I sat in the hairdressers’ salon this morning and the hairdresser asked me if I’d be doing anything nice at the weekend. I said yes, that I would be driving to catch the Isle of Wight ferry on Saturday morning to spend a fortnight at my caravan (Sam is staying at home to oversee plastering work being done on our house). She stopped cutting my hair and looked at me in disbelief. She told me I was very brave for even considering this 200 mile journey.
I hadn’t thought anything of it. It’s not as though I haven’t done the journey before. I’ll leave at 07:30, and it’s mostly motorway driving all the way there until I reach Portsmouth around 4 hours later. If the traffic is light I will be able to catch an earlier ferry.
My hairdresser went on to tell me that she only drives about locally, and never drives on motorways. Therein lies the problem, thought I. I think it’s good to have to drive on motorways once in a while; it builds confidence, and there’s a certain amount of satisfaction when you get to the other end. Okay, I dislike the M25, which as Chris Rea said is the road to hell, but I generally stay in the inside lane and get to the A3 turn off whenever I get there. Sam tends to change lanes a lot as though he’s on a slalom course, but hey, that’s testosterone for you. I’m happy to stay at 60 – 70 mph and listen to my music.
My spirits lift as soon as I see Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower looming in the distance. This time of year the journey through Portsmouth will not be as bad as in the height of summer. Anyway, I would have already traversed the M25, and nothing is as bad as that!
Stevie Turner 
Good for you Stevie. And you are so right, we have to challenge ourselves. I too have developed anxiety driving out of my familiar perimeters and used to be fearless. I braved a three hour drive on a highway I detest here last summer to visit one of my friends for a week I’d befriended last year in Mexico. That what the biggest thing I did alone since losing my hubby. I hope you enjoy your time at the Van 🙂 xx
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Thanks Debby. It’s so satisfying to arrive at the other end! x
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It surely is. Enjoy!! x 🙂
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We all have our different limits. I learned to drive in London – my first lesson started on Lambeth Palace Road and went around the Elephant and Castle! As a field sales person, I used to drive 1000 miles a week, so think nothing of driving the length and breadth of the UK on my own. I happily towed our 12m/40 ft caravan/van combo from Budapest to Lake Garda when my husband broke his ribs, and am taking my truck driving test in April so that I can do the same with our Beast.
I recently read a few chapters of the book ‘Finding My Badass Self’ by Sherry Stanfa-Stanley, in which the author challenged herself to do 52 challenges at the age of 52. Her first was to go solo to a belly dancing class. As someone who spent my solo years as a fire eating, bungee jumping, skydiving adrenaline junkie, it wouldn’t occur to me to even think of attending a belly dancing class as a challenge, but clearly this lady did, and I’m sure many of her readers would also.
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You’re braver than I am, Jacqueline. I draw the line at towing a caravan and bungee jumping!
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Like I say – we all have our limits! 🙂
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I’m fond of a good drive as well, but our freeway (motorway) drivers get more aggressive every time I go. 🚗 – That gets better away from the cities.
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Yes, I find that too. I let the speed freaks whizz along in the outside lane.
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I am a middle-lane driver too. I’ve never understood why men have to change lanes so much.
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They’re impatient, full of testosterone, and have to be in front.
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I agree.
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Sounds like a good road trip,no worries)
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Driving in Pembrokeshire is wonderful, Stevie, despite the abundance of narrow, winding lanes. Great fun to see by how many centimetres one can pass by another car. Now, driving in Cardiff is quite another matter. I do like motorways though.😊Get on, get going,get home!!
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Yes, we have those narrow, winding lanes in Suffolk. You always meet a lorry or van coming the other way on one of those bends, don’t you?
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Great fun!!😊
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Hi Stevie, I don’t like driving very much and the driving in South Africa seems to generally degenerate by the day, but it is something I have to do as there is no public transport here that is suitable for me or my sons. I agree you have to do these things so that you can have freedom. That is what the suffragettes protested and fought for. Freedom for women.
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Yes, I love the freedom it gives me and the independence. I don’t like to always rely on Sam.
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Have a great time! I’d be more concerned at being at the mercy of the British weather at this time of year than I would about the drive!
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Sunny on the IOW today and raining here.
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Hopefully it stays like that for you 😊
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I don’t drive- any journey involving roundabouts, turning right and traffic would be daunting, especially if a multi-storey car park was at the end! But it is a fact that there are real drivers and local drivers! There are a lot of local drivers… and many women who have given up driving completely- until their husbands get too frail to drive then they suddenly have to nervously take to the road again! My daughter and daughters- in- law are very confident. One daughter-in-law passed her American driving test first time when they went to live there. The other daughter-in/law drives all sorts of vehicles for their business. Strangely my son-in-law has never learnt to drive so at least I’m not the only one in the family. Ps – my late husband always insisted he was ‘making progress’ on the motorway while I would be saying why can’t we stay in one lane!
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When my dad died, my mum then learned to drive and passed her test at the age of 56. However, she often complained that drivers used to shake their fists at her….
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Probably men, Stevie. LOL Some really do hate being overtaken by a woman.😊
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Mum, bless her, was not a very good driver. After a few journeys with her I realised why she caused so much anger!
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Fists?
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Yes, she could never stop talking, and was always too busy chatting to her passengers to concentrate on the road. She had several near misses, but managed not to kill herself or anybody else before she eventually gave up driving in her early seventies.
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Some folks just aren’t very adventurous. I drove all over Western Canada in one of my jobs. Everything is about 2 to 5 hours apart there anyway. People say I’m brave to fly back and forth to Canada from Spain once a year. I don’t think twice about it. Enjoy your time on the IOW!
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Thanks Darlene. We flew to Toronto in 2013 and enjoyed a fortnight’s holiday there. I especially liked the road trip to Bruce Beach where we saw Mennonites driving their horses and carts in a special gravel path along the side of the motorway.
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I would want to be with the Mennonites!
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We have Mennonites in our family. My uncle married a lovely Mennonite girl and joined her religion. I now have 11 wonderful cousins. Such kind and loving people.
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Indeed. There was a Mennonite restaurant along the way. Lovely food and service as I remember.
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Lived 5 or 6 of the longest months of my life in Pennsylvania and the Amish were always out in their horse drawn carts and their farms field trip destinations for school kids. I say that about the longest, but I spent a year one week in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
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Arkadelphia hasn’t got a lot going for it then?
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Not that I could tell… but I was stuck in a trailer in the woods on the edge of not much town
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Yeah, in the NE 3 hours can be three states. In Texas, like the Canadian Prairie, three hours can be desolate, and 5 hours will get you to San Antonio. Houston and New Jersey are the same place, with different accents, only you can turn left in Houston🤣
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Yes, and from Toronto, I still have 4 more hours of flying to Vancouver.
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Same distance but a better trip that Detroit to Portland🤣
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I always imagine American roads stretching ribbon-like for miles and miles into the distance.
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I love road trips! Have fun!
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Thanks John. I’m looking forward to it.
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When I first moved here and locals found out I was from London, they always told me that they could never drive in London. Most of them won’t even drive in Norwich. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think it’s because I have driven in London that the trip doesn’t faze me. Like you I have neighbours that wouldn’t even drive the 12 miles to Bury St. Edmunds.
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London life makes you tough! 🙂
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