I spent the day Friday hanging out at the campground. One thing I noticed on Thursday was that I couldn’t get the backup camera to work. I asked if someone could come take a look. A couple of guys spent several minutes; they couldn’t get it to work either. I would make it without a backup camera for the time being.
About 5:00 pm the maintenance guys called to tell me they were about ready to bring my car over and show me how to hook up the tow package. I told them I would get the coach unhooked and out to be ready. Unhooking went fine that time, and I was ready when they arrived. Hooking up the car had several steps but didn’t appear to be very difficult. I found out the next morning when getting ready to really tow the car that the hardest part was disconnecting the negative battery terminal on the car which is located under the windshield washer motor on the driver’s side. (And I learned when I got to the campground that the even harder part was getting the negative battery connection back on the terminal and tight.)
After the lesson of hooking and unhooking the car, I decided I needed to make anther driving lesson, this time going on the highway to get a feel for driving the coach at highway speeds without the car on behind. I pulled out, made a right, and did an abbreviated slow speed trip.
After that run, I made a left onto the highway and headed for the next town about 10 miles away. There wasn’t much traffic, so I was able to run at 65 miles per hour (the speed limit). The coach handled well. After slowing down to enter the town, I looked for a place to make a left so I could go around a block to get back to the highway headed back to the campground. The first left was no problem. The second left was onto a residential street. There was a U-Haul truck on the right side and cars on the left side of the street. It felt close, but the coach came through there unscathed. One more left and I was ready for a right onto the highway. The 10 miles back went well. I did notice that I kept my eyes on the road and did not do any looking at controls not right in front of me. That changed as I got more comfortable.
When I arrived at the campground, there was a traffic jam. Someone was trying to take my parking spot; my neighbor was waving them to an empty spot. There was another trailer waiting to get in. I made a loop; when I returned, I had a straight shot into my spot. Again, I got in and got hooked up with no problems. Second trip: 24.8 miles.
The best part of Friday was my neighbors. They came in from the lake on their way home to visit family in Great Bend. When Jack found out I was going out on my own for my second drive in the RV, he had me put his phone number in my phone and promise to call him if I had any problems. When I was safely back from my drive, he invited me over for drinks and dinner. I took my bottle of Jim Beam to be hospitable and had a very nice evening eating and visiting.
Piloting an RV and Other Real-Life Experiences 