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Trucker Tales
Recently I've been writing up some of the more memorable episodes that happened during the years I drove a truck. So, I figured I'd post them here, as well, since you folks seem to like a good story.
Seems like a good place to start off is...
Learning to Fly...er, Drive
I got suckered into learning how to drive a big rig. Well and truly snookered.
It happened like this:
My husband (I'll call him J) had been driving for several months by this time and had teamed up with the guy who'd been his trainer. All three of us got on really well, so much so that D (husband's driving partner) would stay with us when they were home for time off.
They'd each made casual conversation about me learning to drive a truck as well months previously, to which I replied with genuine horror "Oh, hell no! I can't drive something that big!" The matter was dropped. I thought. Conniving bastards.
Over the next few months I was invited along for the occasional local drop or pick-up, and for a couple of longer trips. Cool! See some new places, fun, fun, fun! All along they were betting on my curiosity, which was of course a sucker bet. I have enough curiosity for 3 cats.
I'd also been going with them when they were home for daily truck check overs, learning about the parts of the truck, what went where, how to do a vehicle inspection, generally being encouraged to climb on and over and under and around the beast asking questions as I went. And once or twice getting just covered with grease and dirt and grime in the process.
Fast forward about another month. I made some comment along the lines of maybe rethinking learning to drive a truck, but I wasn't sure. It'd become familiar to me, see, and what's familiar loses some of the scary. The two of them traded this -look-, but then shrugged it off when I asked what the hell was THAT about? Conniving bastards.
They head out on the road again, and come home for their time off a few weeks later just like normal. D asks me the day after they get home if I want to ride with him down to the company yard to drop off the trailer and I agree. It's kind of fun riding in the truck, being able to look down into all the cars, trading waves and sometimes CB chatter with the other truckers. And the company yard isn't too far away, so we won't be gone but maybe an hour or so.
D is driving, I'm in the passenger seat. We get on the highway and as traffic thins D says "Hey, come look at this," indicating something out the driver's door window. I stand up, step over and start to lean down to look... and all in one motion he does several things. Stands up himself into the space between the seats (I hadn't noticed him unfasten his seat belt), grabs my arm, YANKS me into the driver's seat behind him, and lets go of the steering wheel!!!!! PANIC!!! (The truck had cruise control, which he'd set to just under the speed limit before starting this little dance.)
I honestly don't remember much from about the next 5 minutes or so, I think my brain had blue-screened and was trying to reboot. Luckily keeping pretty much any vehicle between the lines isn't very hard when the road is nice and straight and there's not really much in the way of traffic to worry about because I had to have been on autopilot there. My next clear memory is cussing D up one side and down the other and demanding that he get his ass back over to the driver's seat because dammit, I don't know how to drive this thing!! "You're doing all right so far." was his only reply.
"You crazy son of a bitch! I don't know how to drive this!! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Double handed white knuckle deathgrip on the steering wheel, not daring to take my eyes off the road to give him the instant annihilation death glare he deserved.
"Teaching you to drive this. Keep it between the lines, just like you've been. You're doing fine." A few miles roll past and my breathing is settling down, I've wound down on the cussing and my glare had ratcheted down to something that probably wouldn't instantaneously kill the person it was directed toward. I relax just a tiny bit and realize 'Hey, he's right. This isn't so bad.'
"Ready to try shifting?"
"Uh. I guess?" He tells me how to shut off the cruise control, then tells me to take the next exit.
"So, when you get onto the service road, just push in the clutch and brake to a stop." We're out far enough that there's no traffic at all on the service road so I did what he said. "Good. Hold the clutch in and run through the gear patterns a few times." I did. Pretty standard H pattern, but with an extra leg on it for 5th and reverse.
"Now put the truck into first gear and get it rolling. When your engine RPMs get to -here-, push in the clutch and take it out of gear, let out the clutch, then when the RPMs drop to -here- push in the clutch again and put it into second." Took me a few tries to get it, bringing the truck back to a stop each time I missed my mark for getting back into gear (and earning a few winces from him when I ground the gears noisily trying to force it). The process was exactly the same from first to second to third, all the way up to fifth. "Now, when you take it out of gear, flip this little switch here (on the shifter, simple up/down toggle) up and go into first again."
We went down to then next overpass this way, several miles down the road, me shifting up the gears and coasting to a stop then doing it again.
"Ok, you're doing great! Now you're going to make a turn. Left turns are easiest. Swing as wide as you can without hitting the bridge, and keep an eye on what your trailer wheels are doing. Take your time, we've got all day." I crept out into the intersection, making the turn as wide as I thought I could and split my attention between what was in front of me (empty road) and the side mirror, watching the rear set of tires make the turn WAY over in the other lane. -gulp- Across the bridge, another left turn, and back to going up the gears. We went round that stretch of service road a couple of times, me getting more confident about the turns and shifting.
The third time around D says "Ok, now you're going to learn how to downshift."
"Um... ok."
Turns out downshifting a rig isn't quite the same as shifting up through the gears. Clutch and take it out of gear when the RPMs drop to -here-, rev the engine to get them up to -here-, clutch and back into gear before the RPMs drop too far down. More grinding of gears, more left hand turns as we went around that stretch of service road a few more times until finally I was shifting smoothly up and then back down through the gears getting more confident and less afraid each time. Finally D decided that it was enough for that day and took back over driving so we could drop the trailer at the company yard and head back to the house.
Once we got home, I tore into both of them. "You bastards! You set this up! I should kill you BOTH!"
"Worked, didn't it?" from J, who knew me entirely too damned well. Smug conniving bastards.
So I turned around and surprised both of them. Got my CDL learner's permit and was just about to start driving school by the time they got home the next time around, months before either of them expected me to make any move in that direction. *giggle* I can connive too.
