After a long pause, I have decided to revisit on my blogging effort, though being impeded by a lotta factors like reluctance, busy schedules at work, production runs, conference calls, Swami etc.. Thanks to my cousin J Rengaraj, Bali as he is affectionately identified, he had recently started off and reminded me of my days with blogs..
Reflecting on the topics that I could select to write a decent blog, I picked this one since, it’s a topic where most of the United States residents would love to debate about. I had taken several months to settle down here with proper aminities, though guided by my near and dear cousins Sindumani & MK. I had enough support to start my life here and now I’m pretty peaceful..
It was a tiring journey that took me till the DMV and I had finally been approved to drive in this country after a long struggle.. Repeatedly I used to hear from my long timer cousins here that the craving for driving in this country dries out after a couple of long drives, I didn’t have the credentials to comment about that.. Now that I have driven for quite a while, I deem myself fit to talk about my driving..
Probably, differing from the ways people learn to start driving here, I started off my lessons with my own car, after registering it in my cousin’s name. I used to drive in my apartment and by the time I went for my first road test I was pretty comfortable driving. I utilized Venket’s car for my driving tests and the first time I started off the road test, the car didn’t move in the reverse direction, I thought some thing was wrong then and pressed the gas pedal. It immediately took off and the reverse was a bit rash. After that the guy who tested my driving ability asked me to turn left and right, I was doing fine. Though I was a little confident, he rejected me for the initial jerk.
Then the second time, MK visited Chicago and he took me to the DMV. He insisted me to drive from home to DMV office, reluctant to do so, I tried to avoid the same. But he was stubborn and asked me to drive till that place. That gave me the confidence to drive and that was one of the worst days of winter here in Chicago. The road was full of snow and the conditions were really difficult to drive. I managed to reach the place by some means & the same guy turned up for my driving test.
He was surprised with my decision to appear on a day when no one would like to drive and mentioned that the conditions were so difficult, and made sure I was ready for the test. This time he took me to a near by road and asked me to do many more exercises. He was also informing me that I was doing fine and there was no need to be nervous, finally he asked me to do a reverse turn at an intersection. I made sure that I wouldn’t hit the curb, turned carefully.
This time though I forgot to switch on my turn signs, he issued me my DL and he mentioned that I was perfect except that.
Though my driving lessons didn’t stop there, I was slowly driving in my neighborhood, with extreme caution. My first long trip was a trip to Peoria to MK’s place. Though I was very unwilling for a long drive in my antic car, he insisted me to drive from my place to Peoria which was about 150 plus miles. I thought for a moment & set off for a long drive.
To my surprise, that was a silky ride and my car performed really well to get there.. I reached there on time and the fuel efficiency was impressive. I had stayed over in his place for the weekend and drove back with peace on Sunday.
Then after a couple of weeks, I was confident to drive long distance. I rented a car for the weekend & thought of driving to Minneapolis for the weekend. Initially contemplating that I can start some time in the evening, so that I can reach there by mid night and will have two complete days, saw my home really messy and wanted to clean that up and then leave.. Finally by 9:00 PM was done with my stuff and I switched my ignition.
I had printed a couple of map copies and I thought it was an easy route to catch I90/94 which is a single Interstate highway going all the way till St Paul, MN. I opted to avoid tolls to reach the destination, the maps suggested to go through county roads of Wisconsin which were having a speed limit of 45, all the time I was going at slow speeds and was lost in between. I had to call up my cousin to get directions, I was totally messed up, I had all sorts of trouble to find an intersection, no street lights no gas stations was just a dense woodland..Then my cousin Karthic steered me for a little while and by the time I was absolutely exasperated. I managed to find a motionless gas station & decided to take a nap out there, was just about to sleep. There came flashing blue and red lights, uncle SAM who had been following me for a little while turned the siren lights on..
Later he was nice enough to come and ask if everything was okay with me and where I intended to go. I told him that I was struggling to catch I90/94 and finally he drove with me for about 25 miles to guide me to I90/94. After having all this struggle, I covered that trip in 13 to 14 hrs which usually takes 7 hours if you are sharp..
