What's a long hill?  :)  I've always lived in flatland and don't even know HOW to drive a manual.  When trailer-pooling with friends who drive manuals, such friends are strictly forbidden from falling off their horses or injuring themselves in any way that may endanger our ability to get home...

I think I've used a gear other than "D" exactly once - when I was pulling a rack loaded with way too many hay bales up a muddy gravel driveway.

- Sharon from MN (previously from DE)