A Learning Experience

Sometimes when we set out to do new things it can be really scary and frustrating. Back at the end of June I got laid off from my job. A friend of mine (couldn't be that Ron guy now could it) had been bugging me to learn to drive semi and get my class1 license for months. Once I got laid off I was told in no uncertain terms that I had no more excuses for putting it off. So I decided to bite the bullet and go for it, although the thought of driving something that big just scared the bejeesus right out of me.

I hadn’t driven standard since I was sixteen and that was centuries ago. Back then I drove the car about 5 times and managed to stall it about 50 times. I gave up on standard and never learned to drive an automatic till I was much older. Now, after almost 20 years of driving an automatic, I not only had to learn to drive a standard but to double-clutch the puppy too. It was very hard, very frustrating and downright scary for me. The biggest thing I had ever driven before was a pick up truck.

But I had made up my mind to do this so I plunged in, took the air brakes course and a prep course for the learner’s exam, then went down to driver services and took the tests. I passed my airbrakes knowledge test with 95% and my class1 knowledge test with 90%. I was ready to become trucker Babs.

I bought an 18 hour package and jumped in with both feet. Ended up taking 22 hours of road time and still wasn’t ready so I bought another 8 hours of lessons before they booked my first road test. I wasn’t ready for the test and knew it but my instructor insisted I give it a try and told me I had to face my fear.

I failed miserably…I went into a panic attack and forgot how to drive the thing. Tried to take out a telephone pole with my trailer on a right turn and had to back up in an intersection…instant fail and I knew it. The examiner made me do the whole route and I was so freaked I couldn’t even shift properly. I stopped for a light, went to put the transmission into 1st gear and hit reverse instead! The examiner pulled the brakes on the same time I hit the foot valve to stop it. And it just got worse from there.

I stalled the tractor twice, couldn’t get into a lower gear on my downshifts and then had to stop completely to put it back in 1st gear before starting driving again. The last 20 minutes of the route the examiner made me drive with the four way flashers on. I’m surprised that man didn’t kiss the ground when we got back to the parking lot. That was when I wrote the poem “Can I Even Do This” ‘cause I tell you, at that time, I really didn’t feel like I could. I was thoroughly depressed and traumatized by the whole ordeal.

I went back to the driving school where I bought another 18 hour package and they booked me for another road test two weeks later. The second time I was more comfortable with it and wasn’t scared of driving the semi anymore. I felt like I was ready and I was. I almost passed the test and if it weren’t for some #*&)%$ pedestrian walking out late into a crosswalk on my blind side as I was making a right turn, I would have. But my tires were over the crosswalk before I saw them through passenger window, so I stopped too late to pass the test. The examiner told me if the maroon hadn’t walked out like that I would have passed that day.

Test number three I had a real picky examiner and ended up with too many points. And today was test number four and I passed it… finally. Managed to get myself 10 stitches doing it though.

I was under the truck during my pre-trip and when I went to slide myself along under the tractor I managed to bash my head on something under there. By the time I finished checking everything under the rig my hair was full of blood and it was streaming down my face. I didn’t even realize it was that bad as it had only stung a little bit when I bashed myself. The examiner told me I was bleeding; till then I didn’t realize it.

He took me into the office and we cleaned it up. Turned out I had quite a gash and they wanted me to go for stitches. I insisted on finishing my test first so they did what they could and bandaged it. Then I went back out into the yard where I finished my pre-trip along with the coupling and uncoupling of the trailer.

My wound was still bleeding and the examiner again asked me if I was sure I wanted to go out. Darn rights I did, I wasn’t about to settle for a fifth road test. So we went out and did the route and then when we got back to the yard I backed up in a straight line and stopped. When he told me I passed I was so happy I could have kissed him. I told him I was going to go right down to driver services and get my license processed. That’s when he told me I had blood all down my face and neck and should go get my wound stitched up first.

I went to my doctor’s office because I knew if I went to emergency I would be sitting there for a minimum of 4 or 5 hours. My doctor is in a big clinic so I knew they could squeeze me in with any of the doctors there a lot sooner. The doctor that I saw took one look and said I had to have stitches. I tried to talk him into using the butterfly strips but he said they wouldn’t hold so 10 stitches later I was out of there.

And now I have my class1 license so I will have to change my name to Trucker Babs. I got it! I got it! I got it!!!!! Yahoo! .… Yeeha!.... Whoopeee!!! I passed my class1 license road test today!!!

It only cost me $3500.00 and it only took me 50 hours of lessons and four road tests, lol, but I GOT IT!!!! I think I am excited...just a little bit... just maybe. Now I just have to get a job and then it will all be good.

Trucker Babs

Trucker Babs, I could NEVER do this..would never even TRY! I give you so much credit! I drove standard probably more years than I drove automatic, so THAT isn't the problem... actually preferred it...only stopped when a childhood illness (Fifth Disease...nothing for kids; Hell for adults) at the "young" age of 41 left me physically too weak to even shift. It took me a year to recover, but by that time I had an automatic and have had since. I still have NEVER learned to parallel park and will walk a mile rather than try to! I also have a huge issue with judging distances...like whether I have enough room to get by something or park between cars, etc. Can't imagine doing that with a semi!!

So, did that Ron guy hold one of his persuasive weapons to your head to make you dive in and take this course??? I think that would be about the only way I'd even THINK of trying it!

GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!(and to persist with a potential 10-stitch gash in your head! Now that took guts...no pun intended!)

~~flutter~~

Trucker Babs ..... Wowie zowie, I love what you did!
And I love your story about it.

Spiced-up with your excellent sense of humour, your talent for turning out a great story is quite amazing.
You master the art of holding your readers' attention from the beginning to the end; no mean feat, that.
You have my full admiration for your determination as well as your accomplishment as a story-teller.

Huge flashing congrats on that license!

A truck-drivin' penguin ..... now what'll be next, I wonder?

Jane