Two People and a Truck

Today was about the scariest days of our recent lives. But we lived to tell about it, and we’re actually smiling now (several hours after the fact). (!!!!!)

This week the driving schedule took effect. We have book learning for an hour a day. (That sounds so hillbilly, but I have relatives in Arkansas, so I’ll leave it.) The rest of the schedule is dedicated to driving. Brenda had two driving sessions today and I had one. Prior to this we had only driven in circles in the parking lot. Today we traveled the back roads of Woodbury County. And that’s where the scary part comes in.

I suppose the fact that today was about the scariest day of our recent lives says a lot about how uneventful our lives have been the last several months, but our uneventful lives aside, taking an 18 wheeler (yes, complete with trailer) out on the road for the first time certainly makes for some sweaty palms.

We were divided up into groups of threes and went out on the road for about three hours. Each hour a different person drove while the other two sat in the sleeper and observed. (Watching someone else’s mistakes is an excellent way to learn, it turns out.)

When everything was said and done, it turns out that driving a big truck is quite a bit less worrisome than thinking about driving a big truck. We all got back to campus in one piece. Most of us had a lot of problems with the clutch and changing gears. The truck clutch is so completely different than the clutch in my Neon that I think I may have done better if I wouldn’t have known anything about standard transmissions at all. But in the end, in spite of grinding gears and some erratic driving, we all managed to “git ‘er done!”

It turns out Brenda was the sort of hero of the day. Coming back to campus (at the beginning of what passes for rush hour in Sioux City), she missed the turn off of Gordon Dr. This meant she had to go down to Burger King and come back up Stone Ave. The turn from Gordon on to Stone is extremely sharp (probably 130°). It’s definitely an advanced turn that’s even avoided by the DOT examiners when testing new drivers. But Brenda managed to get around the corner without doing any damage. She said she couldn’t have done it without the instructor, but I still think it’s way cool. I think I’ll call her the “Burger Queen.”

Category: General