Ankle Twinges [cars]
Jan. 27th, 2024 05:28 pmAs part of the preparations for automobile shopping, today ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scrottie took me out in Princess TinyHouse, his vintage 1970's Toyota Dolphin camper, to practice driving a stick shift (manual transmission).
Here he is explaining to me the correct engine warm-up procedures, which I dutifully copied down on the back of an envelope into a flowchart:
I appreciated learning more about what a choke does, exactly. I guess it's pretty accurately named.
When I mentioned our driving practice plans to my rowing teammates at coffee this morning, one of them said the phrase, "Corporate Woods." This is apparently one of the great places to go in our area if you are just learning how to drive. She was right. We weren't hassled even once, and after we'd been there just a few minutes the sole car that had been in the lot we went to drove off. We also quickly figured out some more elaborate driving loops to try out once I got bored of just looping around the lot (remember, push down the clutch pedal when going around corners!).
I have a nervous-reflex thing where sometimes I don't quite know how to let up on the clutch when starting to move from a dead stop. Stressful. But overall S didn't poop his pants even once, and eventually I managed to reach a point where I could drive us from the Corporate Woods to the grocery co-op, where I asshole parked across 3 stalls and then we got groceries and got out of there before it got even more crowded.
My left ankle muscles apparently did not appreciate the bonus workout following our usual tough Saturday morning erg workout, as they are now rather twingey.
Trying to think through all the extra details to remember while driving stick made a lot of extra smoke come out of my ears. I can see how after a point a person could operate more on muscle memory, but I'm definitely still a ways off from that stage.
One benefit of practicing in Princess TinyHouse is that other drivers don't really expect "normal" driving speeds or behaviors from a vintage camper. The joke's going to be on them if I do wind up getting a manual transmission vehicle that is better-disguised than Princess TinyHouse. Maybe I should get a Driving School bumper sticker for it.
I should probably tell my Bicycling students about all of my adventures learning to drive stick.
scrottie took me out in Princess TinyHouse, his vintage 1970's Toyota Dolphin camper, to practice driving a stick shift (manual transmission).Here he is explaining to me the correct engine warm-up procedures, which I dutifully copied down on the back of an envelope into a flowchart:
I appreciated learning more about what a choke does, exactly. I guess it's pretty accurately named.
When I mentioned our driving practice plans to my rowing teammates at coffee this morning, one of them said the phrase, "Corporate Woods." This is apparently one of the great places to go in our area if you are just learning how to drive. She was right. We weren't hassled even once, and after we'd been there just a few minutes the sole car that had been in the lot we went to drove off. We also quickly figured out some more elaborate driving loops to try out once I got bored of just looping around the lot (remember, push down the clutch pedal when going around corners!).
I have a nervous-reflex thing where sometimes I don't quite know how to let up on the clutch when starting to move from a dead stop. Stressful. But overall S didn't poop his pants even once, and eventually I managed to reach a point where I could drive us from the Corporate Woods to the grocery co-op, where I asshole parked across 3 stalls and then we got groceries and got out of there before it got even more crowded.
My left ankle muscles apparently did not appreciate the bonus workout following our usual tough Saturday morning erg workout, as they are now rather twingey.
Trying to think through all the extra details to remember while driving stick made a lot of extra smoke come out of my ears. I can see how after a point a person could operate more on muscle memory, but I'm definitely still a ways off from that stage.
One benefit of practicing in Princess TinyHouse is that other drivers don't really expect "normal" driving speeds or behaviors from a vintage camper. The joke's going to be on them if I do wind up getting a manual transmission vehicle that is better-disguised than Princess TinyHouse. Maybe I should get a Driving School bumper sticker for it.
I should probably tell my Bicycling students about all of my adventures learning to drive stick.
