Headed to Salem, Or

thank you for ll the good luck wishes everyoe, what o ordeal it was to get here! i'm in Salem Oregon now, Orientation starts in about an hour (at least that's when the shuttle is supposed to get here)

took about every possible way of public transportation other than a train yesterday, got on my scheduled Greyhound bus at 2:50pm Saturday, got into Los Angeles 45 min late at around 10:30pm, the bus i was supposed to transfer to filled up so i had to wait 'till about 1:40am for the next one, rolled into Sacremento at 11am Sunday, found that if i stayed with Greyhound i wouldn't get to Salem 'till at leat 7am Monday Morning, so i grabbed a taxi from the bus station and hopped a plane to Portland, OR then got a shuttle from the airport to Salem, then a taxi from the shuttle to the hotel so i could make it here on time, ended up getting here around 6pm last night so i actually was able to get some sleep before orientation today. well i'm getting ready to head out and wait for our shuttle. i'll check in later today if i can and tell you all how it went, luckilly the hotel has a computer i can use. 8)

P.S. don't have time to check this post for typo's so bare with me haha.

 

@voyager

i ended up paying about $400 out of pocket, but when i got to May i was told that i didn't need to do any of this, they said it would have been fine if i was late and should have just called, but i wanted to get off that bus anyway

MAY ORIENTATION DAY 1:
got to the yard, first thing they asked for was school papers, SS Card and ID as well as Med card and long form. after that, signed a few papers, then onto the road test, very easy test out of Salem here, After the road test you return to the yard and proceed to the northwest corner of the lot where you do your first 45* backing, upon completion of that you proceed to the obstacle course or what i like to refer to as *THE GAUNTLET* it wasn't hard (for me at least) in fact it was kind of fun, it consists of 2 straight backs, one serpentine back, one 45* back, and a long right turn around trailers, tires boxes, barrels and cones... and pallets on top of boxes lol.

You hit "The Gauntlet" in this order:
Most manuvers start with the truck having to back through a "gate" which is just cones marking an imaginary fence with flags on top of 2 cones marking the "gate".

1. straight back between trailers (there's more than enough room to back between them, the box is lined with traffic cones and it's easy to see your line)

2. 45* back after backing through the "gate" with a car at the end you cannot hit. (the car is a tire stood upright with a cone inside)

3. exit "gate" u-turn, drive back through the "gate" enter the long right u-turn and exit without hitting anything. (TIP: stay as far to the left as you can without hitting anything and you'll have more than enough room for your trailer to clear everything)

4. Exit the long u-turn and the instructor will explain how to do the next move which is a button hook left turn to set up for a Straight line back into the entrance of the u-turn.

5. exit "gate", the instructor will place a cone in front of the straight line back between the 2 trailers, you must back your trailer between the two trailers like you did in the first straight line back, but this time you must go around the cone.

and that's THE GAUNTLET!

after that we went to lunch at the "Home Country Buffet" i think that's what it was called, Home SOMETHING Buffet at least.

after lunch we returned to the yard, i finished some paper work that needed signing, and i completed my drug test. after all that there was nothing more to do, so i hung around the drivers lounge and talked with some newbies and oldies, shared some stories and waited for the shuttle to bring me back to the hotel. next 2 days should be nothing more than classroom and whatever else they have in store for me. i'll keep you all posted.

 

Oh, and to answere your question, i'd probably be John Candy