Stick Shift

I have been spending the last few weekend with Kit Kat. She has been driving my manual transmission Saturn Vue in the local elementary school parking lot. Things have been looking good. She can get it into first gear from a stopped position, even when the car is on an include. She can get the car moving backwards. She can shift between first and second gears.

Last time I pushed Kit Kat to learn automatic transmission rapidly, she had an adverse reaction. That resulted in Momoko having to take over the instruction. This time around I am trying to be a little more patient and gentle. However we cannot drive in the parking lot forever. There is only so fast we can go and so many gears we can get into.

Today I had Kit Kat try to drive over to her friend's house with the manual transmission. There was one steep hill to start the car on. There was also a relatively major road where she needed to get into third gear for higher speeds. She nevered stalled. There was one point where she tried to get it from third to second gear. She missed the gear and was stuck in neutral. We made it though.

I am hoping now that the initial drive in traffic is over, we can proceed on the roads instead of a parking lot. Things are more hectic with a manual transmission. But that is the point. Once you can drive a manual in traffic, you can drive it anywhere. The goal is to have Kit Kat be proficient with the stick shift before she leaves the house for a college dorn in less than one year.