Our New York Visit.

Taylor didn't know who we were and cried when we held her.  After a hour she was handing out kisses on demand.

Grandpa and Grandma Bailey and Brooklyn Bailey

THIRD WEEK ON THE ROAD



We got to visit with Matt and Shari and Brooklyn and Taylor this week.  This is me and Taylor.




Brooklyn on the top bunk with her dog "pinkie winkie"



You can see how high the tractor ceiling  is in this shot.  Matt is 6' 4" and he has plenty of room.

Our big excitement this week was that our Trainer, Roy arranged for us to do a pick up close to Matt and Shari in New York as a surprise.  So we called Matt and they drove about 2 hours and came to where we were picking up a load of peanut butter. We got to show them inside of the truck.  "Big Red".  Matt said it was good that Brooklyn got to see the inside of the truck because she couldn't quite grasp how we lived in the truck.  She thought we lived in the trailer.  Now she understands.  We went to Denny's and visited for about 2 hours.  It was so nice seeing all the family.

On our way home we saw a convoy of military vehicles and a helicopter escorting a semi transporting something of high security.  There was about 20 armored cars with guns mounted on the top.  I wonder what was in that trailer???

We also saw a bad accident involving two semi trucks.  They shut down I 80 east to clean that one up.  I think what happened was one truck ran into the back of the other one very hard and fast.  It looked like a explosion.

We got a call from our driving trainer Bart this week.  He monitors all the events of the truck from the home base at England in Salt Lake.   I got a call that went something like this.... BART: Dena we have monitored your speed and in a three week period you have violated the speed limit 57 times.  DENA: Wow is that a new record?  BART: No DENA: oops I was told that the company policy is to drive 5 miles under the posted speed limit.  BART: Not for trainees it's 60 mph.  We just want you to be safe.  DENA: OK I will slow it down to 60.  Randy got the same call but Bart lost connection with Randy.  The bottom line is we can't drive over 60 mps while in training.  Bummer in a big truck like that it feels like you can get out and run faster than the truck is moving.

Next week is our last run with our trainer.  We have been so blessed to have the trainer we have.  We will test again after our final run then if/when we pass we will be given a company truck to drive for the next 2 months on our own.  They will probally put a governer on the truck which regulates the speed.  Untill next week..............

Our home is on it's way to closing.  We have to be out by May 2nd.  Our RV has a new transmission and is ready to be our homestead.  We will park it at the truck lot and live in it when we are home.  Which won't be much. 

Last week we went by the NFL hall of fame in Canton Ohio.  It was a quick drive by on the freeway.  I got to drive down Parley's Canyon with it's 6% grade.  That was a fear of mine.  But I did fine.   We are doing better shifting.  Randy is better than me.  But I'm getting it.  We have 2 more weeks with the trainer, then on our own for 8 weeks.  Then we officially graduate.  We are off again so toot a loo

We had family day at the truck yard.  Danny, Jaxson and Lacey came and checked out our rig.

This bus took everyone to the DMV to get our real license after we all passed the road test

Our graduating class.  After everyone got back from the DMV we got our certificate of compleation.  We have 2 more phases untill we offically graduate.

These are a few of our friends from class.  They all have stories and have come a long way.  I wish them all the best.

This guy has the same name as my father who has passed away.  When they said his name in class I knew it was a good omen.

This is my friend from Pheonix who just came here with a hoodie.  She about froze.  I brought her a warm coat.






 

Right after we graduated we found out we were leaving to Ohio with our new trainer. Our trainer is really nice.  He was trainer of the year.  He said when he first saw us he thought it was a joke.  He said we are out of our element.  He calles us Ward and June Cleaver from the 60's show "Leave it to Beaver".  We call him Wally.  We left Monday night in a snow storm.  He drove us through the storm because we were driving on ice. SCARRY We drove to Ohio and dropped of the load then picked up another one and drove back to SLC. We got home Friday about 4pm. People always ask how do we sleep.  Well I drive in the morning into the afternoon and Randy sits with me in the front while the trainer sleeps, then Randy and I would switch, then our trainer would drive through the night while Randy and I slept.  We stopped to shower and fuel but were rolling all the other times.  We will be doing the same route for 3 more weeks.

