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I passed April, 12,

…but it was a strange experience.

Texas is the first, and only, state to require a special license to drive a big rig RV.  The new rule doesn’t apply to gassers, but diesel pushers like ours trigger the requirement with their weight; 25,000 pounds and up.  It’s not a full commercial CDL license we need, it’s halfway in-between a normal driving license and a commercial license; it’s a Class B license.

I didn’t have any trouble with the written test.  They tell you what you need to learn.  You learn it.  Then you go take a test on a computer at the driver’s license bureau.  When you pass the test, they make an appointment for you to take the driving part.  So I studied, passed the test (Although I did miss one question.  I had the answer right, overthought it, went back and changed my answer, and got it wrong.)(Yes, I know not to do that.), and got my appointment for the live-driving.  I figured I’d do great on the driving part because I’ve been doing this for twenty plus years.

The backing-up part was easy.  Drive through a line of cones on each side, then back straight up without driving over any of them .  No problem.  Then we went out on the road and drove around for twenty minutes.  As we drove back into the driveway, I thought to myself what a pleasure it must be to go out on a test-drive with someone so experienced and capable as I am.  The tester failed me.

He gave me a list of things I did wrong then explained that when I waited in the intersection for traffic to clear before I turned left, that was a ticketable offense.  The light had turned red before I got my rear end out of the intersection.  The way he phrased it was that if an officer wanted to, he could ticket me for running a red light, because I didn’t get all the way through the intersection before the light changed.  To wait for a left turn at a light, I’m supposed to wait behind the line at the intersection and let the light cycle until I get a fresh green arrow, then proceed.  He also gave me a list of other things I did wrong.  I had to reschedule.

A week later, I went through the driving test again.  Last time I wasn’t cautious enough.  I wasn’t aware enough of cross-traffic at intersections.  I didn’t check my mirrors enough.  Having thought this over, it occurred that maybe because of the limited mobility I have in my neck, he just couldn’t observe what I was doing, so this time I made a show of it.  I exaggerated my movements.  I bobbed and turned my head when passing through intersections, checking my mirrors, and monitoring the rear-view camera.  I turned my whole torso left and right at stop signs so it would be obvious how aware I was of my surroundings.  In fact, I was moving around so much, one time I noticed I wasn’t driving in a straight line and worried I would get dinged for swerving in my lane.  Another twenty minutes of driving.  No ticketable offenses.  I passed.  But I got the same list of deficiencies in my driving.  I wasn’t good enough at intersections.  I didn’t check my mirrors and rear-view camera enough.  I didn’t leave my turn signal on long enough while changing lanes.  I didn’t improve at all.

The written part is easy.  They tell you what to read to prepare, then they test you on what you’ve read.  The driving part; that was not quite so objective.  I got told what I did wrong, but not exactly when and where.  There didn’t seem to be any way to prepare for the test; just drive and see if you can figure out what they want.  I considered requesting a more thorough debriefing, but one of the ways to fail the test is to be non-responsive to the tester, or to be argumentative.  I didn’t want to take any chances, so I kept my mouth shut and accepted the new driving license.

I am now qualified to drive the bus we drive!