July 14th Burleson Class - Journal

So as i was leaving the house to drive to Burleson, i was walking my bag to the car. A wasp flew into my face. So im glad that my last parting image my wife has of me is me hopping and screaming like a seven year old girl. Because i dont care if your The Man, who doesn't yelp when they get their eyelid stung. Okay, so that was a good way to start this adventure.

 

I arrived at the Comfort Inn & Suites. About to check in. Just a quick look around and i can see Waffle House, McDonald's, Subway, Chicken Express, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Wataburger, Domino's, Lins China, some mexican/itallian hybrid restaurant, Taco Bell. Theres probably more. I need to find the Walmart or grocery store for El Cheapo meals. Suffice to say, theres a lot of options. Edit..... i found a Brookshires.

 

Comfort Suites and Inn is pretty nice. They dont have double bed rooms right now, and since im the first one here, i grabbed the king size bed. When my roomate gets here he will have to sleep on the fold out couch. But i feel bad so ill tell him we can switch after a week and a half. .... there is a pool and a hot tub looking thing, but i probably wont use it. More importantly they have a breakfast bar. So free breakfast should help. ...... i went by the Millis yard. Its right up the access street. The gate was closed but i could see a dozen or so trucks of various kinds. It looks like a small place. .... i suppose in the morning they will gather us up in the lobby at 7am.

 

Day One Complete.

Harold, the instructor, is a class act. Sometimes you instanty get a vibe from someone that your with a good fella. We are in good hands with Harold.

It turns out we have 5 students. One guy was a no-show. Two people rescheduled for August. That's fine and dandy - More Drive Time!

We walk in, and our graduation date is already written up on the dry erase board. 'So let it be written, so let it be done.'

We started out by taking a tour of the yard. We got to get up in the trucks. There is an old white beater thats seen better days, an old maroon beater thats a little newer, and a much nicer maroon T700 that looks fairly decent. Of course they might not drive like they look. There was a moment that I thought was funny when I was sitting behind the wheel. Harold said, 'You look like a natural'. I responded, 'Don't say that quite yet. I'm going to hit that...and that...and that...and that', pointing at different obstacles around the yard.

It appears that we can give a preference for Regional if we want. But Everyone is choosing OTR. It's tempting for home time. Maybe someday. For now I want to learn all the ropes and I think I can become a salty ol hand faster over the road.

We spent the whole morning doing paperwork. A LOT of it. We watched a few videos. Then after lunch we went over Hours of Service regulations and took a few quizes.

The rest of the class seems like good Peeps. There's nobody rediculous. Of course, for the first few hours everyone felt each other out a little bit. But as we relaxed and a few jokes and some conversation flowed, it seemed like everyone will get along pretty well. I think things will continue to loosen up over the next few days and we will have a supportive, close knit group. Harold is laid back and it doesn't feel like a high stress environment. I think, unless I hit a few pedestrians, run over a kitten and run into Harold's truck - I got this!

The hardest part of this for me is worrying about my wife. I told her to be like a Frontier woman. She's strong and will be fine, but I'll still worry about her. I've lived alone a number of times, and had a traveling job climbing Cell Towers, and moved to Alaska on my own and lived in a tent for a year. So I know I can adapt to this. But she has never been all alone before. We could use a Millis Spouse Club where our sweeties could get talked down from a few ledges by experienced spouses.

One day down and all is good. I'm lovin it so far.