So many things to write about today it's hard to keep them all straight. Perhaps today is a good day to pull out the "Top 10 List":
Top 7 Things That Are Different About Riding in England Versus the United States
1. The left-hand-drive thing. We might as well get this one out of the way. It's the clearest signal that you're living in a parallel universe. It affects everything, sometimes in hard-to-understand ways, but the primary thing is to introduce a vague feeling of unreality, as if this is all some strange dream.
2. You have to sign your credit card every time you use it. I don't know why, nobody seemed to have a good answer, but it's especially awkward when you're sweaty and gross.
3. The roads are incredibly narrow. Especially in Cornwall, we found ourselves on these tiny, tiny country roads, hemmed in by tall hedges, with maybe 5-6 feet of horizontal spread. Like a video game, the challenge level kept going up by shrinking further and further until I was sure we were going to get squeezed out. And still the cars came! And not slowly, I might add! Terrifying.
4. Related to the above, there are no shoulders on the roads.
5. For some reason, UK plugs are enormous. Which means, there tend to be fewer of them, and it's hard to have a "power strip" because it would be huge. Which, if you're running a team of cyclists that all need to plug in a phone, a garmin and a headlamp, is a pain.
6. Drivers are very friendly. None of this Texas cussing nonsense. And even if they do cuss - bonus! I have no idea what they're saying!
7. Pubs everywhere!
