Thanks!!

 

Keep up the good work their Chief! Just put a big "U" number on the side and paint it gray and you will be able to drive that truck in your sleep! You will think your still on a float!

 

Now that is FUNNY!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Driving Day 3 of CDL School 6/20/07:
I had no idea what today was going to bring. I did know however, that I was scheduled for 3pm to 7pm. So as usual, I arrive early (“early is on time and on time is late”). As I pull into the parking lot, I noticed that the truck was gone. I was wondering what could be wrong since they just got the truck back from the KW shop yesterday. Then it dawned on me…..the trailer was gone too. Uh oh…it must be time to drive out on the road, leaving the comfort of our secure little range. The nerves went into overtime. All I can think to myself is “no way am I ready for this. We are only on our 4th drive in 3 days, are they crazy??” :shock: The truck returns and sure enough, the other student is driving.

After my pre-trip inspection, the instructor drives off the school lot and takes me to an industrial park that fronts the interstate about 5 or so miles away. While we are heading there he is explaining that there is nothing to be nervous about. That I would simply be doing what I have on the last 3 drives, up shifting, down shifting, turns to the right, the left, backing, etc except in a more “real world” setting. I think….”yeah right, easier said than done”.

We arrive at the industrial park and he drives the route explaining that I need to be careful here because of oncoming traffic, be careful there because of the tight turns, etc, etc. So again I am thinking to myself “how am I supposed to relax when there is so much to worry about??” He pulls over and says it’s my turn. I get in the drivers seat and swear that the seat will be leaving with me when this is over as it already appears to be attached to my butt.

I start off on the route and have all these thoughts running through my head about watching out for this, watching out for that, be careful here, be careful there, and at the same time trying to make sure I remember everything I learned about shifting, turning, etc. and, the icing on the cake is that I am driving a truck which, because it was in the shop, I have only had a couple of hours behind the wheel prior to today. Whew…what a brain overload.

I kid you not, within 5 minutes I was completely relaxed and was driving like I had been doing it all my life, I felt so comfortable. My shifting, both up and down was smooth, my turns not too wide and not short. The only way I can describe it is that it felt so natural to me. It was exhilarating!!!!! As the instructor sees that I am comfortable and doing fine, he starts challenging me with different turn, different routes, etc. He then has me turn left and go down this long road. If I had to guess, I would say it was close to a half mile long. There, he had me complete a couple of straight backs and then some blind side parallel parking. Although still a little rough, I did much better with the parallel parking than I did the other day. At least I am improving.
We get ready to leave when I realized that the road we are on is a dead end and it’s only about 20 feet wide. Before I could ask the instructor what to do, I could read the answer on his face. I said “you’re joking right?” His reply was a solid no and that he had confidence in my ability to do it. So I backed out the entire way which included a curve in the road that bent to the left and of course 3 cars parked on the right hand side to boot. We get to the intersection and G.O.A.L, the instructor stays out to control traffic if needed as I backed sight side into the road. It was a little nerve racking but exciting at the same time.

So now we are done and I pull over in preparation to switch seats with the instructor so he can take us back to the school. He just looks at me with a grin and of course I know what he’s thinking. So I drive back to the school in traffic, through construction zones, stop lights, etc and loved every minute of it. I felt like a kid on Christmas day.

I could not stop smiling the entire way home and wonder what will tomorrow bring?

 

Sweet! That is awesome! Way to go! Congrats on your first "road" trip. You make it sound like fun!

Longsnowsm

 

Thanks Longsnowsm.......It was fun, but then again, I try to make anything I do fun

 

Driving Day 4 of CDL School 6/21/07:
Today was interesting to say the least. This was day #4 but drive #5 and it was a 20 mile figure 8 through the city. Dealing with traffic, stop signs, stop lights, left turns, right turns, some from a single lane, some from double lanes, through construction zones, etc. “Real World” training is what I called it.

I was a bit nervous when we started off but by the time I got started on the 2nd lap, I felt more comfortable. My only problem toady was down shifting to 5th. I would make the down shifts, but not as smooth as it should or could have been. Yesterday I was having a similar problem with my up shifting to 7th. Today, my shifting to 7th was as smooth as butter but the trade off must have been the down shifting to 5th. Oh well, practice makes perfect right.

So things are going well, I am starting my 3rd lap around this 20 mile figure 8 when all of a sudden it starts raining. Now if you are familiar with South Texas rain, you’ll know that when it rains here, it comes down in buckets. It was raining so hard that visibility was reduced to maybe 10 feet and streets were flooding. In fact, it got so bad that several cars got stuck in the middle of the road with water rushing by up over the bottom seal of their doors.

And I was just enter a construction zone where the 4 lane undivided road goes down to a 2 lane undivided, the kind where your lanes of traffic end and merge over to one of the lanes of the oncoming traffic. So here I am with torrential rain, low visibility, flooding streets, construction to my right and oncoming traffic to my left leaving me NO WHERE to go but straight ahead. Needless to say I am a bit paranoid by now and had the good ole “Death Grip’ on the steering wheel. But low and behold my instructor is calm, cool, and collected, giving me instructions on what to do the entire time. We finally get out of it just as the rain lets up…go figure.

I ask the instructor if we can pull over somewhere so I can have a smoke and calm my nerves. We get out of the truck and all I could do was laugh. Hell tells me, “Well, was that “Real World” enough for you?”

 

devildice, I havent said much. Just reading, but best of luck, and cool beans. 8)

 

Know this. A candya$$ would have folded under the rain. You'll do just fine. Get thru your classes....the real fun begins when your on your own. :wink:

See ya out there, somewhere.........

 

Thanks.