Summer Driving Job
First Student had helped me get my commercial license to drive school bus charter trips for some of their customers. Since I was seen as more responsible than some, I'd been given the additional training for diesel, air brakes, and passenger endorsements. I'd posted an online 'job seeking' page for some summer work, describing myself in the most glowing terms, touting my experience in driving large fully loaded school buses and explaining that I was looking to 'ferry' or move motor homes for people.
I'd traded a couple emails with a lady who was interested in hiring a driver for the summer. Seems as though she was retired and had recently purchased a very nice motor home, but her friend of many years had broken up with her, and she didn't really like driving anything that big. She liked taking summer vacations because even though she was retired and semi-actively oversaw a real estate brokerage firm she owned.
Arriving at her home in an upscale neighborhood of homes with three and four car garages on very large lots, I drove up the driveway to the garage nearest the front door. I was very pleasantly surprised when a not too old, attractive woman opened the door.
"Hi, you must be Kenny. I am Maggie, short for Margaret. Please call me Maggie."
"Hello Maggie, nice to meet you. Very nice place you have."
"Thanks you, yes it is nice. Partly from my hard work and good luck; and also a bit of a contribution from my ex-husband." Holding the door wide open, she beckoned, "come on in. Can I get you a coke or beer?"
"A coke would be fine. Thanks."
"Sure, no problem. Have a seat in there." As she pointed to the lounge to the side of the entryway, and headed for the kitchen. "Make yourself comfortable at the table, I'll be back in a minute."
I sat down facing the large picture window at the rear of the house, realizing that I was settling into a nice leather chair. Looking around I saw the room was tastefully decorated and while quite nice was not lavish or gauche.
"Here you are" as she sat a glass full of ice in front of me, with a full Coke can beside it. She sat in the chair across from me and sipped her glass of wine before continuing.
"Kenny, this summer is supposed to be hotter than last year...and that was hot enough. My summer long trip is to beat the heat as much as possible. I want to hit a few places going north east, but our objective is Canada. We'll go out through Maine to Nova Scotia and Prince Edwards Island which is as far east as you can go in Canada or North America. From there we'll work out way west and wind up 10 weeks later in British Columbia. That is nearly 6,000 miles before we come back home which makes it 7,700 miles and about 120 hours of driving. Think you can do that? Want to do that if I pay you well? Can you put up with me that long? Ha!"
"My gosh, that is a long trip. What a summer job that would be. Quite frankly, yes to all your questions. I'd find it exciting. I do love to drive and see places I've never been before. Once we get past Pennsylvania, everything will be new to me so yes, I'd love it."
"Do you have a passport? Ever been out of the country? To Canada?"
"Yes I have a passport and I've been to Mexico and Europe several times. My step dad has family in Germany and we've gone there every other year. But this year I'm free to do what I wish...especially to earn some money for college."
"Ah nice. Do you have financial assistance too?"
"Well I have some academic scholarships from my grades and scores on the national tests. I have a trust fund from my father's estate with part of it specifically for education. So I'm thinking I can get out of college someday...probably debt free. That is my goal."
"Awesome young man. Very good plans. Commendable, and congratulations on your good performance so far and I'm sure with your focus it will continue."
"Thanks, I sure hope so. Thank you for the nice remarks too. I appreciate the reinforcement."
"I've traded...returned would be a better word...my 45 foot Winnebago and purchases a 28' Born Free which is much more maneuverable and better suited for what I have in mind this summer. You ever driven one that size?"
"Yes, I've driven busses considerably larger...as large as your Winne...so the 28 footer would be nicer for that long of a trip, moving all the time. Yes, good choice. Born Free's are nice rigs. I've never been