Episode #1 - Introductions

This is the episode that started it all! Our host introduce themselves and the Alaska Driving Academy. They cover the purpose of the starting this podcast series and what the future will bring as they move forward.

Transcript

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Well, welcome everybody to our first ever broadcast of a learn to drive better podcast presented by the Alaska Driving Academy. I am coach Chris and I am with Miss Misty, Miss Misty. And together, we decided to create this podcast because we wanted to reach, and I think a lot of people will listen to this and hear that we're based out of Alaska. But a lot of what we're going to talk about is driving in general and I think a lot of the topics that we'll have will be about alaska driving, but With me and miss misty traveling all throughout the united states we do have a lot of experience in driving in other conditions. Not just alaska conditions. I do think alaska brings It's a very unique driving style and technique that you don't see in other regions. But we've also, we've traveled from Seattle to Florida and all points in between. We've been in large cities with some large cities we've been in Chicago, Chicago. That was a good one. Seattle. Seattle. Crazy. Very Pensacola, Pensacola. Dallas. Dallas, Fort Worth area. Waco. Waco. Um, I think I took a nap in Waco. It was very congested in Waco and Austin that day. I think it was the first time ever we've actually been in congestion that held us up for an hour and a half and we literally, what did we travel? Two miles in an hour and a half? Maybe. I do remember falling asleep and waking up to the same Amazon truck. Not as bad as Mobile, Alabama. That is true. We were stuck in the tunnel at Mobile, Alabama, stuck in the tunnel, crossing, the Atlantic or not crossing going under, under, yes, under the Atlantic Ocean, traveling to Pensacola, an RV had gotten into, a fender bender in the tunnel. So, and we were at a position. There was no way to get off the freeway at that point. We were committed. Yeah. So we were, we were 100 percent committed, even though it was about three hours of stuck in traffic, but we, we eventually got there. So we have a lot of experience traveling, On all sorts of roadways, freeways, highways, country roads, route 66. Yep. Route 66, 90, 80. I think we've been on every major highway, going east and west in the United States versus, I think I went through this the other day, just thinking out loud in my own head. 30 and 50, I think are the only two. We've been on 10, 20. 40, uh, 60, 70, 80, 90. We've been on all of them. I've been in Hawaii, so I have traveled in Hawaii. I have to actually, okay. So the driving at the time. Yeah. So I, like I said, this, this podcast isn't just for people driving in Alaska. This isn't just for, those drivers that are new to driving. Right. I think I've, I've learned a lot becoming a driving educator. I've learned a lot about, my shortcomings. I've actually learned a lot about the things I see around me. I'm more aware of the things around me now. And we'll, and we'll talk about that. and I think that's kind of the whole purpose. We can get kind of into the purpose of what the podcast is all about. The purpose is to, raise awareness and it needs to be aware. We need to be aware, right? It's not just about, I think a lot of us think about what we need to do while we're in the vehicle. But more importantly, we need to see what others are doing. We need to be aware of what others are doing in their vehicles too. Exactly. Because that affects us. Yeah. And it probably affects us more than, than what we're doing, what we're doing, right? Sometimes we're out there and we get kind of complacent because we got it. I got it, right? I know the condition of the road. I know the condition of the weather and I got it, but other people out there, they don't got it. And, and if you're not on your A game and you're not being cognitive to every single person on the road that you're sharing that roadway with, you get in trouble really fast. You got to remember too, it's not just people in vehicles that you're sharing the roadway with. Exactly. Well, we got, we got animals. Yep. We got, construction. We got pedestrians, pedestrians, bicycles, all sorts of things. Yeah. So there's a lot to consider when you get behind the wheel. I know as an instructor. When I'm in the classroom and I'm talking to new drivers for the very first time, 18, even, you know, we've had new drivers up to in their thirties and forties, but generally what I see is this, the boys. The young boys, the young men out there, they want their license right away. Yesterday. Yesterday. Yup. They, they can't wait till they're 16. They want it on their birthday and they want to get out there and they want that. We always talk about that key element of why do you want to get your driver's license? And I think the number one reason that we see is that they want their freedom. They want their freedom