Comments By Patrick R.

GOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAAAM!! lol jk, can you tell I am excited? Well heres a little update for everyone! Went up to the DMV today had to sit for about an hour and a half, this DMV is so much diff then the one back home. Well finally my number was called went in had a nice chat with the girl up at the counter about good places to eat and all that in the area...sat down at the little terminal to take my tests...now as everyone at this point prob knows, Prime wants you to pass Gen Knowledge, Air Brakes, Combination, and Tanker! Well the first three are required no matter what for a CDL...anyways. So without further ado...I PASSED! All 4 of them i passed with a 95-100 first try it was amazing and so easy. Thanks to the High Road program and an app i got on my phone that literally words the questions almost exactly like the DMV was a breeze going through them. I have Sim Class around 630 and like 5 more CBTs left to do and then I am good. Waiting on my Med Card at this point to go back and get my full permit.

Good luck, Patrick, we're all pulling for you! Looking forward to reading more of this diary!

Thanks mate!

02/21/17. 0630 Wakeup time, slept through a couple of alarms but thats ok i needed the rest, went and grabbed some chow they had some amazing looking food but because of the BP test i decided to go with eggs unsalted and a hashbrown. Been drinking nothing but water since last night. 0715 We started Logs class and learned how to use a paper log book incase the qualcomm ever goes down, I was so tired I was struggling not to nod off since i couldnt have any kind of caffeine this morning. 0815 log class ended and went right into Roll call and some basic info on the contract and got the MO residency letters a few people got med cards today also. One thing they are stressing is that you go to the DMV and test ATLEAST once a day no matter what so you know what you need to study. 0930...The time has come, I find myself sitting in the Med office eyes closed only one guy ahead of me, breathing deep and trying to relax not working so well, tried to think about other stuff but kept coming back to the BP..."NEXT!"...****...ok here we go, got comfy in the chair laid my arm out and took a few deep breaths...passing I think he put 130/80. As of this point I am about to go set up to get on the shuttle to the DMV and see how well I do next one is in about 45 mins. Wish me luck! Will update once i get back.

This is going to be a fantastic read, I'm sure. I wish you the best of luck my friend. Keep up the updates when you can. You may at times think nobody is reading, but believe me, they are. You'll be helping more than you think!

Knock this out of the park, bud!

Thanks for the support buddy! At this point im just sitting in my room on the laptop going the CBTs. Hopefully all goes well and this wont end on day 2 or 3 with me going home lol.

Does it take a little bit to get used to rhythm of the double clutching? I'm used to a manual but I heard it's harder to get used to the double clutching if you've already driven a regular manual transmission.

It can take some getting used to, most people actually go to fast, my instructor said use the adams family song to time it. like a 1 second pause between each clutch push.

Thanks for all the updates Patrick! Looking forward to seeing how things went for you today. How is it driving on the simulators?

Very easy on the sims, first day was just learning gear patterns and upshifting. Pretty sure everyone was a little bored with it by the end except a couple of people who were havin some trouble understanding but its a pretty basic concept.

02/20/17. Today is the big day, up at 6 to get ready for Orientation only about 4 hours of sleep tops. Dont remember getting a wake up call but thats ok. Got dressed headed down to class pretty straight forward stuff explained how the next 4 days are supposed to go they said they wanted all of us to go tomorrow to the DMV and test atleast once even if we arent totally prepaired just so we can pass what we can and focus on what we didnt over the next week, dont think that will be an issue for me thanks to HRTP. All in All today was uneventful for the most part, Pee in a cup, agility test passed easy, file review didnt even talk to anyone he just looked at my stuff and said "ok your good". Now between all of this I went and got my physical, I was a little nervous but figured i should be ok, only 2 weeks ago my Dr...who i paid $150 just to walk in the door to see said my BP was 133/84 said i was good to go. Well...she cuffed me up and bam...150/80...my heart stopped beating at this point, everything was going so well. She said drink nothing but water and come back tomorrow no smoking or anything (didnt smoke from the time i woke up anyways knowing i had to do this.) Its really hard to concentrate on anything else when something as small as BP can get you sent home...especially when you have nothing to go back to. Supposed to do a sleep apnea test on Weds thats not a problem pretty sure I will be clear on that anyways. Sim class starts in about 30 mins or so that should be interesting help me take my mind off things, but I dont know how well I will get to sleep tonight since I will be up thinking about this BP ordeal. Everyone has been great so far, had a few laughs with a few of them, the cafeteria ladies are hilarious too. All around its been a great atmosphere, I really hope that the BP drops and everything works out. Gonna stop here eat my monkey food and get ready for sim class. Will be checking in couple times a day prob to answer any questions ect ect.

