gonzo liberal's Left Hook

[ Thursday, September 29, 2005 ]

 

Another rite of passage marked.
Daughter's driving lesson.
She's nineteen. Graduated from high school last year, is now in a one year tech school for computers. She's always been afraid to learn how to drive, afraid of the traffic more than the car. She's not progressed further than backing the car in and out of the driveway.
So, out the driveway and down the road we go. Traveling about 15 mph, down one block, make a signalled left turn, then a quick right into the beach parking lot. So far, so good.
Turn around, retrace route back to house. She was understeering and not quite making the turns, but she made it back to the house without hitting anything. Until I asked her to "pull over".
Across from the house is one of the county parks. There are three large telephone poles lying parallel to the road marking some parking spots. I asked her to pull into that rather large area. Here's where the understeering bit us in the ass. Pulling in, she failed to turn back out in time and hit one of the telephone poles with the right front tire. Not a glancing blow, but a full-on hit to the butt end, speed about 5 mph.
Yup, it busted up the front end good, to the tune of about $1500. The old truck had to make a few trips to Columbia whilst injured mini-van was in the repair shop. Daughter has big self-inflicted guilt trip going. Dad (me) has a different lesson plan in mind for the next installment... I envision a large, empty parking lot with daughter pulling in and out of the marked spaces without hitting any white lines... and maybe the next driving lesson will be in the old truck...

gonzoliberal [7:59 AM]