Roehl Transport 2/15/10 blog

Awesome, Dr., I'll keep an eye out for you. We're driving tomorrow morning, backing after lunch and finishing it off with the classroom due to CDL testing going on. You should indeed be easy to spot so if I see you I'll stop over!


I'm not posting on today, I'm beat. I forgot how much swimming laps destroys me. Today was good, though. 'twill come later...

 

Wow, slept 11 hours last night. Totally meant to post and it just didn't happen. But it's lunchtime again, so here it is for the past 2 1/2 days.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in pretty much standard fashion, though yesterday things were done out of order. Wed. was class as usual, then some driving, lunch, more driving, and then backing. We're using the testing box for our alley back and straight-line backs now, so we're learning how to deal with 70' parameters. As for the driving both yesterday and today, it's no longer "Oh crap!" moments as much as it is the two of us learning to finesse our driving and working on the small problem areas we are having. For me, it's not watching my outside mirror on turns. For my partner, it's not stopping behind the stop sign at intersections. The small stuff mostly. Yeah, we're still making the occasional slip and forgetting our pre-selector or something goofy like that but we are able to quickly recover now and keep moving. We both feel and Dale agrees that we could take and pass our CDL tests now. It's mostly just working on the little things.

This morning, and for part of this afternoon, the 1st and 2nd week students are being grouped up and the head of the school (whose name I'm drawing a blank on currently) is teaching us how to use a trucker's atlas and how to log properly. Being that I spent almost 2 months on this site reading everyone's posts about logging issues and trip planning, I had a good idea of what was going on but still had a lot of questions and this morning has shed a ton of light on that. I had no idea that the 14 hour rule was consecutive until I read it in the chapter of my book last night. I knew it was there, but consecutive... that's gonna be a thorn in my side, I can already tell. I don't even want to imagine the number of people it's peeved already. But it's been a real eye-opener.

Alright, back at it! Just fed the face, now it's time to hurt the cranium some more!

 

Oh yeah, how do you place an avatar? I've got the pic on my profile page now but would like the avatar as well and can't seem to figure it out. Someone wanna help me so I don't just sit here going "Du-urrrr" all day? Thanks!

 

Okay, Saturday was awesome. Claude had us doing every kind of back imaginable. We got a few hours in the 70' box, then a few hours doing backs and pull-throughs between trailers, and then we played in the close quarters training area for the majority of the afternoon. That gets interesting. But I finally nailed 2 alley backs without a pull-up and then got one of the dock backs in CQ on my first try. Very good stuff.

We started off today with a little backing, waiting for Steve to show up at work. Once he was there, we swapped trainers and took our pre-CDL test for Roehl to prove that we knew what were doing and to see if we'd pass the actual CDL test. Being that I hadn't had any street time since Friday, I was a little shaky on my shifts and ended up with 7 points total. Not bad, but I'm gunning for 0 come Wednesday. So we knocked that out and practiced logging some using a sheet explaining where we were, where we drove, what we did, etc., where we basically just logged it as it was written. Turning paragraphs into lines. Kinda tedious but rather beneficial.

The afternoon was a nice leisurely run 20 miles south and then back up again until Dale went home. Then the four of us started on our orientation, getting our Driver Reference Guide and going over the first five chapters on powerpoint with Steve fielding questions. It worked out well for us. Everyone seems pretty enthusiastic and feels confident about Wednesday, except my partner, because he doesn't need to worry about it. This is Roehl's "refresher" for him and he doesn't have to deal with the Wisconsin DMV at all. Lucky. But I know what I goofed on on the test and it was small and easily correctable so I'm not concerned. I know I'll pass. Decent day all around... It's nice knowing that it's the 3rd week now and home is becoming something that actually feels obtainable again instead of a speck on the horizon. We actually get to leave early even... Part of me feels like they should discount our training for that day because of the DMV being closed but I'm just excited to be able to go home even that 24 hours early, so whatever. This training has been worth the money regardless. The thing I'm most concerned about right now is expenses while in EVO 1. I'm tight on cash, and I mean TIGHT. I don't know what to do about feeding myself while I'm out there. It's gonna be interesting...

 

Well, it's done! I've got a Wisconsin CDL license in my wallet and a major weight off my back. I'm beat, though... today was busy, busy, busy. I tested first today, got done before 8:30, and only scored 1 point. #### McMillan... it wasn't the turn of doom either. It was the downhill left hand curve up to the stop light that got me because 5th didn't want to cooperate. But I'm happy with it. We went through tons of paperwork and set up our fuel and pay cards and hazmat certifications and got our pictures taken and got our hats and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't really remember due to brain fatigue.

So I'm checking out of the hotel in the morning and rolling right from Roehl when they let us out around 2 PM or so, so I won't be posting again until probably mid to late Friday, after I've gotten situated and gotten my Ohio CDL. I'm going to go and try to continue posting as I go through the EVOs but I've been informed that there's not much free wi-fi out there and I can't afford to buy it right now and I lack a wireless card thingy that would give me internet anywhere, so it will come when I have access. I may go the whole 13 days without a post, who knows... time will tell! I'll keep you updated as best as I can. Thanks to everyone for the support and the interest! It's meant a lot to me. Keep it real and keep the rubber side down!