Start school in the morning - Ridge Career Center

Yep. Lake Panasoffkee at I-75 for the night drives. Tess is still hot! Gotta love those prices at the Pioneer restraunt too!

 

Day 33. All 4 class A students were present and drove today. Really heavy fog today that didn't burn off 'til about 9:30am. The "magician" and I drove the 13 speed again today. I took it out of the gate at 8:30am so my first hour was in heavy fog. The lead instructor asked me right off if I wanted to drive it as a 13-speed or a 9-speed and I told him I'd rather drive it as a 9-speed and focus on the fog. And he was cool with that. In my judgement, conditions were just too dangerous to try something foreign. Drove down Hwy 27 south to Lk. Wales and took Hwy 60 West thru Bartow, Mulberry, and to Plant City. Then took Hwy 39 north up to Alexander street. We stopped at Fred's Market and had brunch and the driver change. The "magician" drove the same route back. The drive went very well for both of us today. The "magician" had clear visibility and got to drive the truck most of the way as a 13-speed. I watched closely and it appears to be pretty simple. Just need to remember to keep sliding that little red switch forward and back in all the high range gears. Overall another good day with one exception. On the way back about noon, we saw the aftermath of a wreck at a traffic light on US Hwy 27 in Dundee. A tractor pulling a full trailer of oranges hit a school bus!!! Both vehicles were upright. The tractor's hood was smashed and couldn't see the side of the bus that got hit. The two vehicles were sitting next too each other facing opposite directions in the southbound lanes of US Hwy 27. Looks like the bus must have been coming into the intersection from the side street and the Tractor hit the side of the bus towards the rear basically causing the bus to pivot 90*. I have no idea when the accident occurred or the condition of those involved. Hoping everyone is OK.

PS: Forgot to mention that the "Big Fella" is on the verge of heading to Prime on the truck of an O/O. Apparantly this O/O has some pretty good pull at Prime. If the final bit of paper work goes thru, the O/O and the "Big Fella" are gonna head up to Springfield. Once he goes thru orientation, they're heading out together. The O/O is gonna supplement the "Big Fella"s income in addition to the training wages he'll earn directly from Prime. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for a newbie.

 

Day 34. All 4 class A students were present and drove today. It was really foggy again this morning. The "magician" and I drove the 10-speed today. The "magician" took it out the gate today and I brought it back to the barn. Took me a few minutes to get adjusted from the 13-speed back to the 10-speed. But I settled in pretty well after a bit.

 

I tallied up my hours and mileage to date. 1009 road miles. 26.00 road hours. 20 days with road mileage.

 

Day 35. I was absent from school today. I went to an interview with a potential employer. I found their Required 1 year Contract, with significant penalties for not completing 1 year of service after going solo, to be unacceptable to me. I'll be back to school tomorrow.

 

Day 36. All 4 class A students were present and drove today. Today was a little different. The "magician" and I took the 10-speed out today WITHOUT an instructor in the truck. The lead instructor had to cover the Deisel Mechanics class. So the second instructor went out with the "kid" and the "big fella" in a KW Automatic. The "magician" took it out the gate and did pretty solid today and I brought it back to the barn and did well with one HUGE exception. I made an absolute B-O-N-E-H-E-A-D decision today that WILL NOT be repeated!
I tried to make a turn that I should have NEVER attempted. I was faced with a left turn from a left turning lane on a 4-lane state highway onto a two-lane (stop signed) county road. Of course I had the right of way in relation to traffic on the county road. BUT there was a car stopped at the county road waiting to make a left turn. Two-Thirds of the car was past the white line that they're required by law to stop at. I foolishly attempt to make this turn. I ran well up onto the curbing on the right side and checking my driver's side mirror I noticed that I WAS still gonna run over the front of this car with my trailer tandems. So I stopped and the car then made the evasive manuever necessary for me to complete the turn. This car that had Two-Thirds of his car PAST the white line was Beige and Black in color! FHP painted on the doors! And of course, the light show on the top!!! I watched my mirrors for a good 5 miles expecting the worst but miraculously he didn't come after me!! I KNOW I would have been 100% at fault if I hadn't stopped to prevent the impending accident. I just gotta wonder if him being Two-Thirds past that stop line played into him not lighting me up. I guess I'll never know. LESSON LEARNED!!!!!!!!

 

Day 37. All 4 class A students were present and drove today. The "magician and I" took out a KW Sleeper Automatic today for the first time. B-O-R-I-N-G!! With this Automatic you only use the clutch to start and stop. I hope we only drive this truck a time or two. I wanna stay sharp on my shifting coordination/skills.

I started filling out on-line apps. this weekend. Results so far:
KLLM said they don't hire student graduates from Florida;
A Trans Am rep contacted me and they seem interested so far and are working on my app..
A Comcar rep sent me an e-mail to call her and we have been playing phone tag all afternoon. I sent an app. into their OTR division WSE.
I called Con-way Truckload. I had filled out an app. with them back in November when I was considering going to their Company sponsored CDL program. I got to talk to Christine again. She said I didn't need to fill out another app. and she asked me about the school I'm attending. Then she went ahead and scheduled me for an orientation date of 3/28/11 in Joplin. Missouri. She said she'd call back in a week to do a phone interview.
I sent an app. in to Roehl and haven't got a response from them yet.
I sent an app. in to Service Trucking inc. and haven't got a response from them either.
I called Heyl and spoke to their rep. She said they DO hire from my area but you have to have a minimum of 6 months OTR experience. They've got a terminal about 40 minutes away in Zephyrhills.