Ah, now gear shifting...deciding which gear is the correct one....my method was to keep grinding away....sooner or later it would fall into a hole (the gear lever!) and that would give me a reference point....if the engine lugged or died....then it was find something with a smaller number....if the engine overwound or came to bits....then either up a couple of numbers or use the "N" gear......figgered if I grind them long enough they would eventually become just like an autoshift. Must admit....more than a few times I got fairy flumoxed with an 18 speed....couldn't decide if I was in the lower half of the low end of the box...the normal part of the low end....or the upper end.....kept sliding my seat seeing if that helped. One day I forgot the clutch thing on the left....snatched the lever out of a gear slot....revved the engine like normal....and slick as nasal juices on a door knob....in the next gear it went......when talking about it....an old grizzled Chicken Hauller noted over his cuppa that I had floated the box. Not understanding that kind of rude talk....I retorted that I had merely forgot the clutch.....and had not been anywhere near water either! Since then....have gone straight...no one can call me a double clutching, gear jamming, fast lane cruising, hammer down MoJo....nope...pure finesse and grace this guy....saute'd scallops and fetticine in cream sauce and Chopin on the CD! Still gotta wear my cowboy boots, big ol' Stetson and license plate sized belt buckle, and wear my chain drive wallet....just to remind folks I am a real trucker. Still have not made it into the exalted ranks of being a Chicken Hauller however.
If you ride in the passing lane from Lizard Lick to Tucumcari in Georgia overdrive....you too might be a Chicken Hauller!