Conquering The Beast

First of all, I had to get up and into the truck. Not an easy feat for this little Native American woman. I am able to get in on the passenger side and of course trying to get myself up and in on the driver's side was backward and the complete opposite. My legs don't do opposite.

I was determined to get myself up there. This was all about me proving that I COULD drive the Beast, I would not be defeated before I even started! Eventually I pulled and crawled and drug myself up and over the seat (not a pretty sight, quite humbling actually).

After instructing me on how to start the ignition (and there is a trick to doing it), we were off. First thing I noticed was that the dashboard was very high or else I was sitting very low in the seat. I asked Bob if I looked short in the driver's seat. He asked me if I could see over the steering wheel. Ha ha

The front end needs some work so the steering wheel is not straight. Your hands turn to the left about a quarter of a turn. As you drive, you've got to keep correcting the steering wheel because it pulls to one side and then the other. This reminded me of trying to play that Driving Across the US video game. I can never keep my car on the road in that game. Fortunatley there were no deer or other wildlife on the side of the road this day.

Next I was told that the we are actually going 5 miles faster than the speedometer says we are, because of the big tires. Then Bob asked me what the mileage was on the trip meter. Was he serious? I could not even see the trip meter and when I finally located it I realized that I couldn't read those little numbers unless I took off my single vision glasses. I told him not to talk to me for awhile because I was concentrating on keeping us on our side of the white line and watching the speedometer with the stress of a brand new driver.

I could not judge the width of the right side of the vehicle and was surprised that I was not going up over curbs when I had to turn right.

A car came out of a side street and pulled into the road instead of staying at the stop sign just as we came upon it. I slammed on the brakes, locking them up, as Bob yelled at the driver. I didn't have time to check my mirrors or even think of honking the horn. Fortunately we were not hit from behind.

Not too long after this, a car in front of me swerved into the next lane just in time for my lights to shine on approximately 4 feet of a palm tree laying across my lane. We barely missed running over it.