'Not even Wensleydale?'

There are a few places when mentioned to some English, causes them to get a wistful, faraway look in their eyes and smile dreamily. The Yorkshire Dales is one of these places. 'Oh, the dales!...' they'll say before composing themselves long enough to tell you that there's no way to see it all in one day. Indeed not! But we tried to see as much as we could. We started in Grassington. What a lovely little town. Oh, the dales are also a place that cause me to overuse the words 'lovely' and 'charming' but seriously, there are no better adjectives for it.

We stopped liberally, which meant pulled over a lot, because there is no shortage of lovely views, but there is a shortage of safe places to pull over and enjoy them. The hills got higher, sheep more cheeky, and the ammount of dry stone walls was incredible. It's like the dry stone wall salesman came to town, for real! We stopped in Hawes to go into the Wendsleydale Creamery. Cheese, Cheese, Cheese! Who cares how it's made when there is a refrigerated tasting room with 20 different cheeses and no shortage of toothpicks.

We drove on, ending up at Aysgarth Falls which gave us a lovely walk in the woods and good views. The roads from here got more narrow, curvy and steep, but was truly beautiful. We made it up to the Tan Hill Inn, Englands highest pub. It's literally in the middle of nowhere and even had sheep the porch. The road from here followed a far more gentle slope down the other side of the mountain. You could see for miles down the ribbon of tarmac which inspired me to get a manual driving lesson on it. It's not that I didn't know how to drive a manual, it's just that I haven't had much practice. And by not much practice, I mean I've driven one about 1000 yards in a cemetery and didn't get above second gear. And that one time when I drove about a mile.
When we picked up the car and I learned we were getting a Ford Fiesta (diesel, no less!) I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to get behind the wheel. I was really hoping for an opportunity to storm a beach or outmaneuver baddies in a mall, but a nice straight, traffic free road would do nicely. I mean, what better place to perfect the skills than a foreign country on the wrong side of the road? Dad did point out that most people hone their skills in a parking lot.
The prevailing conclusion from my longest stint of gear shifting is why don't we all drive manuals? I mean, it is fun! I couldn't help myself from shouting 'power!!' a la Clarkson as I went into 5th and gleefully honked at sheep in the road. Admittedly, honking at sheep had nothing to do with manual driving, but it certainly made me laugh maniacally, and is, by the way, the most effective way of getting them out of the road. They scatter like flies!