Driver's License

[SongDragon]

Well it's about time!

I finally got my driver's license! Yippee! I could even drive down to my sister's school in New Jersey! Only problem is I would have to drive back... I would have no where to stay down there since she hasn't asked permissions. Bah...

I can drive, I can drive! I'm lucky he put it as a "sharp left hand turn" rather than putting that I drove on the wrong side of the road at one point. I did explain that I had just come back from England.

My biggest fear was that I would have a driving test person that sat next to me and said nothing, other than perhaps directions. No, it wasn't bad at all, he spoke to me about allergies (dust, etc) and my ex-boyfriend, what I do for a job, am I going to college, what I wanted to do, etc.

I was so worried I failed the written exam (they said you couldn't get more than two wrong, and I got three wrong), but I did alright. So watch out, I'm on the road! Sister Rose, can I borrow those keys to the Rudie bus?

~Song

[Lin]

Good for you Song!! This will open up a whole new world to you!!!

Happy driving! Lin

[Dee]

Well done indeed. Congratulations. :D May all your road trips be of the safe variety.

[Agnes]

Congratulations, Song! Be safe ;) :D

[david uk]

Well done Song!!

[Rowy]

Well done Song. Please drive carefully.

Rowy :)

[Rkitko]

Congrats, Song :) Hope you never have to learn the lessons the hard way that the road has to offer. Best of luck and safe driving!

[AceOn6]

Congrats and enjoy.

[sister rose]

Sister Rose, can I borrow those keys to the Rudie bus?

You bet!! And I will be your personal bus-driving instructor! :rolleyes:

Clear the sidewalks....Song and Sister coming through!!! :D

[hoops]

from a driver to a new license carrier, learn well, drive fun
pax
hoops

[Denise]

CONGRATULATIONS SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is so cool!
Of course, driving my school bus, I know so many high school kids who have done the same and I see how exciting that new step to independence is for them. I also get so disappointed when I see some of them piling other kids in their cars after school, before they are allowed to, and start risky behavior right away.
(Our state has a 6-month period where new drivers cannot have other teens in the car with them. Do you have that also Song?)
But, I have a good feeling that you will be one of those that will do what's right!
Good for you!!! :)

[KarenSews2]

May you have many years of safe driving!

Denise, Indiana has a 3-month waiting period.

[SongDragon]

Thank you! Oh yes, we can get a mighty good start on running the red lights from here, Sister Rose!

Denise, my state does have a law like that, but it is only if you are under eighteen. After you're eighteen and have your driver's license you can have anyone you want in your car (I think, I'll double check that, though I checked it last night). Yeah, I think I'll be leaving after everyone else goes. The parking lot is so dangerous, and I scare pretty easy in my Dad's manual. At least if anyone beeps at me.

Don't worry, I'll stay safe!

~Song

[Bat]

Aha! You've learned one important lesson already, Song...parking lots are the most dangerous places in the world...be very aware in all directions at once!
The really important one, never to forget for one minute--ever!--is that a Car Is A Lethal Weapon. It can kill, just by bumping into something or someone. It can kill someone else or it can kill you. As long as you remember that, nothing else need ever be said.

I don't think that I could ever have waited until I was 18 to be able to drive-- I was first in line at the BMV the morning of my l6th birthday, and haven't stopped having a love affair with driving ever since. In fact, I wanted to drive out to California from Ohio this July, but found it would cost twice as much as a round trip flight, so opted to fly, which is not a bad second choice for me...I love it almost as much as driving--and if I could fly a plane, that would be the ultimate!
Congratulations on your license, and have many long miles of fun! ;)

[Rika]

Congratulations Song!!!! Wel done!! Enjoy your license, drive safely, but did they tell you that a car react different when you are alone in the car or you are with more people in it? In the Netherlands this is one of the reasons why, in the weekend (young) people with a new license, get an accident. BTW i'm so interested how you have learned it from the beginning to the end is it possible to write me your historie?

[invsbl_wife]

You go, girl! (But go carefully!)

Congratulations!

[SongDragon]

Yes, I know that cars react differently with different amounts of people. Technically I've already driven several cars full of people. They don't specifically make rules about it when you have a permit, as long as someone over twenty who has had their driver's license for four years is in the car teaching you... Basically they figure everyone else will be smart enough to stay away. So I've driven with my younger cousin (still a teenager and one of my best friends) as well as my sister (who has a nice habbit of talking non-stop when I'm making a difficult merge). I've also driven with Mom (not as a driving instructor, but because her driving is worse than mine), Grandma (BMW, yummy), Dad (manual transmission, also main car I'm supposed to use), Granpop (main driving instructor, car I used for test, drives for a living), and Burt (step grandfather, I learned about driving a huge truck with him (also drove a friend in it, after picking her up for a party). So I've driven with many different people, and hopefully can't get distracted too easily.

Rika, I would be happy to tell you all about my driving experiences. From the time I got the permit (when I was sixteen) up until now Grandpop has really put me through the hoops. My original final was a drive up to Boston, MA (a long distance drive with lots of people who think a red light means "step on it"). I don't think I can manage it in one night, however. I got the better of Grandpop a few times, my depth perception is pretty darn good, and soon Grandpop had to admit that he should have trusted my judgement. It took quite a while to get me to say anything angry behind the wheel, but when I did oh boy did I let loose! That was a really bad day, though...

