Ok folks, I just had a nice long talk with ORG. He's doing great and is happy with his choice. He has a good mentor with 4 years under him and is driving a 2010 International 8 speed. He now has 70 hours driving in. They're stopped in Mass right now. He's been running mostly East coast with a trip or two out to Indinapolis and back. He's says he's learning well but was surprised at how much he lost in the down time between school and now. He's done roughly 8 or 10 backs in truck stops and says it's coming back to him. He's doing the pre-trips and even caught a test by his mentor (the guy pulled the 5th wheel handle...lol) He sounds bright and upbeat and is having fun!! Told me about one scary moment he had when coming down a mountain in the rain (so no jake) pulling paper rolls. A lady cut him off and he breaked a little hard and started to jack knife but released the breaks and pulled out of it fine. Tells me his mentor was impressed and said..."Man...you've got B***S!" LOL He says getting used to the shift pattern for the 8 speed versus the 10 he learned on is a little tricky but he's getting it. Reverse is his biggest hicup right now. It of course, is opposite from the 10...LOL So, he wants to thank everyone for being here and supporting him and is amazed how many posts are here. I sort of guilted him into trying harder to post now. He has his laptop but didn't know he could buy 60 minutes of internet at truck stops for a couple bucks, So I told him so....LOL SO with any luck, we'll hear from him within a couple days...
Good deal! I had my laptop with me for the whole six weeks and NEVER found the time or energy to get it out. Glad to hear he's doing well!
I kind of came to this party late. In early August I picked up ORG's original newbie thread and read the whole thing in a couple days. I hope ORG and others will continue to post throughout ORG's learning experience. Here are some things that I'd sure be interested to hear more on from ORG's perspective. He's a good communicator and from his previous job is pretty detail oriented. His up-front writing style is easy to read and understand. For ORG? How is personal hygiene working compared to what you were expecting ORG? I'm sure others will have things that they want to know as well. We're all glad to know you're out there ORG and glad for the report you're doing well. A kind of a committee has formed to watch your progress and is always supporting you. Count me in on that one. On a personal note...There are several curious parallels between ORG's early posts and my own personal path. The only exception is I drove about 20 years ago. Beyond that, ORG is pretty much of a trailblazer for what may be in my near term horizon (90 day). Certainly hope I'm not hijacking this thread and am still learning my way around. I'm watching for all the messages on this and ORG's original thread and a couple others. Merlin
Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Merlin. Don't worry. All of us ORG supporters are guilty of a little hijacking from time to time. Keeps us busy and out of trouble. Isn't that right Sammycat? And besides, we've left him some decent reading. He'll appreciate it once he gets settled into his own tractor.
I'll second that Welcome Merlin! Wedge- Who's guilty of hijacking threads????? *snickers* Okay Okay ORG when you read these hundreds of post you will know why on OCCASION we hijacked a ''little'' but always brought it back on topic which on TTR when you start surfing some of the other thread will find these is a consortium of member's on the TTR Hijack team!!! LOL!! We's just having a little fun to sort of quote Texas-Nana and bring some pie!! Chris Thanks so much for the update on ORG and how he's doing! Wow he does have the following to have so many people that ''worried'' about his welfare and it's great to hear that he is fine just that busy and his trainer sounds great!!!!
Thanks for the update Chris. Glad he is having fun and learning too. I think when he reads his thread he'll be amused at our conversations about him. At least he will know there are folks out here who care about his well being and want to see him succeed.
I'm gonna run out to the grand canyon with Forest. We should be back in a week or two. Let me know if I miss anything here !!! Thanx............................
