Day 317: Parallel Parking

I still remember my driver’s ed driving test. Everything was pretty easy...except for the parallel parking. I still remember well my teacher sounding out instructions over the radio and the orange cones being knocked over one after another. Ultimately I was unable to get that “big” car into the small, tight parking space. Despite my poor performance in parking, I still did well enough to pass my test and get my license. Consequently, parallel parking was quickly chased to a remote part of my memory and was replaced by the excitement of finally being able to legally drive. Little did I realize however, how handy the parallel parking skill would later become.

Flash forward eight years to the day Sue and I arrived in Washington D.C. to start medical school. I remember well arriving at our Capitol Hill apartment and finding that the only parking available was on the street. With Sue in the passenger seat and my landlords watching, I was once again asked to parallel park and put our Camry in between two other vehicles. This experience went about as well as the driver’s ed experience...although my failure this time was a little more embarrassing. Luckily after this second disastrous experience, I had four years of congested D.C. streets to help me master the art of parallel parking.

Well, the last few days I have felt like I was back in driver’s education class. I decided to take a three day course to qualify to get a license for our new uparmored vehicles that we are driving out here in Afghanistan--the Cougar. I have mentioned these vehicles before in previous posts. When I first arrived there were essentially none of these here at Camp Stone. Now, almost everyone drives them. They are huge compared to the Humvee. Most importantly, they are safer than their predecessors. Outside of the risk of rolling this top-heavy giant, you are pretty safe once you are strapped down inside one of these monsters.

It has been an interesting course and valuable to learn more about how to drive, maintain, and evacuate yourself from the vehicle. Tomorrow is the driving portion of the course. We will be “tested” on what we have learned and our ability to traverse the dusty Afghan countryside. Hopefully I will pass. I should do fine...unless parallel parking is on the agenda!