to be able to do things in life that they're restricted to because of transportation. Yes. Right? What are some things that they're restricted from when they're at that age? What's probably the number one thing you think? Friends. Yeah. Friends. Yeah. Being able to hang out with their friends go to their house do things on the weekend some of its work They're trying to make things easier for their parents to being able to take themselves to and from work or practices after school Yeah, and a lot of times they use as an excuse I think of wanting to help my parents, but I really don't think that's what the purpose is at all It's more freedom Because if I can start making my own money, I can start buying my own things and I don't need to rely too much on my parents anymore for what I need to do in life. Which is, it's kind of what life's all about, isn't it? You know, getting out there and doing things for ourselves to a certain degree. Yes. Right. And sometimes they want to move faster than we want as parents. Right? Yes. Very much so. So I find that the boys. The young men, they want their license right away. Young ladies will wait until 18, 19, 20, 21 years old. They're a little bit more patient. Not always. It's not always the case, but generally I would say the vast population of young men want their license immediately when they're eligible at 16. And the ladies are willing to wait a little bit longer. Usually with my young ladies, they're looking for a reason to get their license. They need that excuse of, you know, I have to have it because of a job or my situation in life. They're not banging at the door at 16 trying to get it. So I think What I see, because at ADA, at the Alaska Driving Academy, I conduct a lot of the classroom work with students, getting them the knowledge they need before they ever get behind the wheel, or they're already behind the wheel and I'm trying to increase their knowledge and skills of what they need to do, and a lot of time that, that's a mental thing, right? And, The one, the first thing I always have to battle when I'm in the classroom with these students for the very first time is the fact that just saying the word driver's education is like right You just want to throw up in your mouth. No driver's ed, right? You making that noise made me want to throw up in my mouth. Yeah, it's like the most uncool, like, subject matter of all time. Driver's education. And I address this, like, immediately once we start our class. And I think the best way to address it is this. Are you worried about popularity? Or are you worried about, like, Being alive. Yeah, because being dead is not very popular. And it's not cool at all. No. Right? And I hate doing that because it's almost like a slap in the face when I start that class. Is, are you worried about popularity and being cool? Or are you worried about getting from point A to point B safely? and ensuring not just your own safety in your own life, but the other people around you. Because I think everybody that has been, um, you know, in life for a period of time, we've lost somebody or we've known somebody that has lost their life. On a roadway, we're from Saldana, Alaska, which is a very small community in Alaska. I guess we'll backtrack a little bit, right? A little bit, yes. So we're, we're from Alaska and we're from Saldana, which is about 150 miles south of Anchorage on the roadway. only about 60 miles by the way the crow flies. and we're country folk. Anchorage is a very large metropolitan and Saldana, is a very small community. We have less than 3000 people in our community. and we're, we're country based, uh, life moves a lot slower, you know, down in Saldana. And because we are such a small community that. And I think that when, you know, getting back to what the topic was of, you know, popularity being cool and, and taking driver's education seriously is that we've had several, people in our community that have lost their lives because of, uh, of driving incidences. we've had, some high school students that have, lost their lives. We've had some senior citizens that, that have lost their lives. and, and like I said, I don't want to be like the moral, like, you know, um, bringing in like, uh, a negative subject, but the reality of it is this. If you are not prepared when you go out there, it might be the last time you go out there, or it might be someone else's last time. Now you have an interesting thing that you say when it, when you talk to your students, when it comes to what you consider driving. What's the most important thing when it comes to mental preparedness of driving? You've told me a couple times, you always talk to your students about this. A way to put me on the spot. Yeah. You say driving is an act of what? Driving is an act of patience. You have to be patient. if you are in that much of a hurry that you're pulling out in front of somebody or doing something that's crazy, then you probably should have left earlier. There's no reason for us to be in