Journey Of A Thousand Roads

Bwwwwaahhhhhhhh LOL

 

Good points IP and DTB. I can see where timing is critical. Just goes against how I'm use to working... Get it done now, no waiting.

I will have to adjust.... now it nap time

 

Lots of miles and hours keep rolling by. Got a repower in Pittston headed to "Easton" ME. Where the hell is that? I had to ask, got out the Atlas and OMG we're going to Canada. Well, not exactly , but #### close. I could about through a rock and hit the border. It was a toasty 7 degrees when we got that late Tuesday night. Got backed in and then the truck wouldn't start, had to find another Prime driver to pull start us then idled all night since we weren't sure what the problem was. (Turns out my trainers been having problem starting but only in cold weather). Dropped our trailer, spent the night and picked up another one and headed out.

Trainer wanted me to "experience" a full day, so I drove from Easton to PA, 10:58 worth of driving. It was a long day, but it went great. Spent another night at Pittston, got another nice shower, saw Dave from PSD class there and headed out to Atlanta yesterday. Got another 10:30 of driving in, lots of traffic, rain, hills, good experience.

Almost to Atl now, hope to drop the trailer and get a load back to Springmo. I talked to the FM yesterday and she has a trainer for the TNT portion already set up. He's supposed to get to Springmo next week. I can't wait.

 

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. It's been a crazy week. I kinda lost track of time...
Got to Springmo last weekend. Checked into Campus, sprung for a single after my last experience I thought it would be a good idea

I was scheduled to test on Monday, so Sunday we spent time on the pad practicing backing. I had done some backing in the last three weeks, but wanted to make sure I knew what was expected on the tests. (BTW, those online vids are very helpful in preparing for the tests)

Monday 06:15 we report for testing, go through paperwork and get assigned our testing order. I'm 13 out of 14 students, it's going to be a while... I head back to Campus, take care of some stuff, hit Walmart, come back about noon, they're on number 8... WOW, I ended up not testing until 16:30.... I guess I was too confident or something because once I got started on pre-trip my mind went to mush. They really threw me off by not asking for a full pre-trip. I wasn't aware until right before we started that I might not be doing the full inspection. Starting at the "Coupling Area" just threw me off. things went down hill from there.

I failed Pre-trip and Backing and was PISSED at myself. I had no one to blame but me and I had thought it was going to be a cake walk. It was a real eye opener...
I felt like I had let my instructor down too. He had done a great job of working with me and preparing. Everytime we had done a pre-trip on the road I was able to walk right through the entire thing and had it down. I would like to blame it on the solar flares last week, but I know it was just me not being prepared enough.

So my poor instructor gets me back on the pad at 21:00 and I practice and practice until my left knee is mush and he's tired. At least the weather was nice. You don't see too many 80 degree days in March around here I guess.

To make a long story short, I passed all the next day. Got my CDL, got through payroll before 16:00, TWIC, and new ID card. I'm now a Prime employee and a temporary resident of the great state of MO.

By getting to payroll before 16:00 I even ended up getting paid for Tuesday

My FM gave me Wed off to unwind and take care of crap. My TNT guy showed up on Thursday but failed his annual inspection with some oil leaks so his truck spent the next 2 1/2 days at the Detroit shop. We picked it up this afternoon, pass the DOT, got cleaned up and now we're waiting to repower a load coming in from KY that's headed to CA. WOO HOO, I finally get to head out West!!!

So, now that I have my CDL the real training starts. Now the journey of becoming a truck driver can begin. There is sooooooo much to learn.

Thanks for all your support everyone and to those folks that are just starting or thinking, hang in there. There will be ups and downs but work through the downs and you'll soon be enjoying the ups!!!