A Parting of Ways

Bit soon for these two to do the quiz

The next few photos are from our Orlando 'home' taken one evening when Diane, Julie's friend who caught the bouquet, gave a little quiz. It was most revealing. Both Julie and Will were given a card with the others name on one side and Me on the other. They weren't allowed to look at each others answers as Diane read out the questions. Like:
During your first date, who did the first step?
Who is messiest?
Who is the most affectionate?
Who is the worst cook?
Who will be most strict with baby?
Who is snoring the most?
During this questionnaire, who lies the most?

Mary thought it would be interesting for her and Steve to do the quiz after over 30 years of marriage. Hmmm, not all their answers concurred with the other.

But maybe these two should have - they have since
become engaged.

Whoops.

Diane reads the questions

They got a few right.

It really was a lot of fun and we all got to know each other a little better so it was with a great deal of sadness on Saturday morning,  we bid each other farewell. Julie's friends all flew back to France (although we were looking forward to seeing Diane again soon as she is taking some time out from her pressure-cooker job and coming to New Zealand).Will and Julie had decided not to come back to New Zealand but instead return to Tortolla where they met, because their job prospects were better on this side of the world. Kate and Harry were returning to New Zealand straight away as Kate had a new job to start, Emma and Mark flew to San Fransisco which they loved every bit as much as we did, before flying back to Wanaka, Steve and Mary spent another day in Orlando and got to explore the city a bit more, while Rose, at least, accompanied us to the airport. Tom was joining us for the next couple of legs of our trip. Something both Rich and I were looking forward to.

Putting on a cheerful face to say goodbye.

Only in America! 

Tom navigated us safely to the airport where we said goodbye to our faithful steed. By this time Rich was feeling so much more confident driving on the American roads, that he actually felt quite a bit of regret to see the back end of the Dodge.
Before we left home, I had googled 'Florida road rules' - turns out, there weren't many! The major rule, for us anyway, was driving on the right. A little chant we were taught before we left and which we sang at every turn, proved to be extremely useful (if not a little annoying for the driver):
"Righty tighty, left is long." (Thanks George - invaluable)
At a red light, if the way is clear, you can make a right turn.
At a four way intersection, first come, first served. The second car that arrives at the stop sign goes next. We weren't all that convinced about this one until one time we arrived at a stop sign fractionally before a police car arrived at one to our right. He waited until we went through.
You don't have to wear a helmet if you ride a motorbike! Your choice.
The United States is the home of the automobile, but what we did note, is that motorist behaviour is infinitely more courteous than back home. No one finger salutes, tailgating or leaning on the horn here. The odd toot, which the road guide I had printed off usefully informed us, was to let us know that we had the right of way. Rather than relying on a rule to tell them how to behave, motorists are guided by the principal of co-operation.
This did give us some pause for thought. Are we, in New Zealand, over-regulated? This need to make a rule for every situation, I think, is simply outlawing common sense instead of fostering it, and if we don't practice using it, we lose it. We are turning more and more to the government, or other ruling forces, to solve our problems and NOT taking responsibility for our own actions. (Rant over.)
I also wondered, especially when we first arrived home and found if quite difficult to adjust to driving on the left (even though I didn't drive in the States), if driving on the right was more natural.
There does not seem to be any clear explanation as to why we do drive on the left but a common theme relates back to the days when  people rode horses and in order to keep their 'sword arm' (in most people, their right arm) free to greet or defend themselves from passers-by, they held their reins in their left hand and rode to the left. As to why some countries changed to driving on the right, I have not found any conclusive explanation, but there are many and varied theories which you can google if you are interested.
Upon arriving at the drop off point for the car a young porter bounded up to us declaring
"My name is Darren but you can call me Superman or Supe for short. Service comes with a smile and here's the smile" at which point his face broke in half as a huge smile lit his dial. We gratefully accepted his help as we had no idea where to go or what to do and as he gathered all our luggage onto his trolley Rose said with some relief,
"Oh, consider yourself hugged." We got the beam again and this time it went all the way.
We left Rose, who was catching a later flight back to New Zealand, and boarded our US airways flight. Before boarding we were informed that the flight was overbooked (a common practice, apparently) and they were calling for volunteers to remain behind. Again we were separated but fortunately despite the warnings, the plane was not full and both Rich and I had spare seats beside us. Unlike Virgin the staff were lovely and the flight was short. In no time at all we were soaring over Washington, and admiring the views that the window of the plane afforded us.

A different climate methinks.