Start school in the morning - Ridge Career Center

CONGRADULATIONS Wolfman75!!!! It would be great to go thru orientation with you! I'm scheduled to arrive on the Grey Dog at 3:55pm CST Sunday. We could start a Dual Thread. I'll pm you.

 

Day 48. The "kid", "big fella", and "old dog" were all present and drove today. We took out the 10-speed again today. I drove the first leg and got 41 miles today. Today went very well. My only gig today was forcing the shifter into 6th on a two-gear downshift when I failed to goose the throttle high enough. Should of re-goosed it. Pretty solid for the first day back on the road in 12 days. All three of us did pretty well today. We each got some good practice in the yard when we got back.
I did talk to Christine today from Con-way Truckload and things are all set for me to start orientation with them Monday. I got a feeling this last week at home is gonna Fly by. I'm ready to get this show on the road.

 

Day 49. All 3 students were present and drove today. The other two guys did pretty good again today. The "old dog" had two left feet today. That clutch leg just wasn't with it. I didn't feel comfortable at all today. I've about come to the conclusion that I may have had a sugar high. I've been fighting a dang cold for two weeks and everything had cleared up except for a scratchy throat that causes me to cough alot. Last night I talked with the pharmicist at the grocerie store and he recommended Halls triple action cough drops. Well I'd already consumed 4 of them by the time it was my turn to drive. That may not be it but it's the only thing I can think of. I'll just go back to coughing my head off again tomorrow. I'd rather drive good and cough than drive poorly and not cough.

 

Day 50. All 3 students were present and none drove today. Today was "Clean All the Trucks Day". It was open house on campus for all the folks starting class next week so we couldn't leave the yard today. After we got all the trucks vacuumed out and exterior washed, we practiced backing skills. Also hooked up and unhooked a few trailers. Tomorrow Morning we graduate.
Here is the overall Final Tallies for the course:
I drove a Total of 1816 road miles not counting the road test mileage.
I had 1408 miles in a KW 10-speed.
I had 73 miles in a Mack 5-speed.
I had 156 miles in a KW 9-speed.
I had 127 miles in a KW 13-speed.
I had 52 miles in a KW Automatic(10-speed).
My Total hours logged driving off-campus was 45.25 hours.
The overall cost of the course was $2700.00 which the State of Florida paid using funds available to train qualifying displaced workers. I spent about $200.00 of my money on: Dot physical, DMV driving record, and a couple other minor fees.
The course was a total of 320 hours. M-F 7am-2pm.
The Primary and Secondary instructors were excellent. We pulled a 45' trailer for all of our On-site backing skills training. We used a 10-speed Peterbilt pulling the 45' trailer on the shifting track. The shifting track is about .75 miles long.
With the exception of the road test, where we pulled a shorter trailer, every time we took a truck on the road we pulled a 53' trailer.
The lead instructor has been running this program for the Polk County School Board since the late 1980's. The second instructor was a career OTR driver and has been helping for approx. 7 years.
There are 4 classes a year and the typical class size runs between 5-10 students for Class A and Class B combined.
All the equipment is well maintained and we did not have a single mechanical issue on our road trips.
This is an excellent program to prepare a student for their first driving job.

 

This morning we went in and were issued our Graduation Certificates. We all thanked the Instructor and we wished each other well.
I want to thank each and every poster who visited this thread.
And I wanna give a special THANK YOU to: 123456 and Chompi. These two fine folks were always there to assist/mentor/encourage me when I needed advice. If we ever cross paths, dinner will be on me.
I'll be starting another thread on my adventures with Con-way Truckload. And it looks like fellow member Wulfman75 will be going thru orientation with me. So it may be a joint thread. But I'll check in on this thread from time to time to answer any questions anyone may have about Ridge Career Center. Everyone Take Care!