April 9, 2007: Day 10

NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

Aliens from outer space invaded at some time over the weekend and sucked out my brains!  It’s true!  Today was another all-day in-truck experience with John and Dan and when I got behind the wheel it seemed as if everything I had been doing right just on Friday was now turning out all wrong. 

We started on the lot with me practicing some backing maneuvers.  Didn’t do too badly on the blindside parallel parking.  Not perfect, but not bad.  Then John had me set up for a 90° back. Man, I even screwed up the dang set up.  Once I got set, it got ugly.  Lot of silly jockeying before I finally got it in the hole.  I couldn’t even seem to get the straightline backing down today.  Once I was in the hole, I pulled out to do an offset back.  Fudged that.  After much swearing at myself for trying to think too much instead of reacting to what the truck was doing, I finally got it in.  Then pulled forward to offset the other direction.  Oh my.  Let’s just say I am glad you weren’t here to see it in all its ugliness.

(for explanations and diagrams of the above maneuvers, go here: http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/pdf_forms/HSY-7605.pdf .  Look on pages 116 ff.  You will need a free Adobe PDF reader that you can get here: www.adobe.com .)

Once we were done practicing backing (or when John and Dan got tired of watching me), we hit the road.   Why was I missing as many gears as I was, especially after being pretty smooth on Friday??  Eventually we made our way to downtown Green Bay, and let me tell you, there’s a lot of tight, tight turns down there.  And much to my sheer delight, John seemed to know ‘em all!  He sent me on a route that put me face to face with a tight right turn combined with a dangerously low clearance, and as SOON as I got through that, I had to do an IMMEDIATE left onto a street that had a quite snug switchback to the right.   After going around a block of more squeezed turns, I discovered he was setting me up to make a right turn back onto that same switchback, so now it was nearly a hairpin turn eventually heading back parallel to the direction I came from – AND a utility truck was parked alongside the curb making it even more tricky.   However, no one died.   I remembered John’s #1 rule when driving a truck: “D.H.S.”  The PG version of that is “Don’t Hit ‘Stuff’. “  Let me just say that all I was hitting were curbs.

I eventually calmed down a bit and started getting a little better (I leave out the really gory scenes  lol).  Either John thought I had demonstrated some improvement, or he felt sorry for me, or he felt sorry for he and Dan (he never said why) but at lunchtime we stopped and traded places at the wheel. 

Cool note – John directed us to an awesome Chinese buffet, the best I have ever been to.  It seems that this is a regular Monday ritual for Schneider driving instructors because there ended up being 4 trucks parked there, complete with trainers and students.  Boy does John know his truck!  We parked on the curb in front of this place, and there was already a pumpkin there.  He told me to pull in behind him, and I asked if we really had room without blocking the driveway with the trailer.  He said he was pretty sure we could get in there, so I pulled over and inched up on the truck in front of us.  John said “Keep going, you’ve got lots of room!”  Somehow it didn’t seem that way, I thought we were ready to drive up into his trailer!  But John insisted, “Keep going…keep going… keep going.”  When he finally told me to stop “right there,” we got out and I’ll be a sonovagun if we weren’t about 18″ from his rear bumper.  TRUST THE INSTRUCTOR!

After lunch, Dan took over.  Now I have mentioned that Dan has some experience, although it was many years ago.  But you know what?? I think those darned space aliens got into Dan’s room too!  He was making mistakes, not as many as me, but he was making them.  Of course, John being the smartass that he is, was riding Dan a lot (in a joking manner of course).  Dan was up to the task and fired crap right back at John (also in a friendly and joking style).  I think my brightest point of the day was when I zinged Dan a good one and completely busted John to pieces.  It came down like this:

John was giving Dan some grief about some little mistake he made, and Dan said he was going to bring a small tape recorder with him on the next drive and record all of John’s comments on his driving.  Then once he gets out of here and on the road by himself, he’ll play it back whenever he has a moment when he realizes he could have done it better.  Now normally, I keep to myself when Dan’s driving, but this was way too sweet.  So I piped up, “Hmmm, I think maybe I’ll buy stock in EveReady.”   I got a high five from John.

All in all it was a frustrating day for me, but yet it was one of the most fun days I had.  I really learned a lot today, and the biggest lesson was not to get flustered; to take it slow and easy and one step at a time.   At the end, John handed me my day’s evaluation and gave me a “good job” pat on the back.   I think I have come to know John, his skills and the seriousness with which he takes his job (in spite of the joking we have), and I honestly believe he wouldn’t tell me that if he didn’t mean it.  In fact, my evaluation sheet showed improvement in several areas and provided some constructive tips on the next steps towards improving my skills.

After we got back, John sat Dan and me down and told us to take out a pen and paper and write down our homework assignment.

1) Get on the bus at 5:30

2) Get off the bus at the hotel at 5:40

3) Have all your books and study materials put away no later than 5:45

4) Relax, have some dinner and take it easy for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday is our Qualification Readiness Test, and a different instructor will be evaluating us.  So that means tomorrow is my last day in the truck with John. I fully intend on taking full advantage of the time and his knowledge and doing the best I possibly can.

Then I fully intend on remembering him, his calmness, his skills as a driver and as an instructor, his sense of humor and my seven days in an Orange Freightliner with one truly inspiring instructor.

We’re in the homestretch now.   I can really start to smell the diesel fumes.