June 9, 2015
Day One
Wow, what an adventure! First impression… we definitely chose the right school, Springs Truck Driving School! Hands on from day one with instructors that are passionate about the industry and their desire for each student to become the best driver, learning in a manner with which they understand, is astounding! With that being said, my butt was in the driver’s seat within the first two hours!! Of course we started with a pre-trip inspection of the truck. No surprise Grant, already having a CDL B license, had zero issues. The definition of Grant Chermack is “one with vehicles”!
Somewhat to my surprise, I felt very comfortable driving a big truck. Now remember I said somewhat. Driving….day one…starting in 2nd gear, ‘creeping’ (meaning not using any throttle, just letting engine idle moving forward), shift to 3rd, creeping, stop…repeat, over and over and over…. It was just Grant, I, and the instructor in the truck. Since Grant got ‘in trouble’ for floating gears (flawlessly I might add) which translates to shifting without using the clutch. Which also translates to ‘one with big truck’, I got to drive the majority of the day! Six hours of seat time!
Going back to my shifting and creeping… I got double clutching down pretty quickly. Feeling proud and pretty excited of myself, announced I was ready to shift to 4th gear. The instructor agreed. So here I go…starting in 2nd, creeping…shift to 3rd… the big moment…shift to 4th…Woohooo! I did it!!! Oh, hell…dang it. I got so excited I was able to shift to 4th I started celebrating early and forgot to release the clutch again to continue driving. Stink!! Had to come to a stop and start over…from the beginning. 2nd gear, clutch, shift to neutral, clutch, shift to 3rd, neutral, shift to 4th. Let’s just say I did eventually master that progression! At the end of day one I knew this was for us. God has directed us down a path that led us to trucking. ~ Hooper
