So....it took me an extra week to get my CDL.
I'm both thrilled and horrified with the whole fiasco. And fiasco is an appropriate word for it. The first two tests I failed twice, and the last three, I failed two of them once. On the actual, where you're driving with the person from the DMV, I failed once on parallel parking.
I'm sure you're probably thinking, "Gee, this is a crappy driver/student. Why would they let someone who's failed several times onto the road?"
Basically, the guy said that if he didn't believe that I would be a safe driver, he wouldn't have given me the CDL. The second time I'd taken it, he took me into a neighborhood with a posted sign that said NO THRU TRUCKS, made me do a U-turn (against the company's policy and the school doesn't teach it), then he tried to get me to make a right turn on red (against policy of the school I was attending). I was so nervous, well, button up, I killed the truck Three. Separate. Times. That in and of itself should have failed me. But...as I explained to him afterwards, I know exactly where I eff'ed up and why.
As for the tests, well....as a kid, when I wanted to take shop because it 'sounded like a good idea', my Dad told me no. His explanation? It was a boys' class. Little girls didn't take shop class in school. Bless his heart. (My older daughter is poised to take engineering next year. One of very few girls doing it too.) And without a working knowledge of trucks, like most little boys grow up with, I was definitely at a disadvantage. Left-handed, right-brained, and lacking a basic working knowledge, it really took me a lot to learn so much in such a short time.
The classes were good. The instructor was good. But what he taught me in classes, pertinent to driving, really had nothing to do with the tests that I had to pass, which was basically memorizing the book from the DMV. (And I still have that book, because I have to get my HAZMAT at some point in the next two months).
The classes were good. The instructor was good. But what he taught me in classes, pertinent to driving, really had nothing to do with the tests that I had to pass, which was basically memorizing the book from the DMV. (And I still have that book, because I have to get my HAZMAT at some point in the next two months).
Now that everything is said and done, I got my paper receipt for my CDL on Wednesday. They sent me a bus ticket confirmation on Thursday and I leave for the terminal in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on Sunday.
So this blog hits the road. Hopefully with pictures.
So this blog hits the road. Hopefully with pictures.