02/18/17- 02/19/17 Left my house at 4am this morning to get on the bus, didnt sleep sine friday morning, long story short buses suck, 3 hour layover in atlanta was shady as hell. didnt sleep the whole time, 6 hour lay over in St Louis was nice. Didnt arrive and get to check in until 1:30 am on the 20th. Oh well...

Firstly I would like to say Thank You all for taking the time to read my little story about the adventures soon to come. I do sometimes tend to ramble a bit so fair warning the posts may be long but I will leave a disclaimer prior to unimportant rambles.

Day 1- The date is 02/17/17. The day prior to my departure while it feels like its the same day since I have to leave the house at 4:30 am on 02/18 to get to the bus station in time to catch my ride. It's already been a long road and I have yet to begin, this decision is something that I have been considering for a couple of years now but never truly took the leap. The last couple of months have been nothing but research, studying, and a butt load of youtube videos. Before I get to far into this I want to give a couple of shout outs to those that helped make this happen and those that encouraged me to the choices that I have made. Firstly to Brett for the High Road program, I spent many days sitting at work studying it resetting my scores just to go through it again. Your work and dedication has helped me tremendously as I am sure it has for countless others before and many more after. I want to thank the many members and mods of the forum that have posted some great topics I have learned more then I could ever have hoped to in such a short time. Finally I would like to thank Turtle and Rainy, the information you provided and the stories I have read helped sway my decision towards Prime, I have a fantastic feeling about the company. Now back to the topic at hand. I have spent the last week getting everything situated packed up my clothes and other essential items I feel like I need. I am very surprised I am no where near as nervous as I thought I would be, heck I was more nervous when I set my date to leave 3 weeks ago when talking to my recruiter then I am at this point, I guess it all just kinda sunk in. While I wouldn't say I am going in thinking that I know everything I need to in order to succeed with the program, I am going in confident enough to say that I have a great headstart and that I am ready to knock this ball out of the park! Since no one really wants to read about cleaning and packing instead I will simply put a little about me and wrap this up until I arrive and then the real fun will begin. ------Feel free to stop reading here as I am about to ramble about stuff that does not pertain to my experience with Prime PSD until the next post.------ I'm 27 years old. I have been considering trucking for quite a few years, my grandfather has been in the industry almost his entire life since he could drive (though unfortunately can't get any advice from him lol!) but that's neither here nor there. Trucking has always fascinated me, as a kid every summer I would have to ride up to Virginia to see my father (parents divorced) watching the big shinny trucks on the road as we drove by, pumping out fists in hopes they would blow the horn, hell even now I am still dazzled by a truck driving by in the night all lit up. Seeing the world has always interested me, this seemed like a great place to start seeing America through the windshield of a truck. The only thing that has interested me as much as trucks and 'sightseeing' has been technology, It wasn't so long ago that I was studying for my COMPTIA exams and thinking about getting a Masters Degree in a tech field, but after looking at the cost and the extremely competitive industry I realized that it may be beyond my scope of possibilities at this point in my life, not only financially but also experience wise. People in that field rarely jump in when they are in their late 20s unless they went for a degree already. Sure I could pull apart a computer with my eyes closed or program a website and manage it with little effort, but these days so can most high schoolers who bother to take a couple of classes. Anyways I digress, from this point forward all posts will be in regards to my experience with Prime PSD and TnT unless any specific questions come up off topic.

Absolutley, I went and got a gallon of water and some bananas since they are supposed to help i got to go back at 930 tomorrow to have it retested. Just hard to calm down when you come to MO after a 38 hour bus ride and nothing to go back home to lol. Just hope all goes well tomorrow. they want me to do a sleep apnea test on wed but that wont even be a big deal lol.