Driving With Dr. Seuss

Today found me out on the road in another brilliantly modified school truck- this one a '93 Freightliner sleeper cab with a backseat where there would usually be a bunk. The truck also had what most everyone calls a "chicken brake"- an auxilliary brake control on the passenger's side, in case a student gets themselves into a tight spot. Fortunately, the chicken brake went unused today. Along with two young ladies and a fellow a few years older than me, plus our long-suffering instructor, we hit the road. We wound up going down Route 5 into East Windsor- there's a diner there, and a Wendy's across the road. So we alternated driving in and around East Windsor, walking (or in some cases lurching) the truck through all the gears, then back down again. Truck transmissions require double-clutching; instead of just moving from gear to gear, as you would in a car, you have to first move out of one gear, into neutral, then back into the new gear. The process differs slightly whether going up or down gears, but all will require using the clutch twice. There is a distinct rhythm to this, and it is occasionally hard to get down perfectly- most drivers occasionally miss a shift and grind gears, (if you can't find it, grind it) but that's a big no-no on the state test. However, to catch the shift pattern almost all the time, I noticed that you can say "one fish, two fish" and get it- tap the clutch on "one" and "two", and the rest of the time the gears are either engaged or in neutral, to get into gear. (It actually is that quick, and is for all intents and purposes one motion.) So now I'm driving along, going "one fish, two fish", with everyone looking at me like I inhaled too many exhaust fumes. But I did get the shifting down, and explained what I was doing. Everyone still looked at me like I was nuts, but it worked.