Today was an awesome day in Lewiston ID. I started out driving the "bridge" route. Basically I drove from the terminal, over the bridge to Clarkston WA, then over the next bridge back to Lewiston, and again into Clarkston. The morning driving was pretty easy because there was not any traffic.
Next I headed out of Lewiston on Highway 12 and got to go through the weigh station for the first time. The Lewiston Highway 12 station is a left exit, and I knew it was coming up so I was prepared to exit. As I approached the scales the DOT officer was standing at the railing smoking a cigarette. Bob, the instructor, said " Well he can't give you a red light because he's outside". Well as my steers hit the scale, the DOT gives me a hand signal from the other side of the railing to stop. I roll down the window and here is our conversation:
DOT: Good morning.
ME: Good morning sir.
DOT: Do you have your logbook this morning.
ME: Yes sir I do.
DOT: Is it current.
ME: Yes it is.
DOT: May I see it please.
ME: Certainly... As I reach into the shelf above me and retrieve my book.
DOT: He walks around the railing and grabs my book. Next he looks at EVERY page in the logbook, dating all the way back to June 29th. There are a couple of pages that I had to void because I messed up. He looked at those really close, and then looked at the next page. After looking through my entire logbook, right up until my last duty change, he says good job and have a nice day!
Bob said that I did a really good job. He said that the DOT will usually find something in a students log to give them a hassle about. I just told him that I am logging everything as I do it, and it is really not that difficult.
So my first experience with DOT could not have gone any better in my opinion. I felt pretty good after this and ended up driving 2.5 hours and 80 miles this morning. Dave started driving in Troy ID, and took us back through Pullman WA and into Clarkston where he continued to drive through the city. Dave drove for 3 hours and 78 miles.
After lunch we headed back out to get more city driving in Clarkston and Lewiston. Nothing too much happened while I drove. I was able to find a couple of more curbs that the trailer could have gotten by if I judged them a little bit better, but all in all I did really good. i drove for 1.5 hours and 26 miles after lunch.
Dave drove for 2 hours and 28 miles this afternoon. Bob decided to try a couple of new turns that he had not done before. The first was pretty tight, but Dave was able to get by without hitting the curb, or any 4 wheelers. The second was on the next block and was a left hand turn. This turn was very tight and required the trailer to go into the turn lane where a 4 wheeler needed to back out of the way. On the other side was a tree where the branches came into Bob's window. Dave did really good and was able to complete the turn without incident, until he got about 200 feet down the road where a Clarkston Police Officer was stopped in his car just shaking his head at us. Apparently they would rather Swift not use that corner any more. Bob knew the officer, so he let it go with the shaking of his head and no other action.
Dave and I both feel that we need more time driving in the city to pass the WA State test, but Bob believes we could pass know. I figure he sees new students every 2 weeks, so he has a good idea of our skills. Over the next couple of days we will get a lot more city driving and build our confidence level for the test.
Below is a link to the GPS tracker for today if anyone is interested. If you click on the Google Earth link at the top, you can actually zoom in and see everything.
13 | Author Ford390pwr | free Mobile GPS Tracking Service
