STA - Day Four

Wow.
Our time here is just blazin' by. Its already the start of Day Five and even though I slept pretty long last night, I don't think it was very good sleep. And thanks to CBS morning news, I know way more about the primaries last night than I really wanted to know.

So, day four was flipping HARD. I mean, HARD. After a brief meeting with our in-truck instructor (I'm with Greg, Grey is with Jim B.) we went out to the trucks and got the day started. Jimmy was my co-classmate for the day and he'd never driven a manual transmission - ever - so his shifting was a little ugly but it was pretty cool to see how he improved over the course of the day. My shifting wasn't terrible but the bump & run to come down kept baffling me. Breaking my rhythm. Clutch-neutral, rev, clutch-gear. Ugh.

Anyway. We bobtailed around the yard in the morning, just to get a feel for it. Apparently I "granny-hand" the steering wheel and need to work on my hand-over-hand motions. Do-able, definitely. I was just SO nervous.

After lunch though, came the real horrifying thing. We took the truck and trailer out on live roads. For instance, up Rt.11 and onto the Carlisle Pike (a very busy road with shopping on both sides and rush-hours that last from dawn to midnight :P). I seriously thought about bailing when we found out we had to go on the real streets.

But we survived and apparently Greg had enough faith in me to have me take the highway back to the STA. So that's a good thing.

Grey and I are having doubts this morning though. He is having a little more trouble shifting than I am and I think his nerves about the future are getting to him. I know they are for me. This really does seem like our "last chance" or "best hope" and so its a lot of added pressure.

Anyway, its getting close to 6 and I need to scarf down some Cheerios before we catch the pumpkin bus.