a hurry and not just sit and wait for the right moment, you know, to pull out and make sure it's clear in both directions. I get a lot of kids that They've been in the car with their parents and their parents have been sitting next to him like you could have went you could have went when a lot of times they really shouldn't have went and so I have to dial him back a little bit and explain to them that you really need to be patient when you're driving. When I think a lot of that comes from understanding your skill set right is right now my skill set is very low. I have a very low skill set when I start off. but even somebody who's been on the roadway like you're. Myself and you, you know, we've been on, we've been driving. I did the math the other day. I think we're, I'm at 35 years, you know, being on the road. So a lot of people are going back and trying to figure out age here. It's pretty easy to do, but yeah, 35 years of driving and I still have limitations when it comes to certain conditions. Now, are you talking legally or, before that legally, I was asked that question from one of my students because their first experience was driving, you know, helping their parents, loading boats and, trailers and things like that. That was their first experience. So I had to think about that for a minute. Cause some of us, my dad taught me when I was eight so I could help him with vehicles when he was doing maintenance on them. So he would have someone to pull one in and pull one out. It wasn't anything on the roadway, but it was more of a necessity, right? And I think that if you are from a smaller community like in the oral 48, right a farming community You're out there where there's no harm No foul and you're out there learning how to drive the family pickup truck out in the field, you know, so I yeah retractors, right but regardless I don't think anybody's ever at that age where they can't get better, you know And that that's the whole purpose of the podcast right learn to drive You Better, better, right? and like I said, it doesn't matter what region you're from. It doesn't matter what your age is. It doesn't matter what you're driving. I think the whole purpose of, us doing the podcast was to reach people. and get them to start being a little bit aware. So our goal is on a weekly basis to take a subject and to have a small discussion about it. We want to keep our podcast, you know, anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes at the max, have some healthy discussions about, uh, awareness. You know, things that we get very complacent at, especially if you've been driving for a long time, like myself, I get very complacent sometimes at certain things until things present themselves and hopefully they present themselves and get refocused and no harm, no foul. But if. If it's not, and we're in worst case scenario, it's when we're that lack of awareness happens and that bad situation occurs now, now something bad happens. Right? So, like I said, I think it goes back to, you know, popularity and I, and I hate that society's like that. Why is society so focused on popularity? I mean, 20 minutes a week to listen. And just to remind yourself that when you get in that vehicle, I need to make sure that. I'm safe, my passengers are safe, and the motoring public around me is safe, pedestrians are safe. Anybody in, on, or around my vehicle when I'm operating it needs to be safe because we all need to come home every single day to our loved ones, right? I think it needs to be a mindset, something that you focus on before you start driving every day. Yeah. And we'll, and we'll talk about that during some of our subject matter of like, uh, preparedness, you know, a lot of it is we get in our vehicle and we start moving before we ever start thinking and maybe we need to regress a little bit and start thinking before we get moving. Okay. so this one's gonna be kind of a short podcast. I think we've kind of wrapped up what we wanted to talk about to kind of, uh, introduce things. we do want to hear from our listeners and I know, a lot of you guys will have heard a podcast, further down the road. And that would be the first podcast you've heard. So you're going to want to go back to this podcast to find out where it all started. And that's kind of why we, we touch based on, where we're based out of, who we are. And I want everybody to understand. I'm not saying I'm a guru when it comes to driving. