Team Driving North

This is condensing Thursday and Friday into one post. Thursday night I was just too tired to post anything, and my laptop battery is not holding up well with the additional load of the Sprint broadband attached. It is an older battery, but it does seem to die fast when it isn't plugged in.

We started out early Thursday morning, getting going at 3 AM to get our day started and on the road before the traffic starts. Which means that I headed off for an early shower at around 2 AM. Fortunately the late, or early hour allowed the staff time to get the showers clean. The rest of the place still looked like a garbage dump though.

After arriving at the shipping point we got our first load out right away. This was one that went to the drop yard, then we were supposed to get a second load. The second load left with an owner operator that slept there overnight. The next three loads were not going to be ready until the afternoon at that point. So after calling dispatch to find out what they wanted us to do we had to sit and wait. It was a really beautiful sunrise, and when the day shift came in at at dispatch my trainer was able to find out that we could just get going with the load we had already pulled out of the shipper. We then managed to get going around 5:30 or so north bound.

My trainer started out driving, and I took over after he had driven around eight hours. At this point we had seen so many police, state troopers, and DOT inspectors, it looked like a parade. There wasn't a mile that went by that we didn't see either a car pulled over, or one sitting waiting to catch a speeder, or cruising around. I think that was the most police that I have ever seen while driving ever. I don't remember what time we actually left Texas, but I do know that we passed the owner operator that left out before us at a rest stop in Arkansas.

It took a while but by 1:30 AM Friday morning I was out of driving hours. We ended up stopping at another Pilot, this time in Tennessee. My trainer wasn't able to sleep very well while I was driving, according to him he never was able to sleep in a truck while it was moving, so it wasn't my driving that kept him awake. We both were able to sleep in a stationary truck until around 5:30 AM when he started his driving. I went back to sleep until around ten in the morning, and took over driving at eleven thirty when my ten hour break was over. This got me the last miles from just north of Cincinnati until the Terminal in Perrysburg, OH. This was to give my trainer the ability to drive the rest of the way home to Romulus, MI. So I got home on Friday by 4 PM, not to bad for leaving Laredo around 34 hours ago.

Next week is the start of the automotive shutdown. This means that a lot of the trainers, well drivers period, will be going on vacation. So instead of going out with a trainer I will be going to the Perrysburg yard to do some group training. So I will definitely be home for the Fourth of July, and will be home every night that week.

Pilot: Laredo, TX

Today I did only a little driving, From McAllen, TX to Laredo, TX. We were able to sleep in this morning at the Red Roof, because our return load had been cancelled. The load we had coming down was simply empty dunnage, plastic used to hold car parts, which can be dropped off at any time. So after getting rid of part one in McAllen, we dropped the other three portions in Laredo. This really took very little time, and our new return load needs to be picked up tomorrow morning around 4AM, so we had a good part of the day open to us.

So after dropping our trailer in a drop lot, we went to find a movie theater. There was a fairly nice one not too far from where we were, it was still matinee prices ($6.25) and The Incredible Hulk was playing. The previews had made this out to be really good, and it truly was. This was almost as much fun to watch as Iron Man.

After the movie it was off to find a good place for dinner, hopefully somewhere that we had not been to before as individuals. We found an Italian Restaurant, Carino's Italian Grill, that was really good. Plenty of food at a reasonible price, and the service was excellent.

We are now plugged in to an IdleAire station at a Pilot Truckstop in Laredo. After a slow start it has cooled down the truck nicely, and is supplying electricity and television service to my trainers flat screen tv. The first thing we noticed was that all the fuel pumps were closed, apparently they sold out of fuel. The second thing we noticed was all the trash lying around. It looked like someone had upended a dumpster in the lot. The men's room was none to clean, which is really making us leary about taking a shower tomorrow morning. Hopefully by waiting, they will have had a chance to clean them really well prior to our using them. Right now they are just cleaning them quickly between uses.

Tomorrow after we pick up our delayed load we will team drive back up to Toledo so we can get back on Friday. A solo driver would take till sometime Saturday with this distance. Since tomorrow will start early, I need to get to sleep now, more enroute somewhere.

Pharr, Texas

For some reason the name of this town just makes me think of Sesame Street, when Grover would do near and far. But that is just a random association. We are staying the night in a Red Roof Inn, a big step up from the Super 8 in Gary, Indiana.

