The Training Diary Of Kemo - The Longest Road.

Thanks! we can root for each other! :) The support alone and to know that someone is reading these entries other than me is really helpful on it's own :D

I have to be the worry person. If I'm not who will be! he he. What is odd but seems like a good thing is if I am not worried about something than my guy is. And vice versa.

We plan on test driving which set up I want to practice in and use for my next test today once the sun comes up. It's 5:10am here. Woke up bout 3:30am due to nightmares le sigh. Maybe now I can catch a few more Zzz's.

It feels like a good day today. Yesterday afternoon we went to the test area and I got to practice the backing maneuvers with our 3axle side dump. I "self tested" the straight back, offset right & left and an alley dock with 1 ding for a 3rd pull up on the offset left. Then I spent a good portion of time figuring/feeling out the parallel park driver side. I didn't want to mess with their cone set up so even though the test area was maybe 5' short for the parallel I figured if I can get this thing in there with 5' of area missing I can definitely do it whether or not they give me the extra 5' (you get the length of your truck trailer plus 15' in the parallel). I don't even know how many tries I took to get it right. But once I finally did, I kind of like to do it correctly three times in a row as a rule of thumb. I do, each one actually looking better. I go ahead and go to do the alley dock again. First shot was perfect, second shot I think I did 3 pull ups (1 ding), third one was good 1 pull up. I go to try the offset right again, somehow I managed to totally fubar this pass. I probably could have recovered by pulling all the way up to the test boundary again but the sun was setting, I was getting hungry and home is about an hour away so we left.

I feel pretty good about the backing. Granted I passed on my first road test and seem to have it down, that last attempt at the offset right reminded me "don't get too ****y". Keep practicing all of the maneuvers they might test you on whether you ace it in practice or not. Need to get some more practice in on the downshift double clutch. Hopefully we make time for dry runs. We're both still shocked that we are still hauling gravel at this point in the year. Makes it hard to get practice in but it's okay, it might just go to pay for how many tests I might have to take since less than ideal practice is my reality ha ha ha. Of course I plan on passing the next time I take the test, but I did plan on that the first time too :P I'm prepared for the reality that I might make other mistakes and have to keep retesting until I can pass. This will probably be my last training diary entry, at least until I pass my road test.

Thank you to anyone who has read it. Now maybe this wasn't the typical diary for TT. But maybe someone might think about trying to train the way I did, read this and then have a better idea as what it might be like to not go to a school for training. In hindsight, I think we both would have preferred to send me to a school. In the past 3 years the work that I could have gotten with the Class A that I didn't do would have more than paid the heavy school fees. It's easier to fully dedicate yourself at a school and regular life doesn't get in the way. I look at it like this, the money that we thought we were going to save by not sending me to school, we've lost in potential profits.

Anywho thank you all for reading. I'm hoping some dancing bananas will be in my near future he he.

The one kid, reading his journal, took 5 times to pass. Although i cant amagine how he felt, im glad to have experienced it with him. Now if that happens to me i know to keep it up, get back in there. Dont lose hope. Sometimes reading TT, im saying to myself, i cant do this $##$. And another story comes along and gives me hope. Now the thing i know mostly is i have to try. I do see myself driving out there one day. And doing a damn good job. Best of luck to you. And let ur guy do the worrying for you that day.

Thanks again nancy :D You can do this too, all you have to do is start. Whether it's simply reading your states CDL Manual or looking at schools. Good luck Nancy! I hope to see a diary from you soon too :D One step at a time, I'm sure you won't try to hit the ground running like I did hah.