And my sister wants me to teach her how to drive. Hah! As if I haven't got my own difficulties. Lucky for me (unlucky for her) it is illegal for me to teach her how to drive. She had better get her license before two years are up instead of waiting for me to teach her (and stop badgering me to come to the same college) or... I don't know. However I know I never want to teach anyone to drive, at least not right away.

~Song

[Rika]

Rika, I would be happy to tell you all about my driving experiences. From the time I got the permit (when I was sixteen) up until now Grandpop has really put me through the hoops.

Thank you Song. Take your time. Sometimes i have some American, mostly women, in my car. They live for a long time in the Netherlands and do need a Netherlands drivers license. They have a lot of problems with Bicycles and speed and round abouts(these are so small!!!). It is in the Netherlands not allowed to teach someone to drive a car, without a instructeurs license, we have to study 6 months to 1,5 year. And if you want to have a specialisme, you have to study more. Now, i may teach "normal"people, "very old"people and people who are "too scared" to drive a car(and some of them do have a drivers lincese)or people who are afraid to fail, or have had a stroke etc. My oldest pupil now, here name is Stien, she is almost 68 and her first examen in in May.
If you have your story ready, may i put it on my website? Would love to??

[SongDragon]

We also have people who work as driving instructors. They also teach the drug and alcohol courses. I had been looking forward to my encounter with him when I had to take my eight hour drug and alcohol course, because I knew him! He had been my technology education teacher, and when I had last known him he had owned a Ferrari and taught people how to drive on race tracks with their fast cars in his spare time. Now he has an even better car, and it was interesting to listen to him because he had so many stories. Even he agreed that Grandpop had sent me through the hoops, however!

I would have troubles with the bicycles, but not the roundabouts. I come from a small, quiet area of my state, but always a slightly bizarre area. In one town, right where in most of the towns there would be a center four way stop or stop lights, there is a tiny roundabout. I had to go through it almost every single time to get to my house, and a few extra times just so I knew how to do them since Grandpop was sure I would never be bound inside my own country for driving experiences.

A few months after I had started learning with Grandpop and we had begun to get out on highways and other roads (since we had started on back roads) we were just starting out after school. I'm usually very nervous when I first start out, clutching at the wheel tightly, my fingers going all the way around (until I did the "Jennifer maneuver" as Grandpop later called it, just a strange way of stretching my wrists and fingers that those who have driven with me have adopted). Almost immediately I was confident in the car now, taking control (I don't do confidence very well), and we went out beyond a car making a left turn, very nicely judging the space to either side of me. That wasn't the first time he had to compliment me on knowing where the sides of the car were, nor the last time. We had to go learn to park! I can't even describe to you the strange mixture of frustration, pride, and confusion when he realized that I got the car between the two white lines almost perfectly the first time. On the test this really helped me because I had to back into a parking space, and I certainly wasn't willing to tell the inspector I had never done that before. No other cars around, I wasn't about to tap anyone. So I pulled beyond it and wasn't sure if I could get in from this angle. I made it in, but I wasn't sure if it was in the lines, square, so I pulled out straight and backed in again, making slight adjustments. The inspector must have already decided, because at that point he was helping me saying "back, back, back" because I'm not too sure when backing up and I did not want to strike the curb. As soon as he said "Get out and check to see if the front tire and back tire are equally far away from the line" I knew I had passed. I looked out, and even I was amazed and rather prideful. The inspector tried to kid me, but now I was unflappable, I knew I had passed.

So... that's one story about that. Though really it's two stories combined. My depth perception was the one abbility that stunned Grandpop the most, and by the end, I was rather proud of it, too.

~Song

[Eva]

Congratiolations SongDragon! Please remember that being a good driver takes years of experience. Passing the exam and getting your license is a good start.

I have my license for twenty years now, but I don't like to drive. Besides that I have never owned a car because I find it very expensive. I haven't driven for years. You can imagine that I am a very lousy driver by now... :D

Eva

[RedjackRyan]

Congrats Song, but promise me you won't take driving lessons from Sister Rose...

[Manchester]

Congratulations, Song! :D

Very well done - see, I told you if you went everywhere with your eyes closed in the UK it wouldn't affect your US driving!

Everyone else has covered the important new driver caveats - do take them all on board, and then enjoy your new independence.

[dragonlady]

Congrats my dragon friend!! The day I got my license my mom handed me the keys to the family car and told me that I was now the taxi driver for the family...she was now retired! The first time I tried to drive to our local mall I got lost since I'd been a passenger all the other time I'd gone. I eventually got the hang of it though. :o

Drive safe and have fun!

-di

[SongDragon]

Manchester--After one left turn I ended up on the wrong side of the road. He put it down as a "sharp left" so that I could still pass, but I really did think I was on the correct side of the road for a few seconds.

Thank you all... I'm still not too sure about this driving thing, but I suppose it'll come in handy going to get a prom dress.

~Song