Dinner tonight was at a really good restaurant, Rudy's Country Store and Barbeque, it truly is a chain designed for low investment. Folding chairs and tables, paper for plates, all making it look like a picnic. They give a sample of the brisket and the turkey when you tell them that you are a new customer. Both were really good, but I went with baby back ribs, which were really good. It was a bit expensive for the meal, but it was really filling.

Tomorrow morning we will be getting rid of our load, in four different locations. However our return load has been cancelled. They found us a replacement load, that picks up Thursday morning. So if we drove it solo we would get back sometime Saturday. Since we both want to be back on Friday, and he feels that after one more week of training I could be done and on my own, we are thinking about team driving it back up. Which will get it there a lot faster, and get us both home. Of course plans could change if they find us a load to pick up tomorrow.

Time for some away from truck relaxing.....

Between there and here..

Some things I have seen in the past two days of driving:

The car from Ghostbusters II parked in front of a house along the highway in Texas. Again no idea if it is original or something someone did as a copy.

The rice paddies of Arkansas, now I knew that rice was grown in the US, but for some reason I had never seen them until today. One thing I found interesting was that they were all in curves like you see in the pictures from the Orient. It just isn't something you expect to see in a US farm.

There were more than a few crop dusters out and about yesterday. Having them doing their flips over the highway as I drove towards them. We also got a good look at them as a field was sprayed.

Several fields were being burned of stubble to ready them for planting, and there were quite a few road side fire scars that were obviously started by thrown cigarette butts.

The clean up of a major accident, burn scars all over the place. Lots of debris all over, including the twisted remains of a horse trailer.

The amount of construction going on in Texas is unbelievable. It seems like every road we were on was being resurfaced, widened, or otherwise worked on in some way along the way.

I-40 in Arkansas isn't as bad as it was when I drove for Werner, but they did leave a section of the bumps for old times sake.

Prescott, Arkansas: TA TravelCenters of America

Today I drove from our stop last night to Prescott, Arkansas. Tonight due to the humidity and heat we are using the IdleAire service. It really does cool the truck down quickly. Lunch and dinner today was a foot long Subway turkey sandwich, so at least some of what I ate today was healthy.

While driving I found out how the Vorad Collision Warning System worked. It was a great help, letting me know when I was creeping up on someone and when there was an obstacle in my blind spot on the right side of the tractor. An unexpected feature was how it connected into the cruise control to maintain a proper following distance by adjusting the truck's speed to match the vehicle in front of me. It does make me wonder how many accidents might be avoided if it was built into automobiles as well.

Vorad is quite simple an on board radar system that tracks objects with in its field of view. It can tell when an object is faster or slower than me, and can sound a warning, as well as show lights it a vehicle in a particular direction is a threat. Basically it is just a very cool thing to have on the truck.

Not much else is going on tonight, have about nine more hours until we can get going again.

Morning in Glendale, KY

I ended up waking up at around 7:30AM, well the last time. Sleeping in a truck at a truck stop, especially the first night, makes for a restless night. Lots of noises as trucks enter and leave the area, drivers getting in and out of their trucks, and the fact that the mattress wasn't the best didn't help either. One thing is for sure, this style of International was not really designed for two people. The bunk space begins immediately behind the front seats, allowing basically no room for storage. So right away you are sleeping with your gear. It can be put on the seats overnight, but that just means you need to move it again when you wake up. Since the area is divided by two bunks, there is very little vertical space either. The lower bunk has a bit more space, it might be a foot or less, but who is measuring. So it is very easy to clock your head when sitting up or getting into the top bunk. Over all I think my back will recover form last night, I just don't know about the other two nights I will be sleeping in it. Fortunately we are able to get a hotel room one night a week.

This morning I started with a nice hot shower, if you don't have a credit from fueling $10.00 at a Petro. The company reimburses with receipts for this so it isn't as bad as it sounds. If you have never been in a truck stop shower, it is basically a long hall way of bathrooms, each with a toilet, sink, mirror, and a shower stall. They are usually fairly roomy, and if at a busy and good enough chain clean. You are given a shower mat, wash cloth, towel, and a bar of soap. Other than the fact that section seems to be set on arctic for the air conditioning, I had a very pleasant shower.

