Today at lunch Dan even announced to the crew what my new name was. Ha!
Anyway, yesterday I set out to fulfill the mission I've been curious about ever since I was 16. I met with one of my Nissan coworkers and his 2008 Nissan Sentra SER for him to teach me how to drive a stick-shift vehicle.
The car (color & trim level) that I had my first manual-tranny driver's ed course in.I obtained my motorcycle license last year, and although that carries the same concept of a clutch and shifting, it is still a little different than the clutch + shifting combo in a 4-wheeled vehicle. Plus, it has been a full year since I've been on a motorized pair of wheels....this ought to be interesting the next time I get on a motorcycle!
I drove around for about 2 hours in the Sentra and got the hang of it. (The very very VERY first time I tried, I squealed the tires bigtime! It was laughable, to say the least.) Obviously I don't shift liquid-smooth yet, and my new biggest anxiety is being the first in line stopped at a red light that turns green, holding up traffic behind me. I can't dance worth a darn, I was 'blessed' with the grace of two left feet I swear! So, with having to "dance," or roll off the clutch with one foot as I equally set on the gas with the other, is the most difficult for me. I take a good 5 - 7 seconds to get up and running without either stalling the car or making it have a seizure as it accelerates. Eep!
It is hard to do all of this. It is so much to think about!! All of the movements, the feeling, the listening to the revolutions of the engine - I could barely hold a conversation since I was thinking so hard and I felt so uptight/nervous! That's just a first-timer thing, right??
Scott, Colin....I don't know HOW you guys did it when you were 15, 16, and in your first cars!! I admire you. Here in Mississippi we've got flat grounds and NO snow....HOW did you two do ALL of this with those Wisconsin hills, stopped UPHILL and IN the SNOW? No seriously, I would like to know! It would seem so hard! The driver's worst nightmare! When you were so young and this was the first thing you got to legally drive, how did you do it? There's just so much for the Little Bit of mind to sort out!! (Oh look I just did it! I used my nickname.) :)
It's nice though. Driving a stick-shift is what it means to actually drive a car. There's more direct interaction with the vehicle, something I am obviously a sucker for. I would do this every day if the entire face of the earth's traffic could just get wiped away! Gone, no more! No drivers to hassle at me or honk at me for trying to learn and be a smoother shifter, or for taking too long to get up and go at a green light. :)
I have my next driving lesson in two weeks......
1 comment:
lol, welcome to the world of stick shift :-D
it really is cool, and you feel like you're interfacing with the car on a much lower/more personal level. awesomeness.
as to how i drove that at 16... not really sure :) my dad taught me in a bay port's parking lot, and it was rough for a while. definitely killed it repeatedly at the stop sign on northwood going south where it meets county m, and about a half dozen cars had to pass me... definitely also killed it at the round about waiting to go "in". that really annoyed the folks behind me. bad place to kill a car... also scared myself pretty good stopped uphill in appleton in front of a certain red beetle one time, as i recall :) but didn't hit anyone! did get nudged in the rear one time when i killed it at a green light and the chick behind me didn't see that i wasn't going, just took off, but since she had started 12" from my bumper, didn't do any damage... no harm no foul :)
have fun!
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