9-16-06 - Saturday - Update

I took the picture below early this evening. It snowed in the mountains today. The temperature dropped through the floor and it was a beautiful Fall day. I love Fall!



Snow on the mountain tops!

9-16-06 - Saturday - Time to do Nothing

It's Saturday morning and it's nice to have a little reprieve from the training cycle. Today is the only day in the three week course that has nothing planned at CRE for us to do.

I'm going to get a little shopping done and if I see anything interesting here in Salt Lake City that I can find, I will shoot some pictures of it.

For now, it's time to do nothing!

9-15-06 - Friday - It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Yes! Finally, the last day of the 11 day training marathon. We have had our heads crammed with so much information in the past week and a half, it's nice to be looking at a day off on Saturday.

Today we met at our truck at 7:00 am and got on the road immediately. One of my classmates drove first, so I sat in the sleeper and listened and learned. That's what you do when you aren't driving. The sleeper compartment is NOT for sleeping during training.

I drove second today. I think I did ok. No major problems. I need to plan ahead more and react less. That's important when you are driving 80,000 lbs. I hit a curb or two and miss a downshift once. Not bad for 2 hours of driving.

The last of my classmates to drive is have a little difficultly grasping the shifting thing. We all have our difficulties, but the trick is to correct them as best you can and listen to everything the instructor says and try your best to do exactly that. It's ok. She will have some more time tomorrow on our day off to practice, but it really is up to her to make the changes and adjustments to her driving to accomplish the goal of learning to drive the truck.

I'm going to enjoy my evening now. It's so nice to not have to get up at 5:300 am. I will so enjoy my day off. It's going to be cool and cloudy and rainy. How perfect after I got sunburned on the backing range last Saturday. Gotta love the weather!

9-14-06 - Thursday - Driving in the Mountains

Today was great! We started at 7:00 am by taking the pre-trip CDL test. I got an 89%. Not the best, but I'll take it. The two other drivers in my truck had to retake their backing test this morning. They both passed.

At about 11:15 am we finally got on the road. I was the first to drive. That's good and bad. It's bad because as a driver you don't get the advantage of watching others working on the skills as they drive and our instructors coments on them. The good thing about going first is that you get your drive time out of the way and can relax the rest of the day.

We started out heading east towards the mountains. Up, Up, and UP some more! I did ok. I feel more comfortable with the "shifting thing". Now I just have to concentrate on all the other aspects of driving a big truck. The trafic checks, watching rpm's, maintining space, controling speed, and yes traffic checks. Did I say that twice? Yes, you can't do too many traffic checks.

I did my driving thing. I made it up and down again. The truck really isn't that hard to control when you know HOW to control it.

We stopped at a truck stop east of Salt Lake City near where the Winter Olympics were held a few years ago. Beautiful country.

Below I have posted some pictures of our day.


Look At this beautiful sunrise at CRE Salt Lake City!



This is our truck at sunrise and my two classmates waiting to get going.



This is just another view of our truck this morning.


OK, it's really small, but in the middle of this picture if you squint you can see the ski jump used in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.


Our truck parked in the mountains. (driver switch time)


One of my classmates at the wheel.


How pretty are these mountains?


The road we will travel. (later in the day)

I hope you enjoyed the visual. I'm going to get some sleep now. Tomorrow we will be doing some city and highway driving.

9-13-06 - Wednesday - Moving Right Along

Passed! That's right. Passed the backing test. That's not a big deal if you know how to back a semi, but, I learned to do it in a few days. I passed with only 7 points against me. Drivers are allowed 16 points, so I was so relieved when I was able to get it right.

Now, tonight I only have to study for the pre-trip inspection test that is tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also the day we are going mountain driving. There are some beautiful mountains around here and I'm really looking foward to the drive.

Now it's time to relax! Tonight is mine. I'll be recharged after an evening for myself.

P.S. - I'm bringing my camera to the mounatins so check back tomorrow for some pictures!

9-11-06 & 9-12-06 - Monday & Tuesday - On The Road

Wow. Sorry for not post yesterday. I'm absolutly beat. It's Tuesday night and tomorrow is our backing test. Finally!

Monday was spent in class in the morning learning more on log keeping and then a lesson on turns. In the afternoon we met our driving instructors for the road portion of our training. I was matched with "Bill", (not a real name). There were three of us assigned to Bill's truck. That's pretty good. Less students in a truck means more wheel time.

Monday in the truck on the road was rough for all three of us. Bill drove the truck out to a long road near the Great Salt Lake and we drove back and forth up and down about an 8 mile stretch of it.

I can tell you that learning to double-clutch is challenging. I have no problem with shifting a manual transmission in a car, but this truck kicked my butt on Monday. I acomplished the task, but there was alot of jerky starts and slightly hard stops.

After the afternoon drive in the truck we spent until 9:30 pm doing backing practice.

Tuesday was about the same. Class in the morning with a couple videos on safety and driving skills. Then we got a test on what we just watched. I took notes and we were allowed to use any hand written notes on the test. I got a 100%.

The afternoon was filled with more road driving. Today we worked on our turning and shifting. I did SO much BETTER than yesterday. I'm not completly comfortable with gthe shifting thing, but I have a clue and it doesn't intimidate me so much.

This evening we had another shot at practicing our backing. I think I have it nailed down. I feel comfortable with my backing. No promises, but I'm pretty sure I will probably pass no problem.

I'm hitting the sack now. I should try to be a little rested for tomorrow.

Did I mention that I'm really happy this is the last of the late nights at school. SO HAPPY!

9-10-06 - Sunday - More Backing

This will be another short entry. Sorry. I am SO TIRED! It's 10:30 pm and I just got home about 30 minutes ago. We spent the entire day again today practicing backing. We learned and practiced blind-side parallel parking and alley dock parking. I did pretty well with them. Some in our class are having problems, but the instructors are helping them and they are making progress.

I have some homework to do tonight also. I have to finish doing my log and some matching questions about our pre-trip inspections. It's sleep time now though.