Have We Been Misled?

As I mentioned yesterday, Robert told us that there wasn’t anybody in the motel waiting for a trainer. However, last night I met a guy in the motel who has been waiting about a week for a new trainer after his last one hit a deer, damaging his truck. This guy told me that when he checked in last weekend, there were “a bunch of guys” waiting for trainers, but got put on a bus for Texas, since there aren’t any trainers in this area.

So were they shipped off in order to make room for us new guys? What’s the deal?

Or was he just making up stuff, to make himself feel better for getting stuck in the motel while waiting for a new trainer?

Anyway, I’m not too worried just yet. But if we’re going to be stuck here for any amount of time, I am definitely going to want them to change our room, since we were originally told we’d have a refrigerator and a microwave, but we don’t. I didn’t care at first, but if I need to be here long, I am going to need “real” food, not the expensive IHOP next door, or the $1 menu from the McDonalds around the corner.

It’s Sunday, there’s no LDS church close by, or I’d consider going (even though I didn’t pack any of my Sunday best), so we’re spending the day – it seems – sitting in the motel watching Discovery.

More later… perhaps.

I Am Official

Got up this morning, exercised, showered, ate, and caught the van to orientation. Completed my computer based junk and took a reading comprehension test. You know, tough stuff.

Just after I finished, I ate (Texas Ham and Cheese sandwich), and started filling out the all-important benefits enrollment paperwork. As I was finishing it up, Robert (the orientation instructor) called me up, handed me my badge, my medical card, the name of my Driver Manager (dispatcher), and said as soon as there is an available driver trainer, I’ll be on the road.

He told me there isn’t anybody (outside of my orientation class) currently waiting for a trainer, so the wait shouldn’t be too long (possibly as soon as today). Until then, I’ll be holed up at the motel.

Let’s cross our fingers.

Orientation Begins

I wasn’t able to sleep as long as I had wanted to, yesterday, getting only about 3 hours. I woke up with a rumble in my gut, a pitiful cry for food. I did the math. I hadn’t eaten since about 5 PM the night before and figured it was fair to get up and satisfy the growling monster below.

Immediately next door to La Quinta, San Bernardino, is a cozy little restaurant called “Crabby Bobs Seafood.” I walked past it to the IHOP. Had their “Big” breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 sausage links, 2 bacon strips, hash browns, 2 pancakes (bottomless – if necessary), and a tall glass of grapefruit juice. By the time I was done, the growling monster had become the groaning belly-pig.

I decided to go for a walk, stretch my legs, help my breakfast settle into its new home, and maybe see if there was anything to do nearby (Josh had asked me earlier, since I had already had the mind-blowing experience of trudging my luggage from the bus stop, if I had seen anything fun to do, since we had the entire day to waste).

I walked past about a half-dozen restaurants, a number of hotel/motel establishments, and I understood why the street is named “Hospitality Lane.” Nothing after that.

I turned a corner and walked for a while, crossing one of those overflow concrete rivers that you see all the time on TV and another river-that-was. Currently nothing more than a bed of sand with a little water trickling along, down from the mountains. Eventually the sidewalk ended, nothing interesting in sight, so I turned around and started back for the inn. Hoping that the azure sky and toasty sun didn’t scorch my hairless pate and arms too badly. It doesn’t seem to have.

This morning I got up about 4:30, did my pushups (the challenge is to add one each day until I reach 100), I’m up to 29 - though I’ve been doing 30 for the past several days. I did some air-squats, too, for good measure. I’ve decided to do them in addition to the pushups, though I started them later, and am still playing catch-up. I’m up to 22 on those.

Caught the shuttle at about 6:30 this morning, after having a surprisingly good continental breakfast of corn flakes, yogurt, banana, and apple/orange juice (mixed by me), and have been in orientation ever since. I passed the on-sight physical exam, and have just finished eating lunch (provided), which consisted of pork, Spanish rice, and refried beans. Pretty decent food.

We’ve just been filling out pre-employment paperwork all morning, and watching some instructional videos. Pretty much similar stuff ahead. I’ll post more later.

Later:

The day progressed to computer based training (CBTs)… the trainings were pulled off the same server which meant that the long-ish videos that were part of the training took forever to download. The most video-intensive course was supposed to be approximately 20 minutes long… took me over 2 hours. Lame. Anyway, the CBTs started around 2 o’clock, and I finished it at a little after 7.

We did also have a crash course on reading a trucking atlas, which was informative (though mostly repeated information that I picked up while I was in school).

All in all, good times, so far. More tomorrow.

The Journey Begins

The bus ride was uneventful. It seemed no fewer than ¼ of the riders were Hispanic and took this opportunity to chatter throughout the entire ride. Other than preventing anybody else from sleeping, they seemed to be extremely pleasant. I got maybe 45 minutes total of sleep on the 13 hour bus ride. I’m sleepy.

So… I’ve arrived at La Quinta Inn, San Bernardino. They have a shuttle service to pick up new arrivals at the Greyhound Station, but they aren’t able to start shuttling until after 9AM. Because the bus arrived at 6:05, the shuttle was not exactly the best option for me, unless I wanted to hang around the somewhat seedy-looking depot.

Knowing this beforehand I had already planned ahead. I knew I needed to catch the southbound bus on route 2. The closest stop was on E Street and 6^th. Two blocks directly east of the Greyhound station – unfortunately I took directions from the homeless guy just outside the station… when I asked which way was east, he pointed me south. Once I reached G Street and 4^th, I figured out what was wrong and as I could now see the sun starting to peak over the hills, I knew which way was east. It was quite the walk, what with the heavy luggage and Utah-based warm clothes.

Apparently Werner is putting us up in shared quarters. I’ve just met Josh, from Roy. He seems to be a nice guy. Smoker, though… oh well.

More tomorrow (hopefully).