Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Thanks. I'm at 127.5 hours yesterday. Over half way there.

 

Here I am struggling with posting with a new phone. My laptop stopped picking up any WiFi last week after Laredo for some reason.

I bought a new phone today that has WiFi access but its not as easy or as fast to type with as my laptop. Going to have to find a laptop doc at some point.

So here I am once again waiting for yet another mentor. I'm in the Comfort Inn in El Paso Texas. Yes, no joking I'm waiting for mentor #3. It's embarrassing to say the least. So, here's how it all went down...

After I last posted about my original mentor I privately contacted a few people
whom have been thru the process or are currently in the process. I was feeling pretty stressed and wanted to make sure I wasn't acting irrationally. They confirmed my suspicions so I jumped ship with him. There are were some things I don't want to mention on here since I don't know who is going to read my posts.

I called my driver coordinator let her know I wasn't comfortable with my mentor and was advised to write a statement. I met with my mentor and had an awkward sitdown with him. The Laredo driver coordinator took my statement nd had a new mentor waiting for me.

He seemed pretty cool and was thorough enough. He asked to see my paper logs which my previous mentor instructed me not to keep. Luckily I maintained them anyway for the most part. Scary thing is that had I heeded the previous mentors advice I would have been screwed

Immediately my new mentor made it a point to focus on our difference in cultures and language. Initially it was somewhat amusing but my mentor found our differences more unique than I did. It wS a topic that would never quit with him.

 

ement.TWe headed to take our first load to LA. Everything seemed great other than his odd fascination with our cultural f differences. He seemed safe and thorough and clean. That was what was lacking before. I was happy and relieved. We dropped the load early purposely so he could spend the day with his mother, sis and other family out there. He parked the truck on the street near his mother's house, just down the street and we walked to his moms and picked up her car to go to Wal-Mart and visit his family. Initially he mentioned going to some adult bar area of Universal Studios or something like that. It didn't happen but I was kind of excited at the time.

We took his moms car to the auto parts store to get some parts. Then we went by his friends house for a while to pick up his computer tablet.
L
I should mention here what was to become a major issue down the line. He was Guatamalen and his English, self admitedly, was poor. We often struggled to understand each other as I am American Irish and my Spanish is so so. It's used to be pretty decent years ago as I grew up in an area that was populated with Puerto Ricans , Dominicans and Cubans. They made up a large percentage of my friends and ex girlfriends. They often spoke Spanish and Spanglish around me so I was used to it but I became rusty over the years.

So while his friend and him were inside speaking Spanish I stayed outside. He made me into a novelty as I was his new gringo student and this was the first person or many that he made it a point to joke about. It didn't bother me at forest but once it played into the rest it became excessive.

We drove to Walmart to buy some needed supplies including some new sneakers for me. He caught up to me while I had just picked out some new sneakers. He mentioned that I should buy some dressier shoes as we would be going to a club that night. I asked about this and he said that we would be going to a Mexican dance club and I would need to dress appropriately including some appropriate shoes otherwise I would have to risk getting turned away at the door. Hold on a second, I said, as I didn't want to go to a club since I'm not into that kind of thing anymore and if I go out at all its to a pub. I asked to be dropped at the truck instead. He agreed. He wanted to go dancing and he had done so last time with the previous student who was fun. Unlike me he had said. Fine as I bit my tongue.

Left Wal-Mart and he wanted to visit his sister. I sat there for hours in a state of Spanish incomprehension and unfamiliarity. It was uncomfortable and i was again his novel blancito and he made it a point to let everyone know. After sitting there for hours we drove around with his family until he dropped me off at the truck to spend the night. He had planned to spend the night at his moms house and I was to stay on the truck. That was fine to me although the plans were unknown to me prior. Soon i had to use the bathrrom, drop the kids off at the pool as they say , and I went tolok for a bathroom. Everything was closed so I spent an uncomfortable night in the truck with impatient bowels. Wasn't happy in the morning when he returned to the truck.

I mentioned the bathroom inconvenience to him and where he left me with the truck. Originally our plan was to park at a truckstop that night. That never happened.

