By
Rick & Christine.
 .
Behind the Wheel!
My legs were quivering like
jell-o, and my stomach felt like a butterfly
farm. My adrenaline
was pumping, my heart was threatening to pound right out of my chest, and
I was sweating those proverbial bullets, as I climbed into the cab of the
SIXTY-THREE foot flatbed truck and trailer combination that I would soon
be expected to drive (IN TRAFFIC no less!!), for my first time ever.
It was a daunting task and I’m not ashamed to admit that I was pretty scared.
After all, this was a totally foreign experience for me.
Christine's first time
Heretofore, the largest vehicle
I had ever driven was a Jeep pickup truck. And I’ve NEVER towed any
sort of a trailer, let alone a forty-eight foot flatbed trailer loaded
with 20,000 pounds of gravel. Driving techniques that you use
in a four-wheeler (that’s trucker talk for a car) must be completely forgotten.
Take for example right hand turns. When I drive a car, I have the
luxury of being able to hug the right hand side and cut close to the corner.
But if I were to try that
in an eighteen-wheeler, my trailer’s rear wheels would be up on that corner
crushing any people, fire hydrants or poles that happened to be unfortunate
enough to be there. It’s called offtracking, the vehicles rear wheels
follow a different path than
the front wheels.
(L-R, Rick, Wrigley, Christine)
Of course my instructor,
Lou, has all manner of student
driving horror stories that
he likes to share with me, which tie my stomach into knots. My favorite
is the one of the student who nearly crushed an older lady in a wheelchair
because he failed to swing wide enough when turning right. When Lou
sees the consternation in my eyes after telling me these stories he inevitably
says: “But don’t worry, because it was really kind of funny afterwards”.
Yeah, I can see how HILARIOUS that may have been in retrospect Lou.
But I’ve focused too much
on the negative aspects of driving, now let me tell you about the positive.
It is sooo cool to be riding so high up
looking down on everyone
else. I feel like the Queen of the Road. And when I set up
my turns properly, I get a feeling of exhilaration as I look in my mirrors
(people, I cannot tell you how important it is to check those mirrors often)
and see my flatbed following me around the corner in the perfect location.
And I learned that double-clutching is NOT as hard as it sounds.
I only have one and a half hours behind the wheel experience thus far,
but know I’ll be able to drive these “big dogs”, as Lou calls them.
And I think I can do it without running over any elderly ladies in wheelchairs.
Aloha from Fresno!
Christine
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Hey,
we know!
.
Allegedly
Art's
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Below
The Fold
Crazy
Talk
Dept.
Of Huh?
Eye2Eye
Fool4Love
Full
Disclosure
Get
Over It
Homoerrectus
New
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O-T-R
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