Things are going well..

Did some more road driving today. City/town side.  Yeah I am rusty, but its all about the practice right? I still have people telling me that I am doing well, but my own worst critic is hemming and hawing about every mistake I make. The instructor is very helpful in pointing out what I am doing wrong and why. I really do get in the way of myself when I know I screwed up. When a mistake is made I get all flustered and semi emotional (aka: pissed off at myself and worried). Which then sets me up for making another mistake righth after the first.
Now, these mistakes are in either being in the wrong gear for a turn, or not slowing down far enough back to set up a turn. Not once have I hit  anything or anyone, but I am kinda stressing the engine out a bit when I rev too high before shifting gears. Quite a bit of my issues come from the fact that this is a new machine that I am trying to get used to driving. Kinda like getting a new car or truck and one has to figure out how it performs for a bit before you are comfortable with it. Also, its about embracing and entirely new driving style. There are a lot more things you have to do when simply going down the road in an 80K vehicle that you do in a standard passenger car or truck. I am the biggest and heaviest thing on the road, I have to stay diligent about where I am and where everyone around me is so that no accidents or incidents occur.  That means my head is at a constant swivel looking for potential incidents and people. For instance, when you see a lane merging to 1 lane sign, you will just think "Ok, no more traffic next to me" what I have to think is "Ok, is there someone racing up behind me trying to beat me to the merge before they are 'stuck' behind me" It happens more often than not.

There is a lot of information and technique that goes into driving a tractor rig on the road. Sometimes I feel as if I can't remember it all, but with practice and down time to absorb things, I will do my best and damndest to figure this out. No one has sent me home yet and no one has said that I have done anything less than to par with my training. On top of everything else, I have to keep in mind that I have NEVER done this before. Yeah I know how to drive a stick shift but that doesn't mean that I am an expert already at this. These things come to me long after I am out of training and help me relax afterwards.  So, all in all, things are going well. Tomorrow we are driving back to the old facility because our trainers have a mandatory meeting they have to attend. So thats about a 2 hour drive, up and back, that we will be doing on mostly highway roads. For now, I need to get some sleep, meaning, get my ass to bed around 9pm not 10:30pm.