First Officer’s Entry
Our rig is
40 feet long. With the “toad” it’s 55
feet long. That’s a lot of rig and I
sometimes get asked if it’s hard to drive.
As with most any question on any subject, the answer is “yes” and “no”,
and “it depends.”
First of
all, it’s never hard, really. Power
steering, power brakes, automatic transmission, a comfortable chair, and
visibility you wouldn’t believe make the operation pretty darn easy.
OK. We’ve gotten ourselves in some tight
situations, once or twice on small residential roads, and once in South Dakota
we did the never ending rural dirt ranch road trip, but mostly those were
exceptional experiences and were quite frankly caused by operator stupidity.
Most of our
driving is on interstates and very nice secondary highways. And that’s where I
realized I was only driving about 16 square feet of rig. Yeah, the four feet in front of me, the one
foot to my left, about three feet to my right, and zero feet behind me.
It’s visual,
you see. As we go down the road the
center line of the highway is about one foot to my left and the line on the
right side of the lane bisects the bottom of the windshield at almost exactly
the center of the bottom. So all I have
to do is keep those two lines where they belong, keep back from whatever
vehicle is in front of me, and the rest of the rig takes care of itself.
I’d say that
80% of our driving is gliding down the right lane at 65 – 68 miles per hour
just having casual conversations about the scenery and whatever else pops into
our minds.
OK, now for
the politically correct required caveats.
Yes, I have to pay attention.
Yes, I never get too casual. Yes,
I always know what’s going on around me.
Yes, I maintain proper speed and spacing. And yes, I do all the other things needed to
do to keep us safe, but the
point I’m making is this. Those are the
things I do whether I’m driving the 55 foot rig or driving the 9 foot Smart
car. Those are the things we all do when
we are driving. Driving the 55 foot long
rig doesn’t make those things any harder.
So the answer to the original question is: “No, it’s really not that
hard.”
And
actually, it’s a darn lot of fun!
End First Officer’s Entry
Captain’s Entry
The First
Officer makes driving the rig seem easy, but I would disagree somewhat with his
assessment. My RV Driving Instructor told me anyone can drive a big rig on the
highway, but in town it’s a totally different ballgame.
Frank has
mastered both innings of this game as he maneuvers through town as if he has
driven big rigs all his life. He has a much better sense of the size and
consequences of that size while embedded in town traffic. He also guides my
entries and exits when we arrive and depart our sites at campgrounds. Sure, I
can maneuver the rig as he directs just how far forward I can pull the rig
without knocking over our neighbor’s satellite dish or putting a scrape along
the side of his truck.
Let’s put it
this way. It looks very different sitting inside the rig behind the wheel than
it does standing outside the rig directing the person driving. Frank has a
sense of just how to position the back of the rig so I back in perfectly. My
instructor told me never to back in without someone on the outside giving
directions. The driver needs the perspective of the guy on the ground.
In town with
narrow lanes requires what my instructor termed square turns. That means that
for a right turn into a narrow lane I bring the rig to the middle of the two
narrow lanes I’m turning from and turn into the far lane when I see the
right-hand curb halfway in the window to my right. After the turn the trick is
to pull over as quickly as possible into the right-hand lane before someone
tries to sneak in there from behind. I’m sure you’ve seen trucks do this same
maneuver. To say the least, town driving requires looking in several directions
all at once and using some tricky maneuvers.
Frank also
knows how to drive in the mountains. That means using those other two gears we
seldom pay any attention to when driving a car. You’ve also got the option of
turning on the tow-haul function to keep you from careening out of control down
the mountainside. I have yet to drive the rig in the mountains, but I hope when
I do that Frank is there to instruct. We had no mountains in Casa Grande where
it’s “flatter than a flitter” everywhere we drove during our lessons. The
instructor did talk about that omission, however.
I don’t
drive the rig on a regular basis because Frank likes driving and hates to feel
out of control. I’m just glad I know for certain I can drive the rig in a
crisis and get us home in one piece if need be. At the end of a long day on the
road I can testify to the fact that I’m not nearly as tired and worn as Frank
is. I don’t mind skipping the stress that comes from fighting traffic around
busy cities and keeping the rig in the lane through construction zones and
windy or rainy conditions.
So, don’t
let my FO fool you. He’s the “Wash” of this Starship, and those of you who are
familiar with the old television series Firefly
or the movie Serenity will understand
that. If you’ve never watched Firefly
or Serenity, they’re both worth
viewing on Netflicks.
It’s
supposed to storm tomorrow, and I hate leaving the dogs during thunderstorms.
We may have to put off going to the museum until Wednesday when it’s predicted
to be nice and quiet and sunny. Sigh.
In the
meantime, we’re really enjoying reading and relaxing along with keeping up with
household chores. It’s nice to be grounded for a few days and stay inside out
of this blistering heat. Tell me again why I live in the desert. Oh yeah, it’s
because my honey loves it to pieces, and I love him to pieces. Whaddareya gonna do?
End Captain's Log
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