After couple of trips and couple of warnings from Wisconsin Cops, finally got the coveted traffic violation ticket, of course that will be a separate blog..
Reflecting on the topics that I could select to write a decent blog, I picked this one since, it’s a topic where most of the United States residents would love to debate about. I had taken several months to settle down here with proper aminities, though guided by my near and dear cousins Sindumani & MK. I had enough support to start my life here and now I’m pretty peaceful..
It was a tiring journey that took me till the DMV and I had finally been approved to drive in this country after a long struggle.. Repeatedly I used to hear from my long timer cousins here that the craving for driving in this country dries out after a couple of long drives, I didn’t have the credentials to comment about that.. Now that I have driven for quite a while, I deem myself fit to talk about my driving..
Probably, differing from the ways people learn to start driving here, I started off my lessons with my own car, after registering it in my cousin’s name. I used to drive in my apartment and by the time I went for my first road test I was pretty comfortable driving. I utilized Venket’s car for my driving tests and the first time I started off the road test, the car didn’t move in the reverse direction, I thought some thing was wrong then and pressed the gas pedal. It immediately took off and the reverse was a bit rash. After that the guy who tested my driving ability asked me to turn left and right, I was doing fine. Though I was a little confident, he rejected me for the initial jerk.
Then the second time, MK visited Chicago and he took me to the DMV. He insisted me to drive from home to DMV office, reluctant to do so, I tried to avoid the same. But he was stubborn and asked me to drive till that place. That gave me the confidence to drive and that was one of the worst days of winter here in Chicago. The road was full of snow and the conditions were really difficult to drive. I managed to reach the place by some means & the same guy turned up for my driving test.
He was surprised with my decision to appear on a day when no one would like to drive and mentioned that the conditions were so difficult, and made sure I was ready for the test. This time he took me to a near by road and asked me to do many more exercises. He was also informing me that I was doing fine and there was no need to be nervous, finally he asked me to do a reverse turn at an intersection. I made sure that I wouldn’t hit the curb, turned carefully.
This time though I forgot to switch on my turn signs, he issued me my DL and he mentioned that I was perfect except that.
Though my driving lessons didn’t stop there, I was slowly driving in my neighborhood, with extreme caution. My first long trip was a trip to Peoria to MK’s place. Though I was very unwilling for a long drive in my antic car, he insisted me to drive from my place to Peoria which was about 150 plus miles. I thought for a moment & set off for a long drive.
To my surprise, that was a silky ride and my car performed really well to get there.. I reached there on time and the fuel efficiency was impressive. I had stayed over in his place for the weekend and drove back with peace on Sunday.
Then after a couple of weeks, I was confident to drive long distance. I rented a car for the weekend & thought of driving to Minneapolis for the weekend. Initially contemplating that I can start some time in the evening, so that I can reach there by mid night and will have two complete days, saw my home really messy and wanted to clean that up and then leave.. Finally by 9:00 PM was done with my stuff and I switched my ignition.
I had printed a couple of map copies and I thought it was an easy route to catch I90/94 which is a single Interstate highway going all the way till St Paul, MN. I opted to avoid tolls to reach the destination, the maps suggested to go through county roads of Wisconsin which were having a speed limit of 45, all the time I was going at slow speeds and was lost in between. I had to call up my cousin to get directions, I was totally messed up, I had all sorts of trouble to find an intersection, no street lights no gas stations was just a dense woodland..Then my cousin Karthic steered me for a little while and by the time I was absolutely exasperated. I managed to find a motionless gas station & decided to take a nap out there, was just about to sleep. There came flashing blue and red lights, uncle SAM who had been following me for a little while turned the siren lights on..
Later he was nice enough to come and ask if everything was okay with me and where I intended to go. I told him that I was struggling to catch I90/94 and finally he drove with me for about 25 miles to guide me to I90/94. After having all this struggle, I covered that trip in 13 to 14 hrs which usually takes 7 hours if you are sharp..
After couple of trips and couple of warnings from Wisconsin Cops, finally got the coveted traffic violation ticket, of course that will be a separate blog..
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