Started PTEC in St. Petersburg, FL

Well today I *FINALLY* started getting it. I got the offset parking down. Got it in the parallel parking a few times no problems, a few times with problems lol. Alley dock I'm so-so, sometimes I got it sometimes I don't.

Well this is the point of the course that stuff starts getting a little intense. We just started driving outside, still don't have our parking manuevers down, and yet they want us to start testing for our pre-trips by early next week, and in a week be ready to test our parking. AND be caught up on ALL the chapter tests before the next class starts. Keep in mind we only get about an hour, maybe 2, a day to practice parking because the other half of the day we are out on the road. No pressure. None at all.

The good news is that I'm smoking all the boys on the driving woo hoo! Jim and I are pretty neck and neck overall, but I got him on downshifting. He's a little better then me on the parking manuevers though, dang it. He took his pre-tip test yesterday and I'm going to take mine tomorrow. Everyone else, including my husband, are trying to keep up haha.

 

JP - woo hoo!

Shimmymamma, what happens next week?

123456 - I'm not sure what St Pete J.C. is but that's cool.

Sequoia - We do stop by the AAA building and today we stopped there to use the restroom, but we haven't gone to Subway for lunch. Yesterday we stopped off at that gas station and met 'Rosie'. That's funny about getting it between the trailers better then getting it between the cones, Jim said the same thing today! Well as long as I get use those pull-ups I think I'll be ok. I like pull ups!!!

 

vmaggs I was wondering what if any actual school work you had to do. Did you have any reading out of a text book or test taking?

I agree it would have been a lot nicer if we didn't have so much book work to do. But I think that if you have half a brain and are motivated to get through the course, you can do it. We got our assignments back today (the big trip planning thing she gave us 3 weeks to do) and I got 99% but only because I missed one little tiny small thing that I wanted to bang my head in when I realized I missed it. I spent a total of about 6 hours on it, over the course of the 3 weeks. Jim got 94%, according to him he didn't spend too much time on it and only missed a few things (not all of us are as smart as you Jim haha). Poor Mark... ok maybe not so poor, it really was his fault, he said he procrastinated and waited until the last minute to work on it, so he got 48%. I think I overheard him asking if he could get his money back for the course if he quits. I don't think we will see him on Monday.

I passed my pre-trip today, woo hoo! I missed a few things on the axle ugh, but I got everything inside the cab perfectly. After my pre-trip I hopped in the truck and started with my offsets and parallels and got them all, yippeee! I couldn't practice the 90 dock parking though. After lunch Al took us out and I got to get on the freeway a few times. I'm not sure what freeway it was, there were a lot of signs with a lot of different numbers (175, 275, 375). This was a lot of fun, because on the ramp Al had me 'floor it' and not shift (the higher gears 7-10) until the rpm's were up to 1800 so that the turbo could kick in. Then at one point I had to downshift to get down to 15 mph, go around a curve, keeping my trailer off the paint, then 'floor it' again to get back on the freeway. Yeehaw! I'm ready to start trucking!!

 

They are all 10 speeds but every truck feels and shifts different