Going back to the truck after my shower I found my trainer was still asleep, so I headed back into the truck stop with my computer and found some breakfast. One thing about truck stops, they always have a buffet, with way more than one needs on it. I can't understand why so many drivers are over weight. I ordered off the menu to get an omelet, home fries, and an ice tea, $9.41 + tip. Again more food than one needs, but I figure a light lunch today and then a normal dinner, if there is such a thing in a truck stop.

We are headed down to Laredo, Texas to pick up automotive parts that are meant for an assembly plant in Ontario, Canada. This is a dedicated run for my trainer, and seems fairly nice drive down and back once a week. He also doesn't have to take it into Canada, there are other drivers for that.

I am using Sprint Mobile Broadband again for this connection. It seems to be working out fairly well so far, at least it is keeping me connected. I am not impressed with the GPS feature though. It is supposed to be able to locate you and then show nearby restaurants, fuel, anything like that. So far both times I have used it, it has been incorrect in finding me. When I tried it initially in Perrysburg, it was only a few streets off. This morning I think it is more than 10 miles off. It is showing me in Cecilia, KY, when I am in Glendale, KY. At least I wasn't counting on this feature, it just comes standard with the modem.

One last thing, the water here is heavily chlorinated, yuck.

The Petro in Glendale, Kentucky

Yes, I am in a truck stop tonight. We left the Perrysburg terminal at about 6:15 and arrived here about six hours later. I am trying out my Sprint broadband connection for the first time away from good signal. It seems to be working quite well for this though the signal reads as a bit weak.

I didn't do any driving on the way down, but considering the storms that we went through I don't mind at all. Even though I have driven before, I would rather get back into the swing of things in good weather.

We are parked at an IdleAire station at the Petro. This allows us to get heating, cooling, electricity, internet, television, and a few other things from a window box. Fortunately the company reimburses for the use of it for heating and cooling.

Nothing more other than I am really tired right now.

A Weekend Summary

First I would like to add a tidbit about last Monday's driving test. I wasn't driving so was able to look around a bit more than everyone else. Even though, I was extremely surprised to see a car that looked a lot like KITT from Knight Rider. From the thirty second glimpse I had of it, the exterior was a dead ringer for KITT. Even though the sides were off the t-top, I didn't really look at the interior since the red light going back and forth on the front of the car really drew my attention.

Now more about Friday, we only had to stay half a day to wrap up final paperwork involved in signing on with the company. Out of a starting class of seventeen people, fifteen made it all the way through. It will be interesting to find out how many finish the entire training period. We all found out where and when we were meeting our trainers, fortunately I will be able to meet mine in Perrysburg, OH (the Toledo terminal).

The ride home was uneventful; I gave another driver a ride back to the area to save him from the horror that is Greyhound. I don't know how many people actually ride a Greyhound by choice, but it is a fairly horrible experience. It isn't fast by any means, and it can take up to three times as long riding as it does to drive because of all the stops between where you left from and your destination.

At this point I am just waiting for my trainer's truck to get down here. Apparently the shop wasn't done with it so he is waiting in Romulus to get it done, and I am waiting here in Perrysburg for him to get here. This isn't a very good sounding start to our week, but it can happen. Sometimes shop work, breakdowns, and other maintenance concerns can suck up a lot of time out of a driver's day. Hopefully this is the only time for the next several weeks that I will have to deal with it.

A last note, the spell check wasn't working at the time of this post, so I apologize for any and all misspellings contain here in.

Check-Out

It is check out time, after double checking that I had everything my car is packed up, and I am eating breakfast right now checking out bus schedules online for people today. I will be giving a guy from the Toledo area a ride home as well, just to save him from the horror that is Greyhound.

There isn't much time till we take off, so more once we get home.

Indiana Dunes: West Beach

One place I went to twice this week was the West Beach. This is a small part of the Indiana Dunes National Park. It is a beautiful beach, that some day I would love to spend a day at, the water was extrememly cold, but it is still early in the year.

To the right is just one of the many dunes in the park. These dunes are simply huge. To see that amount of sand and knowing that they really move as the wind and waves push them around. One dune has started moving over a trail, covering all the smaller plants, leaving only the trees and tall bushes visible.

This is definitly a park to come to, but plan to come for a full day in the sun. It does cost per car to get in, but is free after 6PM. While it was fun to get around paying, I really feel that there were better pictures of Chicago in the morning waiting for me.

