My 15 year old daughter Valerie is learning how to drive.  We live in the Great Bridge/Hickory area of Chesapeake.  We have been driving around the neighborhoods for at least a month now, and I felt brave enough in our way to Girl Scouts to have her drive.  I told her to go on to Centerville Turnpike.  AAAgghhhh!!!  What was I thinking?  Will my heart recover, and how did I ever learn how to drive.

Last February we had an especially cold day and my car and I ended up in the ditch.  I was going 10 or 15 miles an hour, but there was ice in the road and the ditch was calling.  Gratefully all my accidents have been minor, but this one really change the way I look at the roads.   Just a couple of days ago, it froze two days, and I stayed home.  I am too scared to drive in the ice... even the rain makes me nervous now.

Back to teaching my daughter how drive.  I tried not to scream, as I have seen on TV, when parents start screaming kids get even more scared.  Centerville has ditches that are right next to the road, and as a new driver Valerie feels that while driving in a two way street she has to go as close to the right as possible.  Since, I am sitting in the copilots chair, I can actually feel the edge or the road and how close she is to going in to the ditch.  I could actually feel the bumpy part.  I went back to that section of the road, ( to take pictures) and  realized that this specific part of road is actually pretty short.  It reminded me of the time, I jumped of an airplane, but that is another story. 

So, when you come to Chesapeake make sure your teen has been driving for a while.  Me?  I will stick to teaching her inside the neighborhoods.  My husband can do the scary stuff.

Great Bridge.   Great schools... and deep ditches.                              (Valeries oil painting.)