Driving school

Motor homes, especially class A motor homes like our Trek, are BIG. In my research, I found that there was an RV Driving School that would teach you tips and techniques on driving on your very own behemoth! I was anxious about my capabilities of driving this big machine, so Dwayne and I decided to sign up for driving school.
http://www.rvschool.com/

I found that there was a driving instructor available just a few miles north of us in Sanger, TX, and arranged with the driving school to take lessons.

Before we went to driving school, I drove the motor home just a short ways on our trip home from Athens, TX. We were on the Bush tollway, and I pretty much stayed in the right lane and avoided getting into any troublesome situations. I would NOT say I was comfortable!!!

Mike Stewart, our instructor, suggested that we stay at the Wagon Master RV Park in Sanger.We drove up and checked in the evening before our two days of lessons were to start, and we tried out Babes Chicken in Sanger for dinner.

Mike met us at the RV Park on Wednesday morning. He talked with us for about an hour, getting to know us better and understanding our needs.

Dwayne then drove over to a parking area near a boat ramp that did not have many vehicles parked in it. Mike started us off by doing simple maneuvering in the parking lot, including backing up. This was *great* for me - first I got to hear Mike explain the task to Dwayne, then see Dwayne accomplish it, before getting into the seat myself and trying the task myself. Plus, backing up is something that I feel very comfortable with doing in a normal passenger vehicle, so getting comfortable backing up in the motor home was something I wanted to be able to do - and not having to be concerned about running over other vehicles was a great way to get me started in the driver's seat! The big challenge was to back the motor home around an island in the parking lot - the island was irregularly shaped, and you really needed to use your mirrors effectively to be able to stay close to the island as you backed up. What a wonderful technique for starting!

After we both worked on that skill, Dwayne started off driving on a simple route on the roads around Sanger. Mike was great at telling us ahead of time what type of situation would be coming up and how to prepare for it (for example, a left hand turn with two lanes turning left - in the motor home, we should always choose to be in the rightmost left turn lane; or to watch to see if the entrance ramp for the freeway had a long enough merge area to easily get up to speed, or to decide to try the next entrance to the freeway instead - if you're in an area where there are access roads). After Dwayne went through the test, then I did it. I was starting to feel a little more comfortable.

After a VERY HOT night (the a/c just could not compete with 100+ temperatures and a hot engine from being driven all day), the next day was much cooler and I did a lot more of the driving - this day involved more driving on interstate and US highways with sufficient tractor trailer close encounters to encourage me to be cautious but not to be fearful.

All-in-all, I would HIGHLY recommend RV driver training - driving your own rig, with the lessons tailored to what your particular needs were - this was just what I needed!

By the way, I encourage you to remember that for at least some of the motor homes and other recreational vehicles out there, the operators are like me, strictly amateurs, and I would recommend giving them a WIDE berth!

Pictures from the Wagon Master RV park (and Alpaca farm) in Sanger, TX:

Alpaca

Sunset - wow!

A front was moving in - which cooled it down a lot!