Burleson Terminal

Update:
I haven't updated in a couple of days. I didn't update last night because my wife and kids came down to see me and eat dinner, so we went out to a nice local place, visited for the night and then they went home again, by then it was too late to really give any attention to updating this, I've been running pretty hard so I just passed out. The day before I didn't update because I was so aggravated I couldn't concentrate on much besides just being angry with myself, so lets back up to just before that if we can.

My days are running a little together so everything might not be chronological. I know the last time I wrote, I was frustrated with backing. I came in the next day and I don't know...something just clicked. I nailed the parralel park, then I nailed it again, and after about 30 times, I had only screwed it up 5 or 6. By the 6th, I learned to identify when a screw up was immenent and to pull up correct it and nail it with only one correction. If I waited too long, my correction would typically turn it into a FUBAR action that coould only be fixed by just setting up again. Straight back? No problem, Offset backing? Took me a little longer, but finally it clicked also, I figured out what I was doing wrong and 9 out of ten times I could nail it with zero or only 1 correction. Once or twice it took 2 and once 3, but I was happy with it...Then Harold comes and switches stuff up. Now he adds the driver's side parralel park. "This one is easier than a standard parralel park" he says...yeah, right. I could get it in there about half the time, but it was crooked as a dog's hind leg, I went in too deep no mattter what I did...I'm surprised the orange barrels survived. You know, I would make progress, and then just lose it...Its like I've never friggen driven before, and its frustrating. So...Next day...everything starts out real good. I come in, pretrip, get the old 93 Junker Petey warmed up and lined up for some more driver's side backing, and what do you know...nailed it perfect first shot out the gate. Messed up a couple but ran it about 20 times or so and nailed about 70%...I was pretty happy and so Harold comes oout and says, "Here, let me run you through the whole course. So it starts docked in a trailer slot, pull out and set up for Parralel parking, complete that, pull it up and turn it around and set up for off set backing, finish that on both sides, then bring it out and around and reset up for driver's side parralel parking. When that is done pull it up and set up for a 90 degree alley dock right back where you started. Then do it again. After a couple of runs he decides to shut it down. "Drop the trailer" he says "And bring it up to the office." So I do that and he's like..."We need fuel, get your log book and make sure its up to date." So I go in, do that and you see, this is where the problems start.

Let me back up. My first day in a truck was learning to shift. I was in a 2012 Petey with a clutch conversion changing it to a standard 10 speed. That's what I learned on, and the clutch was so tight you just about had to be the Hulk to work it...but i did, got a leg cramp that hurt for about 3 days too...Then after half a day of that he put me in a 2013 KW T700 trainer that still has factory bags over the extra seats...I mean this thing was a dream to drive...Except I had never gotten out of 5th gear when we pulled out onto the service road, and I did a fair...not good...job. Downshifting is my nemisis, I can't ever seem to get that right, and since that screw up I have never been back on the road, just in the yard. So now I'm in what I have nicknamed the Junker. This piece of junk is held to gether by a miracle and a prayer, it runs, and it runs okay, but it shakes...rattles...and rolls, and it has a very particular shift pattern. Different from the KW and the relatively new Petey and I never gave it much thought since I've never gotten it out of second gear, I've never downshifted it at all. Its hard as hell to get into second, sometimes doesn't want to get in reverse, and is touchy as all get out, so now I'm sitting in there with my log book thinking...seriously? I have to take THAt POS to get fuel? So we get it, I drive it to the gate in second gear, and as I am turning on my turn signal, Harold turns to me and says..."Oh...by the way, this is a 13 speed." I'm like WTF! I don't even know how to shift a 13 speed. I barely know how to work a 10 speed. We hit the road, I get through the low gears, I hit the switch to get to the high gears, then Harold is like, hit the red switch and clutch it and it'll slip into 13th and I'm Thinking to myself, just do it...but how the heck does that work? there are 4 gears, then 4 more, then high and low reverse? Thats only 10, red switch to 13th. What happened to 11th and 12th...Oh well, no time to think about it now, accident ahead. Harold is like, slow down and down shift. I slow it down then GRRRIIIIIND, it aint down shifting. Harold is like, hit the red switch, So I do, and now I have no clue what gear I'm suppossed to be in, what gear I'm in now or where any of them are because I'm in nutral and reaching my 200 foot mark for coasting. The rest of the drive was worse.

