The further adventures of Texas-Nana at the Swift Driving Academy

Not tired of them at all Preacher Man.

Thanks everyone.

Well, I drove today for the first time. We were taught to straight line back and I'll be honest and say I think I almost had that poor freightliner doing the bunny hop. It seems that I ride the clutch, oversteer, don't react to the problem fast enough, pop the clutch, don't turn the wheel far enough and don't straighten out. The good news is that I improved through the day and I haven't run over anyone...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................yet.

My advice to anyone in the Phoenix AZ area is: stay off the sidewalks.

Okay, I'm off to bed as it's exhausting standing out in the heat here plus I had to take Grandad to the bus terminal. He's headed to Vegas to pick up our truck. Supposedly it's a 2009 Freightliner team truck. I'm rather excited and now know I MUST not give up.

Tomorrow I'll get better.

 

It's hot in Phoenix. It's very hot on the Swift Academy practice range. My face is a large red tomato. However, there's good news: I've lost weight, I drink more water than diet Pepsi now and I've discovered that if someone stands between an old, overweight, over heated, tired woman and a room of air conditioning she's able to smack him with her lunch box and strike fear into his heart thus causing him to jump over the ramp railing to safety and clear the way for her to get to the cool air.

I like the people in my class, have I told y'all that? They're such an eclectic mix of people and yet they all are so kind and helpful. Not to mention personable. I wish I could tell y'all about some of them but I feel it would violate their privacy and well.......there are those lurkers of this forum that are in my class. They're big tattle tales. YES I MEAN YOU GUYS AT THE HOTEL! They enjoy saying "We read what you said" and then laugh. I keep wondering if maybe I got up and wrote something obscene while I walked in my sleep or something.

On to the business of the class. We begin each morning now at 5am. That means I meet a bus to drive down to the range at 4:45 each day which in turn means I leave this house at 3:30am. I no longer do my hair or wear makeup; if we start any earlier I may go in my pajamas.

The truck cringes when it sees me. Seriously, it clasped its left front wheel to its grill and whimpered today. I laughed and then rode its clutch like a well paid jockey headed for the finish line. LOL

Actually I'm getting better about not riding the clutch and I'm sure the mechanics will be glad to hear it. Today we began learning the pre-trip inspection which is a bit of a challenge for me since it's difficult to check something when I have NO freaking clue what it looks like. (Nana please meet the alternator, alternator meet Nana)

However, I've managed to luck out and get a great partner for practice on this as he's a master mechanic. Also my instructor is great. He doesn't joke around or waste time but he is reassuring and builds confidence while teaching.

We also began off-set backing today and while I struggled some I seem to be much better at it than the straight line backing. That is I am until it comes to the straight line backing portion. LOL I did a lot less bunny hopping today and I'm getting more use to the tractors themselves. I'm learning to not be so timid with my reactions and to react sooner to correcting a problem. All in all I feel pretty good about today, other than the sunburn and the fact that I need to go study over the pre-trip inspection.

Talk to y'all soon.