The Catch-Up

Sorry for the lack of update. The last week I lost my computer hook-up, so I had no way to get things taken care of. Anyhow,

The last week of my training was dedicated to road training. We left the range behind and started dealing with real roads, real traffic, and the very real chance of wrecking the truck and ending my trucking before it really even begins. My road instructor's name is Paw Paw. I shit you not. Everyone on the range and even people in the towns we trained in called him that. He was a big, round, chain-smoking, and jolly old man. Along with him, there were three other students on the truck at all times. Our shifts lasted from 4:30 PM until around 2:30 AM. Each student got around two hours of driving time with plenty of breaks in between, so it wasn't that bad at all.

The first night we drove out to a place everyone called the shifting pad. The shifting pad was located in Jericho, Arkansas-- just 45 minutes or so from Millington. Basically all it was was a loop of surface roads on either side of the interstate with truck stops at each end. One lap around the loop was 14 miles. It turns out that as goofy as Paw Paw was, he turned out to be a great instructor. When it was my turn to drive, before I even turned the truck on, he explained the concept of how to shift the truck (which is so very different than shifting gears on a car) Then, I started the truck up, and went to work. Before we went out the first night, I was pretty worried about learning how to shift the trucks. Hearing everyone else talk about it, you get the impression that its damn near impossible. But it was pretty damn easy once you were in the driver's seat. At least, shifting up is. Downshifting is a bit of a different story. Though it wasn't exactly hard, it required much more effort than shifting up. But after 14 miles of shifting all the way up (the transmission on the truck I was driving was a 10 speed) and all the way down, I got it pretty well.

The second night was dedicated pretty much to learning how to deal with traffic and how to go about making left and right hand turns. Most everyone has seen an eighteen-wheeler turn at a light before and known that it was a lot different than a car. Due to something called offtracking, the ass-end of the trailer moves on a different path than the tractor. Because of this, you have to take turns extremely wide. On right hand turns, you have to take up oncoming traffic's turning lane, and on left hand turns you have to take the tractor all the way to the far curb. If you don't do a turn correctly, you run the risk of running the trailer on a curb or knocking over signs and lights, or destroying cars. So needless to say, the pressure was on.

Beyond that, the rest of the time was dedicated to connecting the dots between shifting, turning, and basic skills necessary in driving a vehicle that large. The title of the week on the road could have easily been, "Which Damn Gear Am I In Again?!" So through the week of driving, I sharpened my skills and I learned how to drive the truck around the city.

Then came Tuesday, my scheduled day for the road test. For some reason, I was incredibly nervous. But also incredibly excited about the prospect of coming back to Huntsville, having accomplished everything I set out to do.

And then it was done. I passed my test with flying colors and I bussed back home with a CDL in my hand.

And here I am. I'm still tired from this and that, so rest is definitely needed. While I was on the truck, but not driving, I wrote down a bunch of ideas and quotes that had been floating around in my mind, so I'll probably write those in here in the next few days.

Until then, I need sleep!