We’d like to introduce you to Margerie, our RV for our week’s
adventure.
We rented her from Great Alaskan Adventures. The rental process was a touch laborious involving
one passive aggressive woman named Mrs. Wacker from Fort Collins, CO who didn’t
appreciate her place in the queue, a 1 hr wait (necessitating a soup and
sandwich from the café across the lot), a 30 minute RV driving and maintenance
instructional video which terrified Lauren, a self declaration of any past
driving record mishaps and a walk through inspection of the RV. Once our keys
were in hand, Lauren carefully drove out of the driveway (at an angle to avoid
rear drag) and we were off!
Margerie (named after a glacier in Glacier Bay because she was slow, yet got the job done) was an excellent sport on this adventure, at 25 feet and 2017 with only 6800 miles, she disliked potholes, sharp turns, quick stops, going 40 mph (caused a wicked shimmy) and hills at the speed limit.
After 3 days, Lauren’s driving skills vastly improved and she was found eating while driving and navigating the traffic of Anchorage and narrow traffic cones. She even showed off with a parallel park (expertly guided in and out by Cindy) in a Homer Spit beachside campsite (view found below), passing a vehicle (forbidden by the instructional video) and a slalom navigation at the gas pump. Only one curb was overrun and this was 10 minutes prior to drop off!
Margerie (named after a glacier in Glacier Bay because she was slow, yet got the job done) was an excellent sport on this adventure, at 25 feet and 2017 with only 6800 miles, she disliked potholes, sharp turns, quick stops, going 40 mph (caused a wicked shimmy) and hills at the speed limit.
After 3 days, Lauren’s driving skills vastly improved and she was found eating while driving and navigating the traffic of Anchorage and narrow traffic cones. She even showed off with a parallel park (expertly guided in and out by Cindy) in a Homer Spit beachside campsite (view found below), passing a vehicle (forbidden by the instructional video) and a slalom navigation at the gas pump. Only one curb was overrun and this was 10 minutes prior to drop off!
Cindy’s RV skills also greatly improved which include filling water
bottles from the sink, using the bathroom, taking a nap in the back bed, in
addition to snack procurement and advanced DJ skills all while the vehicle was
in motion. Cindy was excellent with
assisting and maneuvering (even clearing out a fire pit from the desired
parking area) and made sure to stand visible from the appropriate side mirror
and assume the correct arm motions as instructed by the video. Together as a
team there was no stopping us.
Observed during this week were many, many other RVs on the
road. As we were returning from Denali
south we found ourselves to be number 15 in an RV convoy of a total of 26 in a
single line (with a couple Princess Cruises tour buses). This can only be summarized best by the song
Convoy.
Click the link below to listen to Convoy by C.W. McCall
Other awkward rented RV driving skills were observed as below (note different rental company, perhaps they didn’t require the video??)
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| **Not actually traveling 55 and liked to straddle the white line on the shoulder; above pic was best case scenario |
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