Starting training 8-24

It's great having supportive people behind you. Seems so many just want to chop you down anymore.
Have a great day, stay safe my friend.

 

Thanks for looking out. I need all the help I can get. It's going well so far. I just wonder how nervous I'll be when I get the examiner in the truck with me.
I have faith that I'll do good. I'm really shooting for that trifecta.

 

Lord Help Me!!

 

Denver

We picked up the load to Colorado and got on the way. Time was a little tight but we can get it done no problem. The problem isn't the actual hours, its the DOT hours. Running your hours of service right is a tight rope walk with both ends of the rope burning. In the front you got the hours it will take you to get there. On the back you have your past 7 days of hours catching up with you. There is a sweet spot to try to stay at with out running out of hours.


The drive across Iowa and Nebraska was beautiful. Everyone says its boring and I'm sure in the dead of winter it might be. But right now it was Americana at its best. Rolling hills with corn ready to be harvested, green pastures that had just been cut. Windmills, and combines in the background. Like I said it was just America at its best.
The Iowa 80 is HUGE!!! No words can do that place justice. My trainer said there were something like 900 truck parking spots. If it wasn't full there were 890 in the parking lot.
We were pressed for time so we didn't stop. I have no idea what the inside is like. Hopefully I get to stop in there sometime and check it out.
Driving across country one of the biggest things that stands out to me is that rest areas in Arkansas are very lacking. Iowa, Ohio and Illinois have some great facilities. Illinois even has the ones that are bridges across the interstate. Seeing kids play at the McDonalds above you is a pretty cool thing to see driving down the road.
Our appointment time was 0800. I arrived about 0200 that morning. Found a place out of the way and parked the truck. I woke up at 0700 and another truck had snuck in and backed into the dock. I guess that proves that I was one tired puppy when I get there. I never heard the other truck pull in. But it may have been that I was use to the LOUD refer we picked up this time. Man it was horrible. We got unloaded about 1000 and headed to a nearby Petro for fuel and showers. Got those nocked out and dispatched to Memphis.
Got a few hours of sleep, picked up the load at the Denver Prime yard and headed out. I didn't have much left on my clock but I wanted to get a good jump on the next day and get out of the city traffic. Pulled over about 1900 and bedded down for the night.

 

Well I just made it into Kansas before I shut down after leaving Denver. Again the rest area is way better than anything in Arkansas. ARKANSAS STEP UP YOUR GAME!! Come on Walton's we need some nice rest areas. While your at it can you do something about Int40 towards West Memphis. That this is worse than a lot of dirt roads I've been on.
We drove 70 to St Louis then down 55 to Memphis. Interstate 70 not 70 MPH. The trip was pretty un eventful. It rained the WHOLE time. I just wanted to pull over and take a nap. Driving in the rain is no fun. Makes me a little more tired than I normally would be and makes the roads slick. It rained all the way across Kansas and to St Louis. Once we headed south we drive out of it. Made it just south of St Louis and stopped there for the night. Back up around 0500 and on the road again. South bound and down!!!
Arrive at the receiver about 1100 unloaded by 1200. We find a place to park and have a little lunch. I forgot to mention that I had talked to my fleet manager about coming in to test. He said that he would get us in pretty quickly. While we were eating we got a dispatch from Memphis to Denver. UGHH this means I'm not going in to test. I'm not gonna lie I was a little disheartened. But this is the game I signed up to play, lets play.
A few minutes later a message comes over the qualcomm that we were to take the load to Springfield and drop it at the yard. It would be getting repowered and I would be testing Monday or Tuesday. It just got real!!!
I had been studying everyday, every chance I got. I took Shaw in the simlab's advise. Study the pretrip until you are sick of it then keep studying it. But now I have a deadline. I know it inside and out can do it without even looking at the truck, just visualize the whole thing. My confidence went from high to OH LORD!!!!

