Wow, I just had a 90 minute standard car driving lesson. My one regret (not really) in life will have to be not having learned this years ago when I started to drive. It feels so unnatural to have to use my left foot. Usually it just dangles pretty off to the side. I only managed to freak out and cry once.
I started to find all my mistakes/frustrations rather amusing by the end. I think being the instructor for these lessons would be such a tough job. A) you have people totally freak out on you (2) because I was concentrating so much on changing gears etc. I was definitely veering in all sorts of directions, not to mention, almost rolling back into cars on slopes (3) you have to repeat yourself A LOT and (4) and give positive encouragement even when the person is totally blowing it!
Man, that was crazy. I tend to get frustrated when I can't pick something up quickly, especially when I repeatedly make the same mistake over and over. He had to politely tell me that "it's ok, your a beginner, it's going to be tough", "No one ever picks it up right away". However, he did tell me that compared to most, I was "the best". Maybe he was lying to make me feel better but maybe not...I'LL TAKE THAT!
Tomorrow I get possession of a standard car and I guess I'll be learning as I go. The lesson was a good start. It's a good thing Squamish is a bit flatter than North Vancouver. Anyone have any good "Learning to drive standard stories???"
See you in the trails!
4 comments:
I brought home my first "standard" after only two very basic lessons. I was living in hilly Pittsburgh at the time. I drove all the way home from the seller's house and was so proud not to stall out or hit anyone on the drive home. I went to parallel park, backed in ok, then popped the clutch (lurching the car forward) and dented my bumper severely on the car in front of me (their car was fine). I had it for about 20 minutes and put a huge dent in it. Oh dear. But now I won't drive anything else!
My story is the opposite. I learned to drive ( and took my drivers test) on a standard. Its a Kootenay girl thing. Once in the City, with an automatic I diddn't know what to do with my left foot! I wanted to break when accelerating! eventually, I retrained.
I haven't learned how to drive a standard yet either but I keep saying when I get a new car soon that it'll be a standard. Our VW Westy is a standard too so it would be nice to be able to drive it! Sigh!!!
HA! I never even learned to drive until I was 26. I did the urban girl thing and I had friends to chauffeur me everywhere. I did my fair share of hitchhiking to get to the mountains and incidentally, I met Keith that way. I moved to the mountains for a summer and Keith bought me "the high school car that I never had"- a $500 Plymouth Cricket with a stick shift. I didn't know how to drive, yet alone with a stick shift, but soon I was cruising the highways in my shitty car, thinking every journey would be my last. I put 1000's of kilometres on The Cricket and it never cost me a cent and it never broke down. I sold it to my buddy and he drove it to and from Lake Louise for another season before it died, with a burned out clutch. :)
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