Riding With Andrea

I was so glad the day came when Andrea got behind the wheel and drove.  It was a long time coming.  Before Andrea got her permit there were quite a few people willing to teach her how to drive.  After I told them Andrea had her permit and now she is ready to learn, no one was willing.  One couple went as far as scheduling a time to teach her.  When the time came they had something to do.  We rescheduled.  They even called saying they were running late.  They never came.  I didn't seek them out again.  Others recommended driving schools.

I contacted my home teacher at church who in turned talked it over with the Elders Quorum.  A mam called me with lots of questions.  How old is Andrea?  When does school start?  You do have a vehicle available to you?  Whose name is it in?  Is it insured?  When can she get her license?  When I told him she had to keep her permit a year and a day he said something about having plenty of time.  I knew I had to keep looking. 

To satisfy the Joshua's Law requirement I found online classes for the thirty hours of classroom work at all kinds of prices.  I found a parent guided driving Manuel to satisfy the six hours behind the wheel requirement. requirement. 

I put an ad in Craigslist for a driving instructor.  We were very fortunate.  We found a driving instructor from Los Angeles who's here helping his mother through cancer treatments.  So far Andrea has had one two hour lesson.  It matched the DMV's guided lesson for the first two sessions.  That was impressive.  Andrea got to do a lot of meaningful driving as well.  She was taught how to back out of the driveway.  We drove the neighborhood streets several times.  She practiced turning, stopping, going up hill, going downhill, things she'll need to know and all on our neighborhood streets.  The average person would had stopped there or kept driving the neighborhood.  Next he had her drive on a two lane road with stop lights, more hills and turning lanes.  They went into a church parking lot to refined her hand motions while turning.  After the two lane road a few times, they moved on to a four lane road.  She drove the four lane road about half a mile before making a left turn at the light back into our neighborhood. 

Andrea got a good report.  He likes how Andrea listened and followed directions.  I rode in the back and I was impressed with Andrea as well.  She drove very well.  On the two and four lane roads her instructor said it's permissible to go five miles under to ten mile over the posted speed limit while driving normally.  But always be safe.  Andrea chose five mile under.  He had to tell her to slow down once while going down a hill. Speed was her major turning issue.  her acceleration and slowing down was smooth.  Most of her stops were smooth too. 

Georgia also requires forty hours of supervised driving.  Six of which must be at night.  I hope I can get someone or various someones to ride with andrea so she can get her time in.  I can't afford a pay the instructor to simply ride with her.  Like the driving schools I'm aiming for six hours of instruction.