My Journey Starts Today

One more day of night driving and I test tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. I have decided to go with Watkins and Shepard and scheduled to start orientation May 7th. I'm reading through threads in the Watkins and Shepard forum and also the "what to bring" threads for new drivers. I'm excited/nervous about this but I know I can do anything I put my mind to. The best piece of advice I have received and already knew from hearing my mother tell me as a child is to listen. One of the instructors put it like this "take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth". It's amazing how much people don't listen to simple things and continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

I plan on having a family get together this weekend and get all my ducks in a row for May 7th. I live 5 minutes from the terminal so I'll be home until I get assigned a truck or whatever. One of my instructors asked me what my goals were after I got my CDL. I told him simply to learn and continue learning and the money will take care of itself with experience. In reality I wouldn't mind being over the road for a while and then landing a local/regional job where I can be home more and making more money. There are a ton of great companies in my area with local/regional oppurtunities just need that seat time.

Thanks for reading, hopefully it won't be too boring but I plan to track my progress right here. Once I get out on the road I may not be able to post often until I can get hooked up with a good laptop/phone. I have a cheap pre-paid phone for now since I rarely use it.

 

My first hurdle is this morning. I test at 8 AM and I'm nervous but I know I will do fine just have to stay focused on doing what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks.

 

I am now licensed to operate a commercial motor vehicle without anyone in the vehicle with me. I PASSED MY TESTS!!!

I breezed through my pre-trip inspection scoring a 100.

I did a perfect straight back and bumper stop. I came in a little high on my 45 degree back and think I could have squeezed it in but I played it safe and took a point by using a pull up.

On the road test I got a scare right out of gate by having a car pull out right in front of me. I was prepared and recovered nicely and was breezing through the test course until the final highway exit we do. It has a short get off area and turns back up a hill in a tight curve to a stop light. You have to be down to 7th gear before starting the turn but not going too slow exiting the highway.

I got to 9th but was carrying too much speed and missed 8th I got it back and down to 7th but I ground 8th gear. After all that I forgot to get down to 20 in the 25 mph zone through the curve. I got one more point for cross-tracking slightly entering the winding road that goes back to the school.

I ended up with 6 points total between pre-trip, yard backing/bumper stop and road test combined.

The tester was joking around with the other students/instructors while I was at the DMV saying he kept looking for places to give me points on the road test and that I messed up that exit on purpose just to give him something to write down. We got a good laugh out of that. He said I recovered well and didn't panic. I thought I did panic a bit but I guess not showing it is a good thing.

I haven't finalized with Watkins and Shepard yet but next week I plan to get everything ready and start at Watkins May 7th unless a better deal pans out before then. It's not likely but I may have something local lined up.