I took the incredibly easy standardized driving test and recieved my temps (Temporary Student Driver License) just a few days ago. Today my dad decided that I should practice driving, so he tells me that he needs to get some paper towels at WalMart, and that I am going to drive him there. Naturally I repond with "No Way!" figuring I don't know much about driving, and I don't have any experience at all driving a car. Not to mention he has me going on busy 4 lane roads and twisting country roads just to get there.

He replies "OK, well, how about I drive first, and you drive coming back." That sounded fair to me, so I went along. While we were driving toward WalMart, I studied everything dad was doing, and listened carefully to everything he said.

"Remember, driving will become more natural as you get the feel of the car..." he reminded me every so often. We finaly got there, and I was almost in a daze, I guess. It was wierd, I didn't feel nervous, I just completely blocked everything out of my mind except what was to come. He found the paper towels (some off-brand that mom scolded him about later), and used the self service station. With all the confusion of teaching me the rules of the road, he forgot where he parked, so we spent a while searching throught the vast over-crowded parking lot. We found it. Instinctively, since there wasn't a way of getting out of this one, I entered, for the first time, in the driverside of the car. He turns the car on.

I really didn't know where the turn signal lever was, or the rules of shifting in a grand scale or braking, but before we moved, dad camly explained to me all these things and gave a few last minute reminders. I put the car in reverse and performed a "textbook" turn out of the space, shifted into drive, then went forward. One thing I didn't know was the amount of pressure that was to be applied to the gas. I didn't realize that you barely press and it accelerates rather quickly. I guess that is all part of "getting the feel of the car."

The rest of what happened was all kind of a blur. I was concentrating on the road, not trying to remember it. I still can't believe I did it. But what happend at home is a different story.

Mom definitely didn't like the idea of making me traverse so many busy streets on my first time driving. Dad got yelled at for what seemed like forever. Mom said that I should have practiced in an empty parking lot. Oh well, at least I survived! I didn't cause any accidents, drive off the road, drive on the wrong side of the road, or get the infamous finger. I followed all the rules, although I did go kind of slow sometimes. It was actually kind of fun!

To give you an idea of where I drove:



Doesn't look like very far now that I look at it, but it seemed like it at in the beginning. It was only about 6.27 miles.

What were your first driving experiences like?

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Congrats! I got my license not too long ago, and my first car as well. In my first 2 weeks of owning the car i put over 1000 miles on it! :P I think I've owned it a few months now and it's advanced ~5000 miles since I bought her lol. I drive alot though especially on the weekends mostly to go see my GF who lives 2-3 cities away.

My first time driving was also with my dad. He took me to a construction site where there was already paved roads and sto p signs but no houses or traffic. We went around and around taking different paths every time, he taught me how fast to go around curves and such jsut to get a general idea of how hard to break and how far to cut the wheel to stay in my lane and all that.

I guess I learned well, although I have somewhat of a temper when I'm in a hurry. Actually I jsut got home and it's almost midnight lol. On my way home there is a LONNNG strip of road where the speed limit is 55MPH. For whatever reason people always decide to go 40-45MPH and just crusie, and it pisses me off. I end up going around people even though it's 1 lane. In my hurry tonight I looked down at my speedometer and seen that I was going 80MPH, and I hadn't even realized it lol. I jsut can't stand late night joy riders.

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Well done Schmidget

Bit risky posting a map to your house though :P

like anyone is going to be able to figure out where my house is from 148,300,000 km^2 of earth's land

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You googled for that figure didn't you :P

Anyway, what's the prize if I figure out your address (at least to a street)?

If you figure out my street, I'll say "Congrats!" Unfortunately, I don't have anything to give you as a prize. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't give it to you. You can try for fun.

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Not bad!

@Schmidget

welll done, i was wondering how that tree got knocked down though lol, arnt u lucky tho, i got another 8months b4 i can give it a shot [MOVE]CONGRATULATIONS[/MOVE] thx dave

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