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm not saying I never make mistakes and I'm not saying you're a horrible driver. And unless you're listening to me or miss Misty, That you're not going to get any better. What I'm saying is I think everybody should take the time. To continue their education in something that really matters in life. And, like I said, there are a lot of Americans, 40, 000 Americans every single year, lose their lives in an automobile accident. That's pretty significant. That's not a small number, that's a pretty large number. And I think it's worth taking a little time to listen. Um, to have an open mind, and we will to, uh, we want to hear, from our listeners. We want to hear, uh, what you have to think. We want to hear your input. We want to hear if you have some suggestions, whether it's about a topic or a skill that you have that you think you bring to the table that other drivers should hear about. so we have a way where you can communicate that with us. It's, to email us at ADA dot mailbag. Again, ADA dot mailbag, all one word at gmail. com and, uh, just, when you email us, email us in the subject line, what episode. That your email applies to so we know what episode that you're referring to when you're, when you're emailing us and, we will, we'll look at our mailbag weekly and we will come up with topics to talk about that people are interested in because we, you know, we want to know what our listeners want to hear. We have a lot of information and a lot of different topics when it comes to, uh, driving. and we may cover a topic. And may have to come back to it. Um, a lot of the time we're going to have to come back to topics. Yeah. Cause a lot of these topics we teach in, in the classroom setting and it takes hours to teach that topic. and there's things sometimes that I see as a, an instructor in the vehicle that make me revisit. Topics with the students like what you talked about in the classroom. This is why we do things is because of what we're seeing out there. Right? And you know, just like today we went on a drive and we saw a driving situation and I made the comment to you while we're driving down the road. That's something that we need to talk about. That's something that's very dangerous on the roadway that a lot of drivers do. And that, that's, that should be a topic on a podcast to make sure that we're, man, if, if we could just stop 1 percent of the population from, having bad driving habits, it's going to make the world a better place. He saw something yesterday at the gas station, filling up the car. Oh yeah. Unintentive driving, right? Distracted driving almost had a collision rate. I mean, right next to the fuel pump could have been a very dangerous situation. It was easily preventable, but there was a lack of judgment there and, a lack of awareness, which we were talking about, and even though it was a very, It was in a parking lot. So it had been a very slow collision. It still could have been several people that could have been hurt and it could have created a bigger situation. So we want to hear from you guys again. Ada dot mailbag at gmail dot com. give us your suggestions and your comments and Like I said, this isn't a forum to call people out and, you know, and put them on blast. That's not what we're all about. We're about education. We're just trying to help people and we want you guys to be safe and we want everyone to get where they're going in one piece and just have a good time while you're out driving. Yeah, we, we drive a lot. we, we, uh, Probably we go on vacation twice a year. anywhere between five and eight weeks at a time. And, I know on this trip here, we're already at five or 6, 000 miles. We're at 56, 000 miles already. So we love to drive. We absolutely love to drive. We think it's one of the most amazing ways to be able to see America, the beauty of, of nature and people in different regions of the U. S., right? Baby cows. Oh my gosh. You had to go there to the baby cows. Everyone that knows me knows I love my baby cows. We don't have very many cows in Alaska, so she gets pretty excited about it. I always, I always reference that with my students in class. It's like the, the tourists that come to Alaska, every time they see a moose, they freak out. And as Alaskans, we see a Moose every single day like farmers see cows every single day. So it's not a big deal. So Like I said, we're not experts. We're we're educators we have a lot of knowledge We're going to learn some things together I'm going to be an open book to learn different techniques and learn what people's mindset are to be able to You know help my driving ability And our goal is to be able to, help everybody, all our listeners, everybody out there that's, that's behind the wheel. and like I said, it doesn't matter what age, whether you're. A first time driver or you drive every single day for the last 40 50 years it's about continuing to educate and I think I think that about wraps it up. We we kind of we introduced uh who we are what we do where we're located Uh, our purpose, our goals, you know, for the podcast. I think so. Yep. And now, and I want to say in a week that we will, come up with our first subject line and, we'll, we'll do a, we'll do a 20, 30 minute broadcast on that subject and, our thoughts on it. And like I said, we want to hear you guys, out there and what your thoughts are. and, and hopefully we can go on a pretty cool journey together in this. so this is coach Chris. I'm signing off. This is Miss Misty signing off, and we'll talk to you here soon.