RV Training

Tuesday, May 30th, was a chore day. Gary had an oil change done on his truck and I tackled laundry, we paid some bills online and other fun things like that.

Then we had RV Training for two days (May 31st & June 1st). Dan was our instructor. He looked like Santa with a full head of gray hair and beard. He has a Commercial Driver’s License and worked for the city of L.A. for 30 years. Neat guy. We met him in a local Walmart parking lot. Sounds sketchy I know… but there’s not a lot of companies that do this and even fewer that offer it for 5th wheels and practically none in the Northeast. The guy who owns the RV Training business is named George and lives full-time in his motor home and travels around the country and speaks at RV rallies etc. We found him online. God bless the internet. He has instructors that he uses in various parts of the country; namely, Texas, California, Washington, Florida etc. Dan is one of those instructors. We spent several hours just in the Walmart parking lot… practicing going backward in a straight line with the 5th wheel (harder than you might think!) and backing up into a parking space. At one point a woman came over and asked me if it was hard to back in. She was with her husband in a big 5th wheel and hadn’t yet driven it, so she was curious. I said “piece of cake” not really… but we all had a good laugh. Then it was time to hit the road. Dan gave us some pointers… you stay left of the center line so you’re positioned correctly. And, you use a “square turn” when making a turn. It’s what truck drivers do…. you drive straight into the turn as far as you are reasonably able to go, then cut the wheel hard and turn. It’s a way for long vehicles to not hit the curb… in theory.

Under Dan’s direction, Gary drove us to a new residential neighborhood with few houses where we both practiced driving backwards hugging a curb and then rounding said curb. We both pretty much sucked at that. Then we got to go round and round the neighborhood making tight left and right turns practicing our “square turns.” We were better at that but we both tended to speed up going around the turn… not something that is advisable. Have to work on that. Then it was time to leave the quiet little neighborhood and drive around town. I chickened out…. Gary did not. Gary drove around on super narrow roads with a ditch on the side. Gulp. And, we did not land in said ditch. Good job! Dan also had Gary driving around downtown Sequim… sort of like the size of Exeter… and making a few tight turns AND going around a couple of roundabouts. He did great.

Then Dan had Gary drive to a truck weigh station so we could weigh the truck and 5th wheel. That was interesting. The weigh station was closed but they angle the readout out the window, so you can actually still weigh your vehicle and jot down the numbers. We did all that then Dan suggested we unhitch and just weigh the truck by itself. After that, our problematic leveling system reared it’s ugly head again, and Gary wasn’t able to get one of the front leveling jacks raised back up. (I tried not to panic and let “the boys” figure it out while I walked Miss Kya, who was an angel the whole day. She was in the back seat quiet as a church mouse.) As Dan said, this is all part of the adventure. ’Tis true. As Gary says, it’s not all “rainbows and unicorns” 🙂 The boys figured it out… the whole thing was over my head but we were able to hitch back up and off we go… with 5:00 rush hour traffic. We drop Dan back off at Walmart and then travel back to our shoebox of a site at Rainbow’s End with Peter helping us get back in our site. God bless Peter.

On to Day 2 of our Training… we met Dan once again at the Walmart parking lot. And, once again, we practiced backing into a parking space. This time we were using little cones. Oe would think that by the age of (almost) 60, we could figure out “left” and “right.” Not so much. It was a struggle, but we managed to practice our backing in… all morning. Plus we had the benefit of the interesting individuals who hang out in a Walmart parking lot. One older gentlemen watched our movements for an hour and occasionally offered helpful comments…. at least I think they were helpful. He had a heavy German accent so I had trouble making out what he was saying. Then another gentleman was living in a motor home, parked at the Walmart, looking for an additional 50 cents to buy a beer. Yesterday there was the gentleman who came over and decided he wanted to tell us all about his visit to New Hampshire and his bout with ragweed that landed him in the emergency room. Wow. America. What a country. You meet all kinds. All perfectly nice… just unusual.

Anyhoo… then it was time for ME to hit the road and actually drive… and not in a parking lot. sigh. I put on the dreaded Big Girl Pants again (hate those things) and got behind the wheel. I told Dan… I’m scared. I need to crawl before I walk and walk before I run. I need quiet country roads, not downtown Sequim. He was great. We head off with me behind the wheel… tense, both hands on the wheel, and trying to remember to breathe… Dan beside me, and Gary in the backseat with Kya. Off we go…. me doing my version of a “square turn,” driving down narrow country roads, up and down hills, and on to the highway. I did well… the boys were great and both praised me, which I appreciated. I did go over one curb in a casino parking lot… which was a really small curb so I don’t think it should count. At that point, after driving for almost an hour and a half, I was ready to switch. Gary took over and he drove for a while then we headed back to the Walmart parking lot to practice more parking. This time we tried to get into the parking space by ourselves… I went first and after nailing it…sauntered out of the truck, pulled up the ole britches and said “not freakin’ bad!” Of course, there’s a huge difference between doing this in an empty Walmart parking lot with Dan whispering sweet nothings in my ear in the form of helpful suggestions, and a campground full of bored campers looking for entertainment. But, Gary and I both ended the day on a high note with our parking, so we’ll take it. We are very glad we did the training… money well spent… and would recommend it to other RV owners. Tomorrow the adventure continues and we travel to western Washington on our way to Yellowstone….