Maybe this would be a nice place to visit during the Olympics in 2016.

Dust, Lots of Dust

My eye is better after using the eye drops I picked up at Walgreens this morning. The first one I went to was still closed at 7AM, but the second one opened at that time. They have a store about every two miles up here, so it is really easy to find another one if needed. I think just keeping my contacts out and using the drops will take care of it, but I still reported the injury to the instructors. Tomorrow I may have to fill out paperwork to get it covered as a workplace injury, just in case it becomes a problem.

This morning we went down by another person. At least he was just sent back to his school for further training. He can come back after he gets some more experience behind the wheel. Apparently he had just as many difficulties driving forward as backward.

Today's schedule was fairly basic, learning about the communication systems in the trucks. Then doing some backing practice in the yard. We also found out that at this point we are basically going to be hired.

I talked to a person from the training department today, they wanted to check and see if I could get myself to Romulus to meet my trainer. Since I would be able to park my car at the terminal, it will be no problem. Now I just need to find out when I need to be there. Hopefully it will be after a few days at home.

The word is that tomorrow is going to be a short day, so at the latest we should be out of there by noon. I think the first thing I am going to do is run to a car wash and spray all the dust and grime off of my car. It looks absolutely horrible at this point, and I just want to make it not nasty anymore.

Early

This is just early, I went to bed early last night, and was up early this morning. It actually felt like it was 5:30AM, not the 6:30AM that it actually is in the Eastern Time Zone. Until now I have felt like I have had an advantage in the Central Time Zone, coming from the East.

All week I have been watching Chicago local news in the morning, and the quality of the news is so much better than that in the Toledo area. They waste little time with annoying graphics between stories. That might be because they actually have a lot of news to report, but it still makes a nice difference.

I don't believe I ever located myself for everyone, I am from the Toledo, Ohio area, and am staying in a hotel in Portage, Indiana. The orientation for Falcon that I am in is being held in Gary, Indiana.

A last night, my last post mentioned my left eye being irritated by dust yesterday. Today it is a little sore to the touch, and bloodshot, so no contacts just glasses. I am going to swing by Walgreen's on the way to class and pick up some eye drops to rinse my eye with. Basically it is then see if it feels better or worse by the end of today.

Off to the dust bowl, I am going to see if I can stay upwind this time.

An Uneventful Third Day

Nothing much interesting happened today, we went over the proper way to log, securing loads, bridge law (length vs weight), and sliding tandems. We also got to watch a few people take their test from yesterday again. With the wind we had whipping through the lot, all the dust raised by the trucks moving around to back just covered us. My left eye is protesting a bit, and I may have to skip wearing contacts tomorrow because of it, I will have to see how it feels tomorrow.

Tonight I really felt like a steak, and since I haven't spent more than ten dollars on a dinner the entire week, felt it was a good time to locate an Applebees. We found one, and a major road construction project on US 6, just a bit south of where we are staying.

Well with a shower to rinse the dust from my hair, I am just feeling sleepy now. More tomorrow.

Day Two at Orientation

Today started off with dividing the class of seventeen into about half. One half went out in

the trucks to start getting evaluated, just to see where we stood in our driving and backing skills. The other half, my half, got to stay inside and watch videos. The first few of these were on the Smith System of driving. After going through it, I wished that I had seen it back when I started with Werner. It is just a few simple concepts, but when put together they really do make a difference in how one drives. Just another thing that someone thought of and is making tons of money from.

We took a brief test on the Smith System, watched a few other videos, then out to lunch. Once again I packed, have to save money somewhere. So far I am fairly far ahead on food, most of my lunches this week were purchased at home for less than twenty dollars. I have also gotten lucky in finding reasonable places to eat dinner at. Tonight I found a little place buried near the vacation and beach houses near Lake Michigan, called The Flamingo Pub. I had a fantastic Reuben sandwich with a good portion of fries for less than eight dollars, including my iced tea. This was truly a neighborhood bar, each person that walked in the door was greeted by name by at least one other patron. Then it was off to the beach.