I had to stop on an offramp because I couldn't get this Junk piece of garbage to shift and as calm as Harold was I think he was starting to get frustrated as well, and somehow we got the truck back, got it hooked back up and he never said another word about it. Instead, he set up the backward serpentine course, showed me how to serpentine back and I spent the rest of the day doing that.

I was so mad at myself when I left that I was actually starting to wonder if I can learn to do this. I called my wife and told her they should have put out a public announcement that I was going to be on the road and to treat it as an extreme hazard day. I was beat, demoralized, and aggravated with myself. I went home...my wife drove up with the kids to eat dinner with me, we talked, she left, I layed down and crashed.

Which brings me to today.

Today, I got up did the pretrip, got set up to serpentine back, and nailed it. I don't know how that works. Maybe when I sleep my mind mulls this stuff over, because every time I have a real bad day, I come back the next day and nail it. So Harold has me run the entire course and he is kicked back in his truck doing something, I don't know. I ran everything about ten times, and never had more than two corrections for any of the excercises, but every time I would finish, I would look over at Harold, and he isn't even watching. I was a little bummed, I'll admit. After all the screw ups and failures, I kinda wanted someone to see me consistently do it right. But not today...it seems.

About 11:30 Harold leaves. about 5 minutes later he comes driving back up in that SWEET T-700. So he decides to take me back out on the road again, at least this time I get the nice one. I end up running about 100 miles from Burleson, all over the place, then back. I screwed up. There were several times when downshifting that I forgot to take it out of high gear. I kept missing 6th and hitting 7th because I am used to the Junker's shift pattern. A couple of times I missed a gear and couldn't find it, but over all I think I did okay. I handled traffic okay, navigated a pretty serious wreck alright, drove through 3 or 4 towns with no incident, managed rural highways, interstates, city driving, stopped at Loves for lunch, all and all, there were some downsides, but I regained some confidence...the T-700...much easier to drive. Tomorrow we are doing it again...this time with a trailer, so I am all kinds of nervous again. Anyway, thats today's update. If I don't destroy everything with a 53 foot trailer tomorrow, I'll update again.

 

On second thought...after school today I am going home for the weekend so I probably won't update until Monday. You guys deal with this every day but learning it is not as easy as it sounds. I know that skill comes with practice snd all of that takes time. Before I came to MTI I was considering just hiring one of those "Rent a cdl road test truck". They promise to have you good enough to pass a test in less than a week. I'm glad I chose school instead. There is so much to know...so many skills you need and now that I have experienced how difficult much of this is...I know that nothing short of a full school is acceptable. Drive safe. I'll update when I can.

 

I will update monday...just wanted to tell you guys that today was awesome. 5.25 hours of solid driving. It went great. Trailer and all

 

I want to take a little time tonight to update a little, since I just returned to the hotel from a weekend with the family. I've always been pretty confident in my driving, and I've driven most everyting that can move. Back in the 80s when I was in the Army stationed on Ft. Hood I drove the 920 series of trucks and I know that was 25-28 years ago, but I came into this pretty confident. It didn't take but a few days to crush that confidence. I essentially had to relearn everything. The backing course, really had me considering whether I could do this and then when we took that ancient junker out and I did so bad on down shifting, I didn't have much confidence left.

But Thursday and Friday changed that. I bobtailed about 106 miles and I had a few bad spots, a couple of times I had so much of a hard time down shifting that I had to completely stop on an offramp. I was so frustrated, then I'm not sure how, but everything clicked on Friday. 266 Miles with a 53' trailer really restored some of my pride and confidence. I began to relax about the time we hit Waco, and the rest of the run was just...fun. I had a great time. Yes, I missed a gear once or twice but I was able to recover it.

