Jack, you are Mid-Atlantic (as am I)... where abouts? >> (Nevermind... I see in the other thread you are in Delaware... that puts you a good 3 hours from me.)
I started out doing cheeks only with a straight and the rest safety razor. Then I went to my whole face with straight, but only WTG... ATG was still with a safety razor.
When I was getting decent shaves with the straight WTG, I started doing my whole face WTG and ATG with it. It didn't take long to get to that point, so hang in there!