Beginning My Truck Driving Career

Week 2, Day 5

Fridays and Saturdays are short days, so we got out at 12:30 today and tomorrow. We started the day out with another mock CDL test. This one went a lot better. Pretrip was okay. Forgot the ABS light and a couple of other things. I went over the line once in the 90 degree, but I got it in there with one pullup! Way better than yesterday. Just a little more practice and I won't be running over any more lines. The driving portion also went pretty well. My instructor had me drive about 56 miles today. I made a mistake going into the roundabout to leave campus. Hit a curb right off the bat. I'll have to be more careful about that, but other than that it was a pretty decent ride. My instructor says I'll be taking my CDL test on Wednesday. My stomach just dropped when he said that. I'm so nervous! I don't feel ready. But I'm confident if I keep a cool head and drive carefully I can do it. Cross your fingers for me.

Week 2, Day 6

Last day of week 2. Another short day. We just road tripped around the Green Bay area, each of us getting about an hour and a half of drive time. My shifting was pretty good. I have been consistently been getting a little bit of grind upshifting in the 8th to 10th gear range. My instructor told me today that the problem was that I like to shift really quickly which works great for the lower gears, but I need to slow it down a little bit in the higher ones. So I tried that and it helped a lot. No more problems there! Each of us had a moment where we entered a turn a little too fast. It worked out, but I'll need to be more careful of that. Tomorrow is a day off and then Monday begins my last week (if all goes as planned) of CDL training!

You're doing awesome! I enjoy reading your progress and look forward to your last week. What a high that'll be when you're all done eh?