By auto in England

We left Shrewsbury in the morning, bound for the Birmingham Airport to pick up a rental car. All went smoothly, and a tourist was glad of his heavy winter coat, because althought it was a sunny day, the temperature was in the high 30's and there was a light wind blowing. We picked up our Ford Escort at the airport, and with me at the wheel (a tourist insists that I drive, as I have much more experience driving in a right-hand drive car - experience gained more than 40 years ago in New Zealand!). At the first roundabout as we were leaving Birmingham Airport, I was challenged by an old lady driving a large stationwagon with left-hand drive, coming at me on the wrong side of the road! I adroitly manuevered around her without serious incident, and we continued our pleasant drive, via the M6, the M42, M1, and the A46 to the outskirts of Lincoln. Fortunately, there were no other challenging incidents of a vehicular nature.