I had already been at the Miller Beach prior to eating dinner. Talking to a person there, I found out about the Flamingo, and that the park stopped charging for entry at 6PM. They had several trails, as well as the long beach area to wander, which I did. I got to see a lot of girls in bikinis, and these were girls that were supposed to be in bikinis. In one of the pictures above you can see Chicago and the Sears Tower in the distance, past the dunes and over the water.

I got so sidetracked by eating and the fun at the beach I almost forgot to talk about the second part of my day of being evaluated. Once again we were divided, this time between two trucks, one group for a road test, the other for backing tests. Wanting to see how a spread axle turned, we were doing the driving test while pulling a flatbed trailer, I decided to not go first. The guy that did go first had a few problems shifting, and wanted to discuss this fact with all of us, so he turned to ask our, the three guys riding in the bunk area, opinion. Since he was doing around 35 in a 30, had just passed a sign that said dangerous curve with a 90 degree arrow, all I could do is look at him and point straight ahead, at the scrap yard and concrete wall he was about to run us all into. He managed to make the turn by jumping on the brakes and lugging (had the transmission in a higher gear than the speed required) the engine. I was more than happy to jump in the drivers seat to go next when we got stopped for the switch. Mainly I was hoping to get it over with before anything else heart pounding happened to throw me completely off my driving. I didn't do too badly for it being a completely unfamiliar truck, but I really did feel that I should have done better at it. I was happy at the finish of our trucks evaluation, that I seemed to be the best driver in it, which really wasn't saying a lot about the over all skill level of the group.

Next was the backing test, after getting a mulligan on the first try, I got perfectly lined up one space to the right of the one I was supposed to, I did quite well at the three different tests. I definitely feel that I was the best in the group backing, just due to the amount of time and tries it would take the others to get backed in.

The area we were taking the backing tests in was dry and dusty. The dirt had been driven over so many times that it had been ground into a fine powder that would billow at the slightest breeze. The wind wasn't blowing when I took the third picture, but the look of the ground can give one the impression of how dry it is.

In talking with the road test instructor, I did find out that we were now a group of sixteen. One person had been sent home after making the transmission in the road test truck go bang, none of the people in the truck knew exactly what had happened mechanincally, but it did seem to work afterwords. Apparently he hadn't passed a single backing test prior to driving, so they told him it was time to go. I don't know if it was back to school to practice more, or just get out, but he is gone.

That is all for tonight, I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

The First Day of Orientation

Today was a long day, we got started at around 7:30 AM and went to a little after 6PM. We do get an hour for lunch, and we found a really good Chinese restaurant, Wing Wah. You get tremendous value for your dollar there, the cost included hot tea, and a bowl of egg drop soup. The food was excellent, large portions and well flavored. The only thing I would have liked is for the spicy to be a bit more spicy, I could barely taste it for something that came with a warning.

We started the day with a paperwork process that would make the IRS proud. Never in my life have I had to supply three years of W2s to prove my previous employment. The number of different forms that we signed was insane as well. For some reason I had to study a little extra hard for my drug test. Even though I drank a lot I still had to drink a water and wait till around ten central time to finally be able to go.

I packed food to save money, so didn't have to leave to find lunch. After that was over we did several assessment tests to check our knowledge of logs and maps. I didn't do to badly with the log one, but only missed two question on the maps, one of those was due to reading the question wrong.

Tonight I have some homework to work on, it is planning a trip and then logging it as if it was actually happening. Shouldn't be too difficult, except the need to make a note of every single change, well it feels that way anyway.

Up Early is Easy

While I have to meet the van at 7AM to get over to the terminal, since we are in Central time waking up for that was easy. I didn't have to change my sleep schedule at all. Surprisingly I slept fairly well last night. My roommate does snore, but nothing like when I was training with Werner, they put me in with a guy that snored like a buzz saw. After I fix my lunch for today, I will head downstairs and check out the breakfast offerings.

More notes on this hotel, while the water pressure is fairly good, the shower head they have here cuts it down to nothing. Yesterday we found out that we needed to turn the switch on by the door to turn on the lights by the bed. Today we find that switch also controls a light on the wall that has no other switch to it, so you would have to actually get up and turn off the lights at the switch, stumbling back to bed in the dark. Fortunately someone else had already fixed this problem for us by unscrewing the bulb.

The Trip to Portage, Indiana

Tonight I need to be in Portage, Indiana for the start of training tomorrow. I have reservations at the Super 8 in Portage, and need to be there between 3 and 8PM. Of course I forgot the time change so I ended up leaving an hour before I really needed to.