One of my problems is that I am alone in this class so I have no one to compare myself to. I thought being the only student would be a huge advantage and in some ways it has been...I mean, I don't have to share driving time...But I can't see how I compare to any of the other students. A I doing good...bad...average? I don't know and that in itself frustrates me, so the only measurement I have is the one I set myself and I constantly screw that up, so Having such a good day on Monday was huge. Then when I was leaviing to go home for the weekend, Harold stopped me and said..."You did good out there today." Just those words had me leaving with a huge smile on my face. This week is all about driving. Wednesday we go to Waxahachie to complete my written tests and do the practice on the driving route for my appointment on Thursday where I will take my road test for my CDL. I'm not as nervous now but I know I still need practice.

I have already spoken with my trainer and he will be picking me up on the 1st...not sure where, but I will be on his truck soon. I'm looking forward to it. I've learned a lot in the class so far, but more than the mechanics of driving and all the classwork, I've learned that no matter how good of a driver you are when you come into the school, unless you have recent experience in Tractor Trailors you will have a hard time, but if you keep pushing forward it will click and you will do it and do it right. I am grateful for Harold and my time here and I thank God for the opportunity.

 

Yes sir...I understand what you are saying and I agree. My problem is that I tend to be a perfectionist...and that is not always a good trait. I study everything until I know it inside out...but you can't do that with trucking. ..you have to drive to get the experience and I'm constantly trying to judge my progress...oh well. I'm doing good and I know I overthink things. Today is the start of my last week of this phase of my training.

 

Another 300 miles down today, if you total it all up I have about 750 miles of road time in school, give or take a mile or two...If you want an exact total, its 301 miles, 266 miles, 134 miles, 24 miles, 12 miles in order from nearest date to beginning of school. Not too many problems today, drove through Granbury today and man...there is a stop light about every 200 feet, and I caught all of them. I guess I started getting tired, and started drilling the clutch to the floor, which activates the clutch brake and makes it impossible for me to shift. It took a couple of lights to figure out what I was doing wrong, once I realized I was pushing the clutch too far I corrected it and the rest of the day went fine. Tomorrow we take the truck to Blue beacon to get it prettied up then to Waxahachie to run through the Test course a few times and get some practice in so I know the course. Wednesday is Drug testing and finishing my written tests at the DPS office then back to the terminal for Night driving, Thursday is beginning of Orientation and my road test with DPS for my CDL then Friday is the final day of Orientation and back home until the 1st when my trainer comes and gets me. I'm pretty happy right now. Harold is a great instructor.

 

Okay, not much to update today, but what there is, is good. Today started off good. We went to Dallas to hit a Blue Beacon, all the mud and grime needed to come off, unfortunately there was a Werner truck blocking the access road. He threw a drive shaft on a Right hand turn onto the access ramp and there was no other way to get to the Blue Beacon, so...We headed to Waxahachie on 45 S. We got about halfway there and Harold remembered another Blue Beacon so we re routed there and waited in line for at least 2 hours before we got in.

With that done, we headed to Waxahachie for the practice runs on the CDL road test. Narrow lanes, tight turns and access loops to get back on route, made for a mess. You can't cross the yellow lines, cant get in the grass on the right side, its better to cross a white line than a yellow line...I did okay...JUST okay. As usual, I'm not happy with my progress here, but it wasn't a disaster. I did okay. Then Harold decided it was still early enough for me to get my written tests done, so we stopped at the DPS Office and I went in, did all the paperwork...again, because none of the info was entered the last time. Anyway, new eye test, new fingerprints, new picture, and I decided to go for my Tanker and Doubles/Triples endorsements also. I know I don't need them with Millis but you never know...ya know? So five tests later, 50 questions, 30 questions, 25 questions, and 2 tests with 20 questions each, I walked out having aced my tests. We returned to the Terminal, did the post trip and called it a day.

Tomorrow is Drug testing, not even slightly worried there, thats a test I know I can ace without even thinking about it, then report to the terminal by 3:30 for night driving. I would feel safer if EVERYONE just stayed home tomorrow. Then Thursday we begin Orientation, Driving Test at 4 PM, then Friday finish Orientation and I am done. So far, so good.