Image name Dick had selected an interesting route with sharp turns in moderate traffic up and down fairly good hills. With Laura behind the wheel and Jerry riding shotgun we were off through the city. At the first right turn onto a 4 lane road, Jerry had her pull straight out without turning until the front of the truck was almost parallel with the center white line. While just creeping, Laura cut very sharply to the right. The result was that the truck advanced very little swinging abruptly to the right, but with the trailer well extended into the intersection, as it truck came around the trailer fell perfectly in place in its proper lane. As Jerry pointed out, “You may get some terrified looks from the people in cars you are approaching, but it does get you around tight corners.” As we drove through the back streets of Moscow, Jerry pointed out several other important aspects of pulling a high trailer. He gave a simple formula for determining what gear you should be in when going down steep grades. He also showed Laura how to gauge the height of oncoming branches. His last piece of advice was a formula developed by the driving school itself. Jerry called it the 5 by 5 formula and it goes something like this. “When going down a grade, if you increase your speed 5 mph in 5 seconds, then you’re in the wrong gear, move to a lower one. At the end of the day we were left to repeat the street driving course as many times as we felt were necessary and then depart for our camp site. The next morning we circled the wagons again and refreshed the use of the mirrors and finding the location of the trailer wheels. Once familiar, it was off to Viola, about 10 miles away with an instructor riding shotgun. We practiced positioning the rig to the right side of the road to minimize vacuum when the large rigs went speeding by us. We got back in time for lunch. The afternoon brought the biggest challenge of the course. Backing! and the instructors were right there slowly and steadily giving advice while they revealed the little tricks of the trade that make backing one of these behemoths so easy. Image name By the end of the day both Laura and I were somewhat accomplished at backing the trailer to a right angle parking spot from either left or the dreaded right. With this Dick happily announced that we had passed the course, as our smiling faces were photographed in front of our rig for Dick’s scrap book.

We pulled out of Moscow right after the last lesson ended, and headed to Clarkston WA. for a few days, before returning on Friday to get a good parking place for the actual conference. As we pulled in Friday I met the incomparable Jerry Stevens who’s powers of persuasion were irresistible, as he talked me into the position of volunteer parking assistant. Image name After going to the registration tent and picking up our packet that contained our blue name badge and our graduation pin from the driving school, I assisted in parking the beginning of the 238 or so rigs that were registered. The next morning, we ran off to Spokane for some shopping but were back in time for me to join the final parking crew on Sunday as the two lots filled. That evening, we all gathered in the Kibbie Dome, an indoor football stadium, where we were greeted by the very humorous Image name Bill (Andy) Anderson, author and instructor for the coming week. He was great as he introduced the creator of the “Life on Wheels” program, Gaylord Maxwell. Gaylord, who in turn is no amateur when it comes to humor, continued by introducing the remaining instructors and support people. There were a few schedule changes and some more encouragement and the meeting was called. Monday morning came early, with the first class at 8:00. We wondered up past the registration tent where donuts and coffee were available. The class rooms were a quarter to a half a mile away depending where in the parking lot you ended up, but the day was warm and beautiful and the crowd talked and moved in unison and we were there in no time. It was a strange feeling sitting in a college laboratory seat, looking at the periodic chart on the wall and the gas jets and rounded water spigot with their pitchouts sitting in the center sink at the end of the long black lab table. It had been a very long time since I had seen a University class room, and it brought up so old time memories. Reality quickly returned as Paul Gamache started the lecture entitled “Battery Basics 101” . With the use of an overhead projector and handout material, Image name he followed the deep cell battery from it infancy to present. Everything was covered from when and how to charge them to determining how many you might need.  The classes were 90 minutes long and there were four sessions a day, with an hour and a half for lunch. I often met Laura during the 30 minute break between the morning classes and the afternoon classes. After batteries, I attended the class on inverters. Those sometimes noisy little boxes, often found with the fuses, that change AC current to DC current and recharge the batteries.

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