Seems like a good place to start off is...
Learning to Fly...er, Drive
I got suckered into learning how to drive a big rig. Well and truly snookered.
It happened like this:
My husband (I'll call him J) had been driving for several months by this time and had teamed up with the guy who'd been his trainer. All three of us got on really well, so much so that D (husband's driving partner) would stay with us when they were home for time off.
They'd each made casual conversation about me learning to drive a truck as well months previously, to which I replied with genuine horror "Oh, hell no! I can't drive something that big!" The matter was dropped. I thought. Conniving bastards.
Over the next few months I was invited along for the occasional local drop or pick-up, and for a couple of longer trips. Cool! See some new places, fun, fun, fun! All along they were betting on my curiosity, which was of course a sucker bet. I have enough curiosity for 3 cats.
I'd also been going with them when they were home for daily truck check overs, learning about the parts of the truck, what went where, how to do a vehicle inspection, generally being encouraged to climb on and over and under and around the beast asking questions as I went. And once or twice getting just covered with grease and dirt and grime in the process.
Fast forward about another month. I made some comment along the lines of maybe rethinking learning to drive a truck, but I wasn't sure. It'd become familiar to me, see, and what's familiar loses some of the scary. The two of them traded this -look-, but then shrugged it off when I asked what the hell was THAT about? Conniving bastards.
They head out on the road again, and come home for their time off a few weeks later just like normal. D asks me the day after they get home if I want to ride with him down to the company yard to drop off the trailer and I agree. It's kind of fun riding in the truck, being able to look down into all the cars, trading waves and sometimes CB chatter with the other truckers. And the company yard isn't too far away, so we won't be gone but maybe an hour or so.
D is driving, I'm in the passenger seat. We get on the highway and as traffic thins D says "Hey, come look at this," indicating something out the driver's door window. I stand up, step over and start to lean down to look... and all in one motion he does several things. Stands up himself into the space between the seats (I hadn't noticed him unfasten his seat belt), grabs my arm, YANKS me into the driver's seat behind him, and lets go of the steering wheel!!!!! PANIC!!! (The truck had cruise control, which he'd set to just under the speed limit before starting this little dance.)
I honestly don't remember much from about the next 5 minutes or so, I think my brain had blue-screened and was trying to reboot. Luckily keeping pretty much any vehicle between the lines isn't very hard when the road is nice and straight and there's not really much in the way of traffic to worry about because I had to have been on autopilot there. My next clear memory is cussing D up one side and down the other and demanding that he get his ass back over to the driver's seat because dammit, I don't know how to drive this thing!! "You're doing all right so far." was his only reply.
"You crazy son of a bitch! I don't know how to drive this!! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Double handed white knuckle deathgrip on the steering wheel, not daring to take my eyes off the road to give him the instant annihilation death glare he deserved.
"Teaching you to drive this. Keep it between the lines, just like you've been. You're doing fine." A few miles roll past and my breathing is settling down, I've wound down on the cussing and my glare had ratcheted down to something that probably wouldn't instantaneously kill the person it was directed toward. I relax just a tiny bit and realize 'Hey, he's right. This isn't so bad.'
"Ready to try shifting?"
"Uh. I guess?" He tells me how to shut off the cruise control, then tells me to take the next exit.
"So, when you get onto the service road, just push in the clutch and brake to a stop." We're out far enough that there's no traffic at all on the service road so I did what he said. "Good. Hold the clutch in and run through the gear patterns a few times." I did. Pretty standard H pattern, but with an extra leg on it for 5th and reverse.
"Now put the truck into first gear and get it rolling. When your engine RPMs get to -here-, push in the clutch and take it out of gear, let out the clutch, then when the RPMs drop to -here- push in the clutch again and put it into second." Took me a few tries to get it, bringing the truck back to a stop each time I missed my mark for getting back into gear (and earning a few winces from him when I ground the gears noisily trying to force it). The process was exactly the same from first to second to third, all the way up to fifth. "Now, when you take it out of gear, flip this little switch here (on the shifter, simple up/down toggle) up and go into first again."
We went down to then next overpass this way, several miles down the road, me shifting up the gears and coasting to a stop then doing it again.
"Ok, you're doing great! Now you're going to make a turn. Left turns are easiest. Swing as wide as you can without hitting the bridge, and keep an eye on what your trailer wheels are doing. Take your time, we've got all day." I crept out into the intersection, making the turn as wide as I thought I could and split my attention between what was in front of me (empty road) and the side mirror, watching the rear set of tires make the turn WAY over in the other lane. -gulp- Across the bridge, another left turn, and back to going up the gears. We went round that stretch of service road a couple of times, me getting more confident about the turns and shifting.
The third time around D says "Ok, now you're going to learn how to downshift."
"Um... ok."
Turns out downshifting a rig isn't quite the same as shifting up through the gears. Clutch and take it out of gear when the RPMs drop to -here-, rev the engine to get them up to -here-, clutch and back into gear before the RPMs drop too far down. More grinding of gears, more left hand turns as we went around that stretch of service road a few more times until finally I was shifting smoothly up and then back down through the gears getting more confident and less afraid each time. Finally D decided that it was enough for that day and took back over driving so we could drop the trailer at the company yard and head back to the house.
Once we got home, I tore into both of them. "You bastards! You set this up! I should kill you BOTH!"
"Worked, didn't it?" from J, who knew me entirely too damned well. Smug conniving bastards.
So I turned around and surprised both of them. Got my CDL learner's permit and was just about to start driving school by the time they got home the next time around, months before either of them expected me to make any move in that direction. *giggle* I can connive too.
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