Rachael gets her license

Rachael got her driver's license!!! 

It was a winding journey to becoming a licensed driver but there were blessings along the way. Rachael took Driver's Ed back in 2019, but driving was stressful and practice took a lot of energy. I would take her out to practice and it didn't always go well. One time she asked to stop driving, because she said she kept envisioning hitting other cars. It was just too much. We took it slowly. Drive time with the driver's ed class is supposed to happen with in a few weeks of the class but we never scheduled it. The pandemic hit and she was ready to practice. Luckily the pandemic meant that they weren't enforcing the driver's ed timeframes anymore and we'd get the 6 hours of behind the wheel time despite being a year later. She did 2 of the 3 drive times with an instructor, but the first time out he talked politics the whole time and that certainly didn't make for a low stress endeavor. The second time out she was at least prepared for that. But he got injured and the last time got canceled. 

I took her driving in parking lots, and around UMBC. The Covid-19 shutdown in March was the perfect time to get on the highway, and we put in some hours. It was great to do highways with so many fewer cars on the road. Through 2020 Jim and I logged hours behind the wheel with her and she got more and more comfortable. It got less scary and less stressful. She played a Hozier play list each time. She scheduled her test in August, only to discover a few days ahead that it was canceled due to overbooking at the MVA. We also realized she had to log the last session with a driving instructor. So we got that scheduled and she got picked up from her new apartment. 

Since Rachael had recently moved out, I was driving her to and from work, and usually we had her take the wheel to practice. I quickly saw this time as a great blessing. It was a great chance to catch up with Rachael and hang out. With the pandemic we weren't getting together much otherwise and the driving was a great opportunity to see her.  I looked forward to it. Rachael scheduled a new test session in December so we did some parking practice and ran through the new Covid modified driving test. We went to the MVA and were surprised to find out that the appointment was not the right type. It bought us a few more weeks of work taxi time together and more practice. Every month Rachael grew in maturity and got comfortable driving. She scheduled for a 3rd time and it got canceled due to snow. 

Finally March 3 was the day. Jim took her out to practice parking and then that day I picked her up early, and we used borrowed traffic cones for more practice. I took her down to the MVA and everything went smoothly. She took the test in the Rav-4 because we were confident it had no issues and had a back-up camera. She did great and said it was easier than expected. We waited for our number to be called and she made it official. I am so proud of her.

We did the work taxi for another week while we got her used to the Xtera and then we let her bring it to her apartment. The journey was longer than we expected but it got us to the right place. We are all confident that she is ready to be behind the wheel. God Bless you Rachael!