Planning ahead

Me the wife of the man who does all the driving have often thought if this. My husband is in excellent health except for his eyes. I think he will be able to hook me up but driving would be on me. There are so many helpful people at any resorts that we stayed at I'm sure she will do just fine. Missouri is in the middle of everything. But....... If she is that nervous I have also learned that if ther is an area that she likes the most and it close to your state like for us Gulf Shores, Alabama. They store your rig for a small fee and call them up to place the rig back on the pad when she returns. Small price to pay and she could just drive her car down. If she's scared about driving herself take a buddy with and fly from Pensicola. The airport is a short distance from that area.

Good luck with your travels and rest assured other people have the same concerns.

Wendy

JimM68 wrote:


I'm hopeful that once it is our home, she can be convinced to become competent in hooking, unhooking, and driving the beast.

...dumping...don't forget dumping. :)

Threads like this really make me look at my DW's refusal to learn to drive the motorhome, or even the fine points (or any points) of hooking up, unhooking, levelling, dumping, etc.

At least after 3 years of "I ain't never living in that thing" she has grown to look forward to our future full timing as much as I am.

I'm hopeful that once it is our home, she can be convinced to become competent in hooking, unhooking, and driving the beast.
Then on the other hand, the only thing she knows about running the S&B is how to call me.

We are MASA members, We purchased a lifetime membership our 1st year on the road. My late uncle and aunt had had a MASA membership for about 20 years that flew him "home" and to hospitals on 3 different occasions, he had a heart condition when they joined. One thing you should look at on the plans out there is the "pre-existing conditions" clause in the plan description. I also have a serious heart condition which excluded me from coverage, by SKYMED and others. MASA which does cost more, only had a 90 day exclusionary period when the plan went into affect. If you have a on-going medical problem make sure you are covered before signing up.

Another option would be for your wife to take one of the RV driving courses. The only one stopping her from being able to drive the rig is her.

Thanks for all the great input! My DW cannot drive the rig or hook up the 5th wheel, and is intimidated by the size of the tow truck. At this point I believe the best thing for us to do is apply for the Good Sam insurance. We will be traveling with our two fur babies so we have a lot to consider.

I think we all need to plan for such things because we can never know... That being said I'm all for 2 ideas:
*the surviving partner locks up and comes back late with help
*both occupants of the "rig" need to know how to drive well enough to get out of harms way, to a safe place or all the way home.

We both drive and share driving duties close to 50/50. I would indeed take the rig on home or to where ever I needed to be without help.

Having one of the insurance/hazard policies is ok too. Some RV clubs actually offer contacts for folks who are in trouble and have people that will come assist in any way possible. I think this is one of the biggest benefits of belonging to any of the local chapters of any large club...they are very willing to help in time of need.

We use SkyMed also. We chose SkyMed over the GoodSam one as SkyMed had a few more features important to our sitation.

We really advise that both of you take turns driving it and also doing the connections. It takes the pressure off the main driver. This can even be applied to sickness to a broken ankle, etc. You really can't plan for every issue that arises.

Years ago, my parents were traveling in their 5er from PacNW heading to see us in GA, when he had a stroke in Elko, NV. My oldest sister and her husband hit the road and drove down to pick them up when the Hospital released him.

They had to sell both the Truck and 5er and bought a converted Van that my mother could drive. She wasn't comfortable in a big vehicle, so they traded it for a smaller sedan and she did all the driving after that.

If anything happens to my DH while we're on the road and he can't drive, we would also contact one of the kids to help get us back to Homebase.