Cool as a Cucumber

When we sell our stick and bricks home and move into our RV full time, for an income stream I plan to transition from full-time to part-time-on-call work with my current employer. This would require that I ride US Navy ships or deploy to other locations to conduct radio and radar testing.  When I am on travel, issues may arise that would require Elizabeth to be able to move The Beast (Elizabeth’s current name of our RV). I offered to take her to a local empty parking lot for basic RV driving lessons, but Elizabeth politely refused.

In a previous blog entry, we described where Elizabeth and I attended the Spartan Motors RV Owners Training Academy in historic Charlotte, MI. One of the training sessions consisted of personal, on‑the‑road drive time with a certified instructor, including basic driver guidelines, hazard awareness and avoidance, as well as control and recovery and the driver’s role.  Elizabeth was in the driver’s seat while I was in the back, on the couch with a bloody nose, which was not from being punched in the nose...

The session started in the parking lot with the instructor helping Elizabeth learn how to judge where the back of the coach is by using the rear view mirrors and not the rear view camera nor by leaning out of the driver’s window. Then she learned how to find the front of the coach to enable her to stop at a stop bar without going over or leaving too much space.

In the second phase, Elizabeth drove out of the parking lot, driving around town while learning lane positioning with an eight and a half foot wide bus. She was instructed on how far out into the intersection she has to go to successfully navigate and not clip the curb with the rear tires when making a right hand turn.   Then there were the less stressful left hand turns.  It was interesting listening to the instructor telling her to “Wind” or “Un-wind” the steering wheel to navigate the corners. Then it was out on to the highway.  Elizabeth started to relax, as there is not a lot to do out on the open road compared to driving in town.

Now the best part, when it was time for us to start our trek back to my cousin-in-law Steve’s house down in Goshen, IN, Elizabeth wanted to drive The Beast for the first part of our journey.  She drove through town, pulled into a fuel station, drove on the highway for about one hour and then pulled into a gas station that had a dump station so we could empty our gray and black tanks.  I am so proud of her!!!  She now has driven The Beast on four separate occasions!!!!!!

She is cool as a cucumber while driving The Beast.