The semi was in the right lane with its turn signal off and no intention of moving over, and Garrett was at the bottom of the Frederick Avenue on-ramp doing about 45 with his knuckles getting lighter. "Do I go in front or behind?" he asked. It was a fair question. It was also the one I'd been waiting for since March.
That was Sunday morning, September 7. Six months to the day after he got his permit, give or take a day, and the first time he'd driven on the interstate.
Why we waited
The log in the van's glovebox said 28 hours going into last weekend, with the 10 night hours finished in July. All of that was on city streets, the Belt Highway, and two-lane county roads. I didn't want his first time going 70 to also be his first time doing anything else new. I wanted the interstate to be the only new thing.
So before Sunday we spent two weeks on the pieces:
- Mirror and shoulder checks on the Belt. Lane changes at 45 with traffic, over and over, saying "mirror, shoulder, go" out loud until it was automatic.
- Getting up to speed. The van is not fast. On a long empty stretch of road he practiced going from a stop to 60 with real throttle, not the polite 15-seconds-to-30 he uses in town. An on-ramp is the one place where timid is dangerous.
- Following distance at speed. On US-36 east of town, which is four lanes and gets you up to highway speeds without the interstate merging. Pick a sign, count the seconds after the car ahead passes it.
Sunday morning
I picked Sunday at about 8 a.m. because traffic on I-29 through St. Joseph is about as thin as it ever gets. Tina stayed home on purpose. She said she'd rather hear about it than watch it, which is how she feels about most of my projects too.
We came down Frederick to the on-ramp and I said one thing before he turned: "Use the whole ramp. Get to the speed of traffic before you need to be in it." He did. He pressed down, the van downshifted and made its noise, and by the bottom of the ramp we were at 55 and climbing. Then the semi.
I spend my workday talking to drivers about trucks, so this is the part I had an opinion on. A loaded semi on a short merge doesn't speed up and it doesn't stop fast. It's a wall moving at 65. The right answer, if you can't get comfortably in front, is to ease off a little and slide in behind it, then give it space. Don't squeeze in front. Don't sit in its blind spot alongside the trailer. If you can't see the driver's mirrors, the driver can't see you.
"Behind," I said. He lifted off the gas, let the trailer go by, checked his mirror and shoulder, and merged in a car length or two behind. Then he backed off a bit more without me saying anything. That last part is the part that told me he understood it.
We went north a couple of exits, got off, turned around, and came back south. About 20 minutes total. On the way back he passed a slow pickup, which meant a lane change to the left at 70 and a lane change back. Mirror, shoulder, signal, go. Then mirror, wait until you can see the whole pickup in the rearview, signal, back over.
He did fine. Better than fine. His speed wandered between 64 and 72 at first, which is normal; on the second stretch he held it at about 68 like he'd been doing it for years. His posture changed too. On the ramp he was leaning forward like he was trying to see into next week. By the end he was sitting back in the seat.
What we practice next
The one thing I wrote in the "work on" column was the exit. He started slowing down while he was still in the travel lane, which is how you get rear-ended. Signal, move into the exit lane, then slow down. We'll do that a few more times before he's allowed to call the interstate easy.
I'll also say the sentimental thing once and then stop. Watching my kid drive us at 70 miles an hour, in the same van that has hauled ten years of groceries and volleyball bags, was a strange feeling. Mostly proud. Partly something else. Then a guy in a Camry cut in front of us without signaling, and Garrett tapped the brakes and said, "Wow, okay," and we were back to practical.
Log updated: 28 hours and 50 minutes, plus one line in the notes column that just says "I-29!"