Falcon would have paid for a bus ticket for me to get there, but looking at the two routes from Toledo to Gary, I would have been on the bus either over 7 hours, or almost 5 hours. I think a three hour drive in my car is way better than either option. The tolls weren't to bad, $2.50 from Maumee to the border on the Ohio Turnpike and $6.75 for the Indiana Toll Road, plus the cost of gas each way, works out to being worth the price. Falcon will give me whatever they would have spent for the bus ticket, I am sure it won't be as much as what I spent, but the time savings, and not being trapped at the hotel will be like gold to me.

The Ohio turnpike was nice to drive on as usual, but the Indiana Toll Road seems to have really dropped in quality since I last drove on it. Most of the lane lines were faded or worn away, half the time the only way you could tell different lanes was due to one being more recently paved than the other, so was darker. The more recent paving did not mean that it was any real improvement on the older road. Which makes me wonder how well this privatized public road will be maintained as they try and get their money back on the deal. Over all I would rate it as fair, since even though the surface wasn't to bad, it was definitly lacking in care and will need repaving over a lot of it, and again the invisble paving markings.

When I got to hte end of the toll road, I encountered a large back-up since they only had three cash lines open, and four I-pass lines (two for trucks and two for cars). Of course anyone that wanted to use those had to wait in the cash lines until they couldd reach them. I found that to just be a cost cutting measure that is trying to force drivers to get the pass to save time. It doesn't take into consideration the many drivers that only drive the road once in a while find cash a much better option.

Finding the hotel was quite easy, from talking to the instructors at Owens, it has been used as an overnight location for drivers for years. The age does show, the rooms are small, the carpets are worn, but it seems to be clean. I am rooming with another Falcon trainee, which was expected, but fortunitly he is a nice guy who is clean and human, unlike some trainees I have seen in the past. Of course to be fair, I have seen a lot of bad looking (and smelling) trainers as well.

Well time for some sleep, have to catch the van at 7AM tomorrow.

The Last Day at School

Since I managed to go through all the skills so easily yesterday, they decided to give me a different type of truck to try it again with, a cab over. To the left is a picture of a similar truck to the one that I was trying out. The first major difference is that it can turn a lot faster due to its shorter distance between its drive axle and steering axle. Every test was easy except the parallel parking, that took me more than a few times to adjust to the different steering.

Fortunately for me and almost everyone else, cab overs are pretty much a thing of the past, originally developed to allow for longer trailers while still being within length laws, it is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Regular trucks are much more comfortable to live in.

The one other person in my class who I feel has a good chance of completing the requirements, was the guy who was training with me. With me finished, he (T) will have an entire week of one on one instruction, which should give him a definite advantage when it is time for him to take his CDL test in Lima. The other two guys who have had individual instruction the entire week, well when they were there, will probably need another week just to reach the level that (T) is at now. One guy hasn't even managed to pass the three tests required to get his temporary permit, allowing him to drive on public roads.

Well I wish them the best, but I am gone. After talking to the recruiter for Falcon again, I will be starting Monday morning in Portage, IN with training. Everything is arranged and I am looking forward to it.

Thursday

I was a bit tired yesterday, and just did not get around to posting. So a quick recap is that I did every skill in less than half an hour, including doing the offset from each side. I also got to do some road driving down to Bowling Green, OH. Other than that a fairly uneventful day as we were trying to get the guy that is training with me up to speed with shifting.

Today was a straight road day, ended up going to all the small towns I have heard of and never been to. After heading south to Bowling Green, we went West to Archbold, then north to delta and then on to Metamora, through Whitehouse and back to Owens. We also did a lot of up, down, and side to side along the state routes between those towns.

On the way back we encountered a back-up where I-475 meets North I-75 in Perrysburg. When we passed, it turned out to be a Bobcat loader being picked up by a tow truck. There was no sign of where the Bobcat came from, so we don't know if there was an accident or it just dropped from the sky.

My instructor feels I will do fine with one more day of polishing. He has no complaints on my driving or skills, so will be ready to hand me that certificate tomorrow. I will be getting with the recruiter from Falcon tomorrow as well to find out what is going on there. So hopefully off to training on Monday.

