Step 6 of the driving process (driving on an actual road) has been by far the scariest part of this whole process. But, I decided to give the open road another try, not once…TWICE. Guess what? Both times scared the ever living you know what out of me!
If you ask my kids, they will tell you I am a patient, kind, and almost perfect mother who is an excellent teacher. I thought for sure these attributes would transfer to driving instruction. They don’t. I keep trying. I keep failing.
Rob decided to be a hero and give the kid an opportunity to drive home from the gas station about a mile or so away. He let her drive his old man truck. First, risky. Second, brave. Third, ummm…no. She came home bragging about how great dad is and blah, blah, blah. Because I must have the last word (and hurrah), I decide to let her give it a whirl in my car.
We were leaving in the morning and we made it through the gate. (Step 5- check) This time, I let her keep going. I had some very mixed emotions at this point, but I am trying to give her some credit and some practice. So we roll on down to the main road. We will now call this death road, because people drive so fast down it that I am sure a car would come out of nowhere and just like that…BAM! Dead. There were not any extra cars on the road this particular morning for some reason, so I thought we might be okay.
Remember the deep ditches? When you are the passenger in a shaky car, those ditches jump out at you more often than you would like. The ditches are scary enough, but the curves that also are lined with deep ditches are enough to take your right out of your seat. I am pretty sure I was holding my breath, gripping the door, and clinching my butt cheeks so tight I almost controlled the car using nothing but the passenger seat.
I think I might have blacked out at some point because the only thing I really remember is yelling, “HUG THE YELLOW!”. Somehow I need to figure out how to get her to stay away from the white line.
I thought that once she had a couple of driving experiences along this road that she would get more comfortable and things would smooth out for all of us. I thought that the next day would be a little better. I decided to let her try the route again. Let me assure you, it was not the magical transformation I had hoped it to be. I was just as scared, if not more so, the next day. I tried to pretend I wasn’t paying attention. I tried to use my calm voice. As she was towing the line between safety and certain death I was doing my very best to praise her.
We finally made it to the railroad tracks where sweet freedom awaited one left turn and a parking lot away. As we came up to the railroad tracks, I try to give her tips on how and when to slow down to turn. Left is my least favorite direction to turn. I didn’t realize how much there is involved in that simple task. The road we were about to turn on is a little tight and I have taken the turn a little bit too fast myself. Without fail, she sort of slowed down, but not did not actually slow down. She took the turn a little too fast and I thought for sure we were going to have some damage as she almost hit something. I have no idea if there is a little ditch there, but there definitely something that felt dangerous.
I shouted out a little bit of “NEVER AGAIN” and raced to the safety of the drivers seat.
She is now signed up for Driver’s Ed.