Paving Day

Well, I expected to show up to a paved yard today. But because of all the rain this week they have not been able to start paving. So today was paving day.

My instructors set up one parallel parking course at the far end of the lot. So I was a little frustrated that I was going to have to practice again on a hole-ridden yard. The instructors also added a line to the parallel parking course. This line is maybe 2 or 3 feet off the first cone that I line my tires up with at the start of the maneuver. The CDL testing site also has this line on their course. I put my trailer tires on this line and it sets me up where I need to be to start the maneuver. This line would have been helpful earlier on when I was learning to do the maneuver. My space off the cone was always fluctuating, which would throw off where I ended up at the end. The first time I tried it today with the new line I was way off. I had to pull up and restart several times. Then I got it twice in a row.

After the two successful completions, an instructor took me out driving. I drove the rest of the time. Which was fine because I didn’t get to drive the last two times I was there. I think they also needed the course for other students to use. Driving went really well. If I can make it past parallel parking tomorrow I’ll be fine.

The instructors also ran through the Pre-Trip and Air Brakes twice. I did well on those too. I know I’m ready to test. I know I can pass. I also know that if I make a mistake I can’t just try again like I do in class.