Shifting Gears

In our latest developing news, Ashley has learned to drive stick! I know, it sounds surprising that a guy from the suburbs of Salt Lake City is teaching a Texan country girl to drive stick, but that's the way it is. Ashley's truck has no AC, and it's ridiculously expensive to fix that, so the only sensible solution is to teach her to drive my car. Since I walk to work, it doesn't inconvenience me at all.

We started Saturday. It was a little rough at first, until I told her she just needed to "feel the car." Kinda like Obi-wan telling Luke to trust his feelings during lightsaber practice with the blast shield down. After that, she got really good at starting from a stop. Then we went out on the road to let her practice shifting gears. We ended up making some drivers really mad, since she was really cautious about getting into the right gear and slowly letting out the clutch, but we made it home in one piece.

Sunday, Ashley was able to get us home from church without a single problem! I suppose she did shift into 3rd instead of 5th once, and 1st instead of 3rd once, but the real critical parts she did perfectly. Way to go Ashley!