Graduation and meeting the Training Engineer

Sorry for not updating everyone. I haven't had internet access since we checked out of the hotel on Friday. Here's what happened:

We took the written test. Everyone passed. One person had to stay for backing remedial. We had the graduation ceremony, took pictures, etc. I managed to get the honors student award. I guess a certain "incident" that I had to call in to safety on Wednesday didn't affect my driving score that much. No, I didn't hit anything, but it was mighty close. Basically, some guy ran a red light and forced me out of my lane while I was trying to make a right turn, and I came within about 1 or 2 inches of a light pole.

So, we all graduated and got our assignments. My teammate and I were assigned to the same TE who is on a Sears dedicated account in Delano, CA. We were supposed to ride a van to Delano on Friday, but the hotel was sold out, so we had to hang out in Ontario, CA for a couple of days and pick up a rental car on Sunday. The great news is that we get to keep the rental car for the week so that we won't be trapped at the hotel.

Anyway, my teammate and I are out with our TE. He is home every night, so we're staying in a hotel instead of sleeping in the truck every night. Pretty sweet, except that we're based in Delano, CA. If you've never been to Delano.. well.. don't hurry.

At about 2300 on Sunday night, the TE calls us and tells us to meet him in the hotel lobby at 0200 on Monday. That's right. We had 3 hours notice. I had the fun task of driving from Delano to Modesto on less than 3 hours of sleep. The TE drove from Modesto to Stockton, and I drove the rest of the way from Stockton to Sacramento. My teammate drove back to Delano while I slept.

Our TE told us that he is pleased with our driving. He's also great about giving us some pointers. So far, he's not seeing any reason not to release us from his custody on Friday, which means that we'll be back in Colorado on Sunday. Woohoo!!