A steep learning curve

Along the road, I saw an interesting sig … “Tolman Hill”.  Naturally, being my name I decided to take a detour and check it out. 

The view was beautiful across the whole city of Hobart. It was a rainy and foggy morning, but you could see ‘Tolman Hill’ was an opulent place to live with spectacular perspective. It warmed my heart.

 

I ventured into the estate to discover there was one way in and one way out. It was a very very steep hill. 

 

Now Wilson (the van) had been faithful to this point, always getting me in and out of every place we had driven. I had always been in automatic and let Wilson choose what gear was required to get us where we needed to go. I suppose you could say I trusted him and didn’t need to know the manual process. 

 

So, as I ventured out again via the steep hill I started to skid and spin my wheels half-way up and began to slid to the side. It is a scary feeling being on the side of a steep hill, cars and houses either side of me that I could crash into and knowing the only safe way was to go back down, backwards. Going backwards is not my strong suit at the best of times, let alone in a large van. I was also hoping the whole time that the skidding sound of my wheels would not bring anyone out to watch. The last thing I needed was an audience watching me slipping my way backwards in a huge van that could easily smash something they valued. 

 

I edged my way down backwards in the middle of the road also hoping and praying no-one wanted to come behind me. I got to a place where I thought I could try again. 

 

The rain continued to pour, which was part of the problem. 

 

I began again ... a little faster in first gear, to find myself again half-way up spinning and sliding wheels, lights coming on the dash ... saying “warning, warning Wil......son can’t do this.” 

 

I tentatively backed down again and tried one more time. My heart beating, feeling slightly panicked but this time a little faster in second gear ... till it got half-way and stopped again. 

 

With my heart racing a little more than I would like I backed down to the bottom of the hill into a bus space at the side of the road and sat for a while. 

 

Should I try going really fast up it from a run up?!? The thought scared me, I just wasn’t sure what Wilson was capable of and if going too fast would lend myself to being more out of control and doing something really dangerous. 

 

You know that moment when something happens and you are faced with a problem/situation that you are not sure what to do about or how to move forward?  When you have tried doing the same thing a number of times or what you only knew to do, but this time it is not working?

 

I got out and knocked on the door of a house to ask if there was any other way out. A lady comes out with a phone to her ear and says, “no, sorry, the only way to get out is up that hill.” She looked at me as if to say, “what is your problem. You can do that?”  She said,“That van will get up there, and at least if it doesn’t you’ve got a bed to sleep in. I am sorry I need to go, I am on the phone.”

 

“Thanks,” I said with a staged smile on my face. I did not appreciate the humour at that moment, but yes she was right, I did have food and bed ... if I had to wait out the rain, I suppose. 

 

Hmm… what to do? I decided to phone a friend. It is times like these you need to know who you can phone that will actually help you, rather than make another joke. 

 

My friend was an hour away and was willing to come and help me, but at the same time he talked me through another way to attack this hill that seemed unclimbable. 

 

He talked me through putting it in Manual, (which I hadn’t done in the van yet) and getting a run up and in second gear climbing the mountain calmly and consistently and in the middle of the road to give as much space as needed. He said he would come and help me. 

 

So, I decided to stay put. I grabbed a packet of chips and a coke from my fridge and started eating. I could have chosen 10 other healthy snacks but no, when you are feeling stressed you always grab for junk food. 

 

But he also spoke confidently to me as if, “it is okay, you got this”.  There was something in his tone that gave me confidence, once I downed the chips and coke, to give it one more try. 

 

The rain eased a little and I thought, “it is okay, I got this, I got to at least try what he said.” I hated putting him out having to drive an hour out of his way to come and save me. 

 

So, I put my big girls pants on, practiced the manual gear changes. And went for it. Second gear … here we go … get a bit of speed up and be calm. 

 

So, I am getting past where I got before, I am right in the middle of the road, starting to skid ... be calm. ... put it down to first gear for the final bit just chug slowly, talking calmly to Wilson ... I believe you can do it. We made it. OMG my heart was racing. But I felt so happy to be at the top of the hill. 

 

I am not ashamed to say that I felt quite a bit of pride texting my friend to say I was out and he didn’t need to come and save me. 

 

I know many drivers will be thinking, ‘how could you not know what to do’? I have been in this van for 20 days. I have never driven a van this size in my life. This was a new challenge and I came to my limits of know-how and experience and came to an unexpected challenge that took me by surprise.  We can only do what we know and then be willing to learn as we go. 

 

Along the journey you are going to find something that will stop you in your tracks. Some are just inconvenient, like today, some have life changing or serious consequences. The way we face it makes all the difference when there is no way of getting around it or avoiding it. I needed to know it is ok to ask for help. I needed to know who to call, who to listen to. I needed to be open to learning new skills. I needed to be calm and give it a go. I could have camped there for a few days anyway, but that was not the solution. I could have kept on doing the same thing over again and probably got into a worse situation. I could have quit, just walked away from the van and started walking to start a different type of journey. But I wouldn’t have done that to Wilson, although many do.

 

As I got back onto the road driving, the rain stopped very quickly and before long I was headed to open blue sky and new adVANture, with new skills in my toolkit to be ready to face the next challenge that will come. 

 

On your life adventure, there will always be hills that surprise you and stop you in your tracks, there will always be voices that are not so helpful, and voices that are, there will always be good choices and bad choices you can make and there will always be new things to learn. I didn't need to detour that day, but I know that the detour has helped me to be better prepared for the road ahead, ready for the next challenge that may push me, rattle me or hopefully make me a better driver for the future adventure that I have yet to take.