His response was that he never had an issue with his previous students. They went to the club and didn't complain about anything. That was why he didn't want white students and only took "Spanish" students, is how he put it. I was in shock. I have a pretty thick skin but don't think I've ever been told directly that my race alone was an issue nor did I ever think that I alone represent all white people. I kept my mouth shut as I didn't know what to make of the stat

 

statement. I sat quietly for a while.

We picked up a high security load and convoyed it to Phoenix followed by a security car. It was interesting driving through the California desert. It was my first time. I found the newer looking casinos interesting. There was one in particular that I remembered seeing that stood out. It was tall, probably about 30 stories tall and bathed in colorful lights. It appeared to have a multi storied bar or restaurant at the top and it was the only tall building around in the middle of the desert. Interesting.

We dropped the load and my trained turned down load after load that was to go anywhere north. He didn't like snow, mountain passes or the north.as they didn't have Mexican food. Literally. Weird but that was fine with me. Not my truck or call. Finally he gave in and took a load to Massachusetts. He wanted the miles and that was cool with me. Load was dropped and we had another load from Conneticut to El Paso.

can sleep thru almost anything but for two sleep times he sung loudly and poorly. He whistled and yelled on the phone. The nightbfore he had mentioned that the window I kept cracked open bothered him. I closed it although I got the imprese was nitpicking me as he had lately been disagreeing with me on everything for some strange reason.

Me: "hey look theres Randys Donuts!"...... Him: "what is that?"...... Me: "its a famous donut place. It's in movies and on the Travel Channel". Him: "i don't think so, its not famous"..... And so it went

 

I figured it was safe to politely ask him to not sing so.loudly, at least until I could fall asleep. Big mistake. He snapped back that that was what he did, he wouldn't change that fact and if I didn't like it I should get another trainer. I wasn't expecting that response. Once again I kept my mouth shut, not responding trying to digest his reaction before responding. I never addressed it other thabn to say the next morning that it was ok if he wanted to sing. I would deal with it. I just wanted to move on and get on with things.

He explained that that was just what he does and he couldn't change. I just nodded on agreement. As we neareed El Paso to make our drop he stated that he would drop the load and pick up the next lqod going to Atlanta early.
He wanted to go to his house near San Antonio the next day to sign some documents relating to his citizenship test. Since it was out of our route of travel to Atlanta and not wanting to spend another uncomfortable day with his family feeling awkward and utterly bored I suggested that
aybe his wife could forward the documents to him at the next terminal or maybe he could sign them when he took his hometime this coming weekend. He stated that he also wanted to see his family despite that he was going to see them this weekend on his hometime. I said fine but please drop me off somewhere where I could spend the day while he visited his family. Drop me anywhere....a Target or Wal-Mart...maybe SN Antonio or somewhere I could wallk around or kill some time. There was nowhere he could or wanted to drop me. I had to go back to his house for the day or possibly overnight. I was on my 34 and was helpless. Well no I was not as I called bull.

 

I pled with him to meet me halfway, work with me here. No. San Antonio was almost an hour away. He wouldn't drop.me there. There was no Wal-Mart or other place like that in his small town where he could drop me. I called bull again and said I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I dealt with the family thing in LA, he had hometime coming this weekend and I wasing to be reasonable but I wasn't going to be walked on repeatedly.


He said, well if you don't like it you can get out at the El Paso terminal. I know he was testing me and didn't know how I would respond.

I agreed. He drove us to this terminal, pulled into the fuel line and I gathered all my stuff, once again, and got out. He told me to tell the truth on my statement. No problem. I did. I told him he should have never made the white comment. As I was getting my stuff out I could hear him, right in front of me, telling two other Latino drivers in Spanish that I was a problem student, the gringo. I guess he didn't remember or didn't care that I had an idea of what he was saying. I said no problem and lugged my bags into the terminal. He drove out moments later.

Ironically, as I sat outside taking it all in the driver and mentor that was part of our convoy days earlier from LA to Phoenix walked up. I had talked with them earlier prior to leaving on our run. They were nice guys out of Wisconsin. The trainer mentor said that he would take me in a second as a student. Made me feel good.

So another statement written and here I wait. Back to the terminal I go tomorrow to see about another mentor. I still love driving. I'm at peace when I'm actually driving and working. I'm half way done and just want to learn and get this process done.