Cartersville, Ga 3/17 class

It's been a long week for me. I've been attending a class in the morning and working in the evening, not mentioning a 70 mile drive each way every day.
Class trainer's name is Greg. Greg is a lots of fun, pretty easy going.
On monday we did a lots of paperwork, getting to know each other, and in the afternoon we started on logbooks. We get an hour lunch break around noon or so. Classes start 7:30am and finish around 4 or 4:30 usually. Mon-fri
Tuesday was a trip planning day. They wanna make sure that you know how to read the map and plan the trip. Pretty easy common sense stuff.
Wednesday was when the fun started-"Millis 500" . They put us in 3 different trucks and we bobtailed around the parking lot all day long going in circles, learning how to shift.
Thursday was the most intense day for me and everybody in my group. 4 of us went driving on the road, while the other 4 stayed at the lot and practiced backing up with Jamie Millis all day. You can forget everything you do when you shift a manual car. If you've never shifted semi before, first time they put you on the road, you gonna pee your pants...lol. We all nearly did. We actually went west into Alabama and back over the mountains. Everybody got couple of hours behind the wheel
Friday was another boring in class day, but that wad supposed to be the last one.

 

Every once in a while tnroughout the class a driver would walk in and say hi. A potential trainer as well. So couple of us already have potential trainers. So far so good. Week 2 starts monday. Our hiring date is 04.09. Uf everything goes well, each of us should be on the road with our trainers by mid april.
Honestly, I am a little concerned about shifting. They made it sound like if you don't master that in the next few days, there will be a problem, but they also said that there were very few students that didn't have trouble with it in the beginning

 

You might've met guys from the group that was backing up this past week. My group has been on the road with Greg. Anyways, was Greg there when you came in? If so then I might've been there.

 

I will but you might need to tell me what Greg knows you as. Yeah he showed us some videos of the band he used to be in. He also showed us the spot where he had his motorcycle accident....which was what forced him to stop playing... and start fishing...lol

 

Thank you guys for all your support on here. Actually my shifting has gotten much better, and so has my confidence. My panic and nervousness is almost down to zero, and that makes me feel great.
It has been a very productive week once again. We were on the road every day of this week, did some pre-trip inspection as well, learned how to pump gas, etc, and last tuesday if i remember correctly- we drove to Eden,NC. Which is actually on the border between NC and VA. Actually one of Millis terminals where we dropped the trailer off is right behind "welcome to Virginia" sign, literally, while the rest of the town is majorly in NC if I'm not mistaken.
This trip was the breaking point for me. My turn was as we were leaving Eden. As we were leaving, there was 3 inches of snow on the ground in Eden already. Temperarure right around freezing point. As we were approaching Charlotte, the snow turned into sleet and then into heavy rain and then came the strong wind as well, which followed us all the way to GA. I drove from Eden all the way through NC and a good part of SC. This was a great experience for me and made me feel much more comfortable behind the wheel.