We finished our classroom portion and are now in Phase one.  We leave tonight for Idaho and pick up a trailer then deliver it to Cincinnati Ohio then back on Friday.  I have a lot of pictures but don't have time to post.  Here we gooooooooooo

Today I think is Friday.  I had two BIG tests left today.  Randy only had one left.   I had to do all the pre-trip inspection.  This is where we have to make sure everything is properly mounted and secured and a lot of other safety checks on the whole rig.  It takes about 1/2 hour in my case.  I'm sure my tester was trying not to laugh when I accidentally called the air bags by my nick name "the utters", and the slack adjuster the thingy that is supposed to be at 90 degrees at the end of the push rod.  We could miss 12 I think and I passed.  I didn't ask how many I missed but I felt like I did pretty good.  Randy really helped me by teaching me all the parts and how they worked so it all made sense when I look at things.  After I did that we had a 40 minute to 1 hour road test.  If your trailer wheels hit the curb it was a auto fail, if you stopped where you couldn't see the line, auto fail.... on and on.  When I made it back to the yard and I was ready to be finished the tester said if you don't hit anything before we stop you passed.  YEAH.  Randy passed also.  PARTY time.  After all the people in the class finished testing we met back in the room and out of about 100 a week ago I counted 35 in the class.  I say this again.  So you all can understand if you think this is easy your are dead wrong.  I am so thankful Randy and I did this together.  He has help me so much.  Specially the one day when I was to sick to get out of bed and he gently talked me into going. 

Tomorrow we are in orientation Then graduation on Monday. 

This is Randy. Dena has done a great job documenting our adventure. She has learned so much and stuck with it when it would have been much easier to just give up, especially when she was so sick.

To what she has written, I might add that they separate husbands and wives for the in town training but keep them together for the 30 and 60 day out of town training phases. Now that we have completed the in town training we should be together the rest of the time. That is important to us. The weird part will be when we start driving together. I have never been in the truck with Dena while she is driving and visa versa. I have no idea how she is doing nor her of me. Will we be able to sleep while the other is driving? We'll see.

The hardest part of driving, for me, was also shifting. I have been shifting cars for 40 years and have had to totally reprogram my muscle memory to shift this new way. It's not a double clutch. That would have been easier. It is like Dena has sad. It's really hard to get used to. But I think I have it pretty good now. Also, the transmissions have a low and a high range. You go through gears 1-4 in the standard "H" pattern and then pull up on a little lever under the shift handle to go into high range and then shift gears 5-8 just like you did 1-4 (except you don't use 1st). The problem comes when you start down shifting and have to remember to push the lever back down to the low range gears when you go from 5th to 4th. Down shifting can also be a little tough as the transmission is not synchronized so you have to rev the engine to get the gears to mesh properly. All of this while you are trying to brake. Think about it. How do you brake and rev the engine at the same time without passing up the stop sign?

I am as excited as ever about getting out on the open road with my honey. What an adventure we are having!

I'm alive!!! I got so sick. Most of the class and teachers are sick also. Standing out in the wind last Friday did some major damage to the class. Some were so sick they had to go home others were quarantined. If you miss one day they put you on what is call a "hold over", which means you will have to stay 1 more week to finish class. That in itself is enough to get you there even if you are on your death bed.
We have been out on the road around town all week. We learned shifting one day, turns the next, then city driving and mountains and freeway. Tomorrow we do our driving test. We have four students in our truck with the teacher. We take turns driving. I'm having the most difficult time with the shifting. It's different than what you are use to if you have driven a standard before. You clutch in to come out of gear into neutral, then from neutral the clutch is out and you rub the next gear and press gently on the gas peddle and it slips into gear. You can't shift on a turn or over a railroad track. That is a big NO NO on the driving test. If you run over the curb with the trailer wheels auto FAIL.
My brain is fried. I've lost 6 lbs since we started (which is a good thing). I just want to be done. On the first day I wanted to be up early so I would have plenty of time to be all cute and dressed nice. Second day pretty much the same. Third day same. Fourth day starting to take short cuts but still looking good. Fifth day just dress for warm who cares. Sixth day and on... get up as late as possible stuff the hair under a ski cap no make up and understand why all the girls get to that point.
"If", I mean "when", its all over tomorrow and I have passed all the testing I will be so glad we did this. It has not been easy. I couldn't have done this by myself nor would I want to. I'm so glad we are doing this together.
I will see if I can get Randy to write a post so you can get his perspective.