So I’ve been driving for 10 years, but have only driven automatic transmission vehicles the entire time. For the last two years, I’ve been wanting to learn how to operate a manual transmission, as I can only operate one of the two vehicles that we have. On our first outing (maybe a year ago?), I think Mike was in for a fairly bumpy ride, and stalls aplenty. Now time for business. Round 2 was 2 weeks ago at the DVC overflow parking lot- not a car in sight, except one other would-be driver. Managed to shift from 1-2-3rd gear (low gear jeep), but didn’t downshift, or reverse. Stalled a few times as I attempted to get comfortable with how much to release the clutch.

Try #3 happened today, and it was the most successful yet. I only stalled once trying to reverse out of parked position over a period of an hour and a half. As the bored passenger, Mike decided to start playing a game with me to try to speed up how long it took me to shift gears and response time by yelling out, “Stop!” “Go!” “2nd gear!” “Park!” “Reverse!” and timing how long it took me to reverse out of a parking spot and move forward in first gear. I wanted to swat him like a fly at one point when he sped up his maniacal commands, but I must admit that my response time and shifting smoothness improved quite a lot as a result. Woohoo! I think it’s time move out of the parking lot to tackle driving in a neighborhood next. A flat one please.