 

We picked up the load Sat 10-24 and headed to Springfield. We didn't leave the receiver until about 1300 so that puts us in Springfield late sat night. Got there and inbound was PACKED!! not just a little but a lot. Four lanes open and trucks can't even get into the gate. My instructor said you need to go get checked in to the campus and get some rest. So thats what I did.
I had a friend there that was testing Sunday. He was on the pad so he reserved me some pad time for Sunday. At this point I wasn't sure if I was testing Monday or Tuesday. Either way I had some work to put in before it got here. Never since the first time I slept at Campus would I have ever told you I was happy to be in one of there beds. Well that night I was. The top bunk wasn't bad in the truck but it did get cramped. I slept like a baby.
Pad time was at 1000 the next morning. We got there about 0900 and did a couple of pretrips. They went pretty well. My verbiage will never be exactly what is on the paper. I'm a big ad-libber. LOL Once on the pad I didn't even do a straightline. Straight to offsets. They went pretty well I slowed way down and did them by the numbers. never used a point on any of them. On to the parallel. These maneuvers are spawns of satan himself!!! 95% of the general public can't parallel park a car and you expect me to do what with that big truck? I had done then quit a bit before we left to go on the road for PSD. I felt pretty comfortable with them but knew I would use a point or two. The first one was horrible I didn't give up on it because you can't do that in the test. I got it in there but used like 5 or 6 points. It was like the first time you had sex, not pretty at all but by God you got it in there.
Next was the alley dock. BRING IT ON!! I love these. Most of the time I can get them in with only one pull up. Sometimes without a pullup. I did three in a row two with no pullups one with one. At this point I'm no ####y in them I just know I can do them. No need to beat a dead horse and run the chance of learning a bad habit. Did a few more parallels and some offsets. Done with the pad for the day. After that we drove the road courses several times. From what I was told there are 4 different courses you can be taken on. Basically just mind your P's and Q's and drive the truck like you know how.
A few tricky areas with crosswalks in corners and stuff like that. Other than that just driver, driver.
I found out that I wasn't on the list to test monday, I was on for tuesday. So more pad time and driving monday. It was kind of the same as sunday. Don't do to much just do enough to keep my skills up. Don't ever do it and cause me to over think. I ended every backing session on a good note. Back to the campus to get a good nights rest before test day.

 

We picked up the load Sat 10-24 and headed to Springfield. We didn't leave the receiver until about 1300 so that puts us in Springfield late sat night. Got there and inbound was PACKED!! not just a little but a lot. Four lanes open and trucks can't even get into the gate. My instructor said you need to go get checked in to the campus and get some rest. So thats what I did.
I had a friend there that was testing Sunday. He was on the pad so he reserved me some pad time for Sunday. At this point I wasn't sure if I was testing Monday or Tuesday. Either way I had some work to put in before it got here. Never since the first time I slept at Campus would I have ever told you I was happy to be in one of there beds. Well that night I was. The top bunk wasn't bad in the truck but it did get cramped. I slept like a baby.
Pad time was at 1000 the next morning. We got there about 0900 and did a couple of pretrips. They went pretty well. My verbiage will never be exactly what is on the paper. I'm a big ad-libber. LOL Once on the pad I didn't even do a straightline. Straight to offsets. They went pretty well I slowed way down and did them by the numbers. never used a point on any of them. On to the parallel. These maneuvers are spawns of satan himself!!! 95% of the general public can't parallel park a car and you expect me to do what with that big truck? I had done then quit a bit before we left to go on the road for PSD. I felt pretty comfortable with them but knew I would use a point or two. The first one was horrible I didn't give up on it because you can't do that in the test. I got it in there but used like 5 or 6 points. It was like the first time you had sex, not pretty at all but by God you got it in there.
Next was the alley dock. BRING IT ON!! I love these. Most of the time I can get them in with only one pull up. Sometimes without a pullup. I did three in a row two with no pullups one with one. At this point I'm no ####y in them I just know I can do them. No need to beat a dead horse and run the chance of learning a bad habit. Did a few more parallels and some offsets. Done with the pad for the day. After that we drove the road courses several times. From what I was told there are 4 different courses you can be taken on. Basically just mind your P's and Q's and drive the truck like you know how.
A few tricky areas with crosswalks in corners and stuff like that. Other than that just driver, driver.
I found out that I wasn't on the list to test monday, I was on for tuesday. So more pad time and driving monday. It was kind of the same as sunday. Don't do to much just do enough to keep my skills up. Don't ever do it and cause me to over think. I ended every backing session on a good note. Back to the campus to get a good nights rest before test day.