Today being the Summer Solstice, I want to discuss roundabouts. Stay with me as I explain the Ridge-boy logic here.
The other day, Pam and I made our way over Buck Hewitt Road and encountered the construction of the new roundabout where it intersects with FDR Blvd. (Never did figure out why FDR gets to be called a boulevard when every other road in Lexington Park is either a street, drive or a lane.)
As we made our way thru the circle, I then told Pam about my driving in England years ago with Buzzy as my copilot and the two of us trying to figure out which exit to take out of the roundabouts. This effort was complicated by the fact that the car we had rented was a stick shift and with the steering wheel being on the right side, I had to use my left hand to shift gears. While I knew how to drive a stick, my “lefthandiness” is poor to the point that I often joke that the only thing I can do with my left hand is eat and scratch various body parts. (Thus, I have given up trying to become a better left hander in this life; but in my next one, I plan to work on being bi as in ambidexterous.)
So picture Buzzy and me tooling out of Londontown, heading south with me fumbling around shifting gears, driving on the left side of the road and trying to reverse-think all the driving instincts I had semi-mastered to that point in my life and Buzzy trying to map out our trip. And on top of all that, here are all these roundabouts and I was not familiar with just how to make my way thru them. When Chevy Chase made fun of trying to do so in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, I knew precisely what he was talking about.
As for his role in this, Buzzy was good with the map. However, he and I had to learn how to communicate negotiating the roundabouts other than him saying “I think we should have turned there” as we passed by the exit that we wanted.
We developed a little system where he would tell me as we approached the circle if I should go straight, exit right or exit left. We based it on the clock with him saying “12” meaning go straight, or “3” meaning go right or “9” to exit left. I guess we could have just said “Straight, right or left” but hey, we were country boys making it up as we went. Whatever worked worked.
OK, so what has all of that got to do with today being the Summer Solstice? Well, Buzzy and I were driving to Stonehenge which is about 2 hours southwest of London. (Note – our two hours may have been more like 2 1/2 because we did have to backtrack a couple of times after hitting some wrong exits off of those roundabouts.)
For reference purposes, I have mentioned our visit to Stonehenge previously here on the Buzzyblog (click here.) As for this year’s event, you may be able to catch various live streams (click here) to give you an idea of the celebration going on there today.
Wonder if Billy Joel ever did a road trip to Stonehenge with his Dad?
Found this stupid meme. So stupid that it is kinda, well alright, margarinally funny:
