Comments By Little Carolina

When you say "double shift" are you talking about double clutching or is there something else you're talking about??? Just wondering if there is some new pieced of lingo I need to start scouring the interweb for??

I was tired. I meant double clutching..

As some of you may know I am at Celadon CDL school in Indy. We got out on the trucks yesterday and well for my first time I thought I did ok but the instructors werent that pleased. Today however I did the offset on my own and amazed myself. I also got the hang of double clutching and that is a great feeling!!

I have been out now for 2 weeks. I am loving it. I am back in Indianapolis for my first test. I have to come in every 2 weeks so they can see how much I have progressed. I know how to float now, set my tandoms all that good stuff. I left out and drove a load to Larado, TX. droped and hooked up to a High Risk load and took it to Shelby Montana. After that I had to go to Manahatten, Montana have them shoot 43000lbs of loose potatoes in my trailer. and took them to Minnasota to a farm had to drive dirt roads to get there. then I ran empty to Iowa to P&G picked up and relayed a load here then passed it on to another driver. I will probably test tomorrow.

Sorry we missed each other but the advice you gave me last night was right on!!! I did it today!!!

Hey, be confident!!! Do not ever doubt yourself. Millions and millions of people have learned how to drive trucks over the years and so will you. Just keep a great attitude, be confident, and learn from everything you do. The fact that you were able to do anything right the first day is a huge success. It will certainly get easier and begin falling into place.

And don't worry about what the instructors or other drivers think. That just adds unneeded pressure. Just focus on yourself and what you're trying to accomplish. As long as they see you're giving it everything you have and you're learning as you go they'll keep working with you and you'll get it just fine. It's the people with horrible attitudes that won't listen and won't learn because they think they know everything - those are the types that get booted to the curb. But if you're giving it your best effort and show them you really, really want to do this, they'll certainly do anything they can to help you.

When you're really good at something - good enough to teach it - you enjoy teaching others if they have the right attitude about learning it. If they're trying their best and listening to your advice, as a teacher you're hoping they'll succeed at it. So just keep smiling, keep working hard, keep asking questions, and make progress each day. You'll have some good days and some bad days - that's just the nature of driving a rig. But don't sweat it. Before you know it things will start falling into place and you'll have it.

Go get em!

Today was definately a NEW DAY!! I did a offset back all on my own and got to drive quite a ways by the Indy speedway so that was cool as hell. I learned a lot and I was able to double shift and do it correctly still need to work on breaking in time, but I feel a lot better that I am improving every time I try.. I just had a bad day yesterday and I am back on my game!

Hey Girl, I will be out there sometime tomorrow If time allows. There is a chance they will have a load waiting as soon as I am done. If I have plenty of time I will swing by to say hi to everyone. I see your in backing now. Tell Paul I said Hi.

I have Paul for driving and Jim for backing. OMG what a long day! I had quite a frustrating time today as I have never done this! I am hoping to do better tomorrow, The group I have is that 3 guys have lots of experience and I have none so I think he may have gotten frustrated with me I am going over the shifting pattern and trying hard to remember that double shift! Also need some help with backing I did ok on straight line first two tries and then my leg was throbbing so bad.. but I will keep at this!!! This was day 1...

Well guess what Peeps!! I passed all 4 tests today and only missed one question total on the combinations.. Thank you so much Brett all that studying paid off We start on the trucks Monday and I cant wait.. some of the students are really struggling but they seem to be struggling over the Indiana operators which I did at first too all I can say is when you test take your time and read each question carefully.. One and Done!!!

So today was a good day.. Got up early and waited for the shuttle to take us to Celadon for breakfast Got to class about 8am and started with paperwork and going through the Indiana CDL manual learned quite a bit today Looks like I have to take the Operators test along with my General Knowledge, Combinations and Airbrake tests on Wed.. Tonight we will be doing a study group Tomorrow we do physicals

Go shawty..it's ya leaving day..gonna party like it's ya birthday..gonna ACE this like it's ya birthday!!

Funny you say that because I will spend my 40th birthday here!!

You know I built an app for Android with the High Road training program questions in it. You can find it here:

CDL Practice Questions Android App

I would but I have an iphone. I found another one that was free when I just did a search it seems to do the job, but am waiting patiently for the iphone app to be created..

Well I finally arrived today!! Such an exhausting 2 days on the bus.. but I made her... I am in a nice Quality inn room with a great gal. We get breakfast bright and early and then we have a meeting to get introduced to everyone. At first I wasnt sure if it was going to be a big class or not but now I see load after load of people so I guess we will see in the morning. Well here I go.. will update as I can..