There is a certain right of passage in learning how to drive a stick shift. Tonight, Jake decided he was ready to give it a go. As I drove over to the COR parking lot I gave him some pointers. I asked if he had any questions - nope, none. He was excited. As we pulled in the drive we saw a lot of bunnies. Jake thought it was cute how they'd hop into the tall grass.
Jake slid into the drivers seat and assured me he knew what to do. "I watched a video." I giggled to myself. I told him to relax and tried to explain the art of maneuvering the clutch, even though Jake wasn't listening. I turned off the radio, even though Jake objected. Nope, no radio. I then tried to make myself as loose as possible - I didn't want all my muscles tight... I put on my seat belt. I knew what was about to happen.
The parking lot was not perfectly flat so Jake had a bit of gravity helping him along, since we were pointing downhill.
Attempt #1 - hop, hop, the car died.
I was calm and said, "you can do this!"
Attempts 2 - 5 - hop, hop, jerk, jerk, and the car died every time.
I wish I would have taken a picture. His eyes were huge and he was a little concerned at this point.
Again, I was reassuring. "Try, try again."
This time he did it!
"Ok, now stop and let's do it again."
He looked a bit worried but he did it. We had a wide range of bunny hops and peel outs. He shifted into second - sometimes without even so much as a hop. :-)
We spent the better part of 45 minutes wandering from parking lot of parking lot, never venturing out on any roads.
There was a guy and his Mom driving around is a big red truck. We saw them several times but never shared a parking lot. We were kind of making a figure eight between two parking lots, adding frequent starts and stops. We came up to the intersection and were blind to the left. Thankfully Jake was driving fairly slowly. Out of nowhere the red truck showed up just ahead of us. Both boys slammed on the brake. Jake forgot to push the clutch, did a couple hops and the car died. We both burst into a fit of nervous laughter. Both vehicles sat still for an uncomfortable amount of time. I waved the big red truck across in front of us. Jake started the car, made the turn and did pretty well getting around the corner.
He drove to the top of the hill and called it a night. He said, "this is going to be a little harder than I thought." I remember that feeling. I think it was a bit humbling for him.
As I drove home I had him hold the shifter under my hand. He turned the radio back on and I turned it off wanting him to listen to the engine. I told him for a while it would be best to keep the radio off. He needs to focus and listen. At this point he completely agreed.
I had to jockey the cars around so he was in the house well before me.
I thought he did a great job for his first time.
I don't know what he told Jack, but my take was all positive. I don't have whiplash. I didn't raise my voice at all. I did giggle a little - not just tension release but he got the funniest looks on his face. It's just gonna take some time, but he'll get there.
:-)
xo
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