The Second Day Driving

Today started out as expected, I was the only driver there, everyone else were taking their written tests at the DMV. With one on one instruction we were able to run through the skills tests quite quickly. I discovered that the parallel parking was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It turned out to be a variation of offset backing, which I had figured out yesterday.

Shortly after we finished the last skill, we got drenched with a quick moving down pour. We would have stayed dry if not for wanting to hit the restroom before leaving to pick up a student that had taken his test at the Heatherdowns branch. This gave me a decent amount of road driving time, especially after we stopped to pick him up I then got to drive on to Central, Centennial, and then back to the school for lunch.

After lunch we found one other student had made it back, the other was at an appointment for his eye, having gotten something blown in it yesterday. So we each got a truck, and were able to practice skills for the rest of the day. I also worked on my downshifting, since I had been missing the sweet spot during my road driving.

A former student that now is a trainer with Garner Trucking stopped by about mid afternoon. After talking to him for a little while I definitely feel that they would be a another good possibility for me. I will have to think about it for a bit, but I am still leaning towards Falcon Transport at this point. They both have good home time, and pay from the sounds of it, but I need to find out more about Garner before deciding.

Tomorrow looks to be another hot day, so I will definitely be using sun screen tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how many students are there, since we seem to lose one every few days.

Day One on the Skills Pad

Today started out about as expected. Though rather then the two not passing the test, neither one even tried taking it. The third guy had taken all three test but failed one. So none of them are able to drive on the road yet. They are however able to practice on the skills pad, so I didn't end up getting a truck to myself until around 3 PM. That was after one person had to leave due to dust blowing into his eye, a legitimate complaint as fierce as the wind was blowing. All three will be making an attempt at the written test tomorrow morning, so I will definitely be alone in a truck to start with.

I was able to complete three out of the five required skills today with no problems. The two I have to do yet are the right and left side parallel parking, if you think it is hard in a car, wait till you try it with a 60+ foot truck. The three that I worked on today were the straight line backing, the offset backing and the alley dock. I tried the alley dock with out instruction and got it the by the third time.

Tomorrow I will be bringing sun screen, since the heat index was around one hundred today, and on the blacktop it felt like a bit more. I did get a little red today, but hopefully will not add to much to that in the future. One thing is for sure, this is a lot better training program than the one I went through back in 2000, there is a huge difference in acquiring a skill when you are able to keep trying it vs. try it for a little bit then switch to another driver.

First Week of Class

On Monday I was surprised as to the size of the class that I was in, five people. The first time that I went to a driving school, the class size was around 15 people. Of course this makes keeping a two to one student to instructor ratio a lot easier.

It turned out that I was the only person that had paid for the class on their own. Two of the guys got it paid by The Department of Jobs and Family Services, on a special contract that gets them out in two weeks by getting individual instruction during the driving portion of the class. The other two guys each had another governmental agency paying for their schooling, though I can not remember what they were now.

The reviewing was good for me, but by Tuesday I had finished all the required classroom testing and handed it in. Unfortunately I was not able to get into a truck at that time.

By Friday I was going a bit stir crazy, while the review was good for me, the slowness of some of the others was getting annoying. Most of it seemed to be a lack of reviewing outside of class. One person had to drop out of the class due to an eye difficulty, so now we are down to four. Everyone was supposed to go to the testing center to take their initial tests in order to be allowed to drive this week. Since they were just reviewing again, I went down and took my Hazardous Materials test, which I aced. When I got back they were still reviewing, so I took an early lunch, did a few walks around the building, basically tried to kill time.

At around 2:30 I was able to get into a truck for a while, I just practiced shifting and one of the tests, but I felt that I was remembering things fairly quickly. Hopefully I will be able to get a truck and just work on the skills again, since it seems likely that they will be short on instructors this seems entirely possible.

When we got back from the skills pad around 4 PM, two guys were still reviewing in the classroom. Hopefully they passed their first three tests on Saturday so they can get started in a truck Monday, well wishing them the best. Of course if either one fails, then I will definitely get a truck to myself again, since they were both there for the two week course.

This weekend I got my letter from the TSA declaring me not a threat to national security, which means I can now get my Haz-mat endorsement. I was wondering how long it would take to get it, you just never know when you are dealing with the government.

Time to get some sleep, I will have along day tomorrow on the skills pad.