I'm a 67 year-old coot who will be 70 when we buy and use our very first motor home.  I, too, am concerned about being a safe driver.  We have looked into finding an experienced RV driver/teacher, but so far the only one we found was in California (we are in Illinois).

But then I got to thinking.  Driving a school bus can't be that much different than a motor home.  And then I remembered that my 42 year-old son's best friend drives trucks for a living.  He knows how to handle a 50' over-the-road semi or a 36 foot straight truck.  He is willing to give us lessons.  So there are two sources of learning you might not have thought of.  Hope this helps. Sometimes resources are right in front of us and we don't even see them. 

We will be driving a motorhome, not a 5er.

Good luck. Isn't this just the greatest forum?

George

Hi George, great to meet you! I don't consider 67 or even 70 "old", not in this day and age. So there! LOL!

I know that Dick Reed does his class at most of the RV Life on Wheels conferences. I attended the one in Bowling Green in 2006 but since I had no rig, there was no driving course to take.

Now, as to the truck drivers....definitely a good resource and I know two who are retired and one who still drives. Great thought!

Hi fellow singles. Since this thread is devoted to our personal revelation of our darkest fear about RVing here goes.
Beyond the classic blowout of a tire while driving my rig down the highway at 60 mph, my biggest fear is getting my rig into somewhere that I can't get out of! These rigs are big and including a toad, even bigger--and I don't know about hauling your toad on a trailer or tow dolly but with a tow bar you CAN NOT BACKUP. So everytime you pull into a parking lot or a side street you may not be able to get out (at least not easily).
This happened to me my first trip out last summer at a Flying J. This was an older station so they didn't have the separate 'RV friendly' island--instead they had set aside the last (outtermost) set of pumps for this purpose and there was a pickup truck parked there. So I pulled in and around (between the pumps and the store) and waited for the truck to move. After a few minutes it became apparent that something was wrong as the driver was nowhere to be found. Inquiring inside, I found that the pickup had broken down several days ago and just been left there in front of the pumps. Now since I was in the middle of a turn my toad was at a rather severe angle to my coach which made unhooking the tow bar impossible. So I was struck--I couldn't backup and I couldn't continue forward to complete my turn--and I was blocking the pumps and the store entrance. Finally several people had to come out and push the disabled pickup out of the way so that I could complete my turn. Every since then I have always favored the trucker pumps to the 'RV friendly' ones and have tried to be sure in my mind that any place I pull into I can get out of.
This has also had a detrimental effect on my routing. Early on I read all of those 'discover small town America' books and thought that I would travel the 'blue' highways but I fear that road conditions on these lesser roads could trap me somewhwere. In the western states this mainly means mountain passes that are too steep to go over or too severely winding to maneuver. Luckily there exist two publications (Mountain Directory East and West) which you can reference ahead of time to avoid this, but I still find myself sticking to the interstates and other major highways.
And what about overpasses or tunnels that are too low (or, speaking of tunnels--those that won't let you pass through because you carry LP tanks) or (older) bridges whose weight limits are absurdly low. You don't see these out west much but I have found a number of them on the backroads as I move easterly. I also worry that in road construction situations those concrete barriers are too close together and my rig with end up like a cork in a bottle.
Assuming that you recognize these situations in time--what do you do, STOP in the middle of the road (and then what). I must confess that on occasions when it looks like my likely route to the next campground will take me across some minor roads, I will take a day and drive the path with my toad just to scout out any problems. So far this has resulted in only one change of plans to skip a state park.
So there is my biggest fear--being struck somewhere because the path is too narrow or the ceiling is too low or the road below me (i.e. a bridge) would crumble if I passed over it or the grade is too steep to go up or, worse yet, to come down.

Hi RVing friends,

This is a great conversation.  These are concerns of many who RV.  We drive a 40' MH with a toad and we have had to unhook two times because we didn't pay attention to our turns.  We use truck pumps when fueling and if there is an RV island we will use that if they aren't lined up out to the street. :)  I can suggest two books that have come in very handy. The first is The Next Exit which list RV friendly places and truck stops in red, the second is a professional truckers atlas.  This atlas list the heights of any low under/over passes by county and road.  Both are very good to have on hand.

Safe travels!
Karon

Thanks. Karon,

I have added those two resources to my list of books to buy.

George

Fears, here's mine:

Driving through mountains. I don't mind mountains as long as they're on both sides of me. Don't like to be dangling over any edges. Don't think I'll be driving through Colorado and Utah for that reason. Pretty states, but I don't want to drive in them. I'll stick to the American heartland and southeast for awhile.

Not being able to find a place to stop. I guess time management is a good skill to learn.

Security. That's why I want a Newfoundland to be my traveling buddy. The sight of a big, black, shaggy MONSTER barking at 3:00 am will make a intruder think twice. If said dog slobbers and drools while barking, all the better.

Being able to do everything by myself. Another reason for a working breed, large dog. I can train him to haul a cart with water, wood, groceries, ect. Maybe he can even bring things to me and help with hitching duty. "Newfoundland dog hitches travel trailer to truck, news at 11:00."

How about getting stuck going up a one-lane mountain road by oncoming trafic and having to back down? Or getting the truck and trailer stuck in sand or mud boondocking miles from nowhere? How about low-hanging limbs taking off your AC unit, damaging your roof or even getting stuck under a low bridge or a rounded tunnel?

www.youtube.com/watch

www.prochan.com/view

Be afraid, be very afraid!

Chip