though it shouldn't take any effort. I have to take extra time thinking about it.

After grinding a few gears, I went back to the rental place and traded in the manual for an automatic, so I didn't have to worry about that for too long. It was worth the extra $50-60, or 20-30 Lbs., franks, euros, and whatever else I used. before I have never used so much different currency travelling in a radius of less than 1000 miles. Friggin pain in the a**. It was a minor hassel when I went to Canada from NY, but I didn't have to get a 3rd currency before making it halfway through my trip.

[SquirrelDip]

Note to Americans : When travelling to Canada and the customs agent asks "Do you have any firearms?" The correct answer is not "Yea, what do you need."

[Doramius]

At some of the attractions on the Canadian side you can get wax impressions of your hands (especially at the wax museum). When my wife and I were fisrt married we dipped our hands together and got an impression of us holding hands. When we left Canada that day the customs agent asked us if there were any items purchased in Canada that we need to declare. Knowing I wouldn't have to pay taxes on it anyway, but felt proud of our momento, I said, "Wax Hands." He must not have heard me properly be cause he repeated with surprise, "Wax Pants?" My wife and I just about die laughing as I corrected him it was a wax souvenir from a gift shop. The guard is embarassed and beet red, but waves us though. To this day we tell people we smuggle 'wax pants' into the US from Canada all the time.

[rallynavvie]

I went to school in Grand Forks and since the drinking age was 18 up in Canada and it was only a couple hours away I used to take a van full of people up to Emerson, right across the border only a few minutes, to go drinking. This was back before 9/11 and the gate on I-29 there was only staffed during the day. Late at night when we were rolling back to campus the gates were up and there were only two road cones to navigate around to get back into the States. Road cones! I think the idea was that Canadians are too nice to drive around the cones to get in to the States so we were safe, but Americans would just go around the damn things. Still funny just remembering the first time I encountered the road cones there at 4am. I guess I'm guilty of second-guessing myself about them too

[Doramius]

THere were a bunch of those following along the western parts of the border. I saw some of those while I was going to college in Idaho. We'd take a 4 day weekend and go to Canada for fireworks, and other stuff I won't disclose, but you couldn't get in the US. If you came back at 1 or 2am the MIGHT have been 1 guard at times, or none at all, with the cones blocking the outgoing lane of traffic. If there was a guard, we'd just say we're US Citizens that had gone camping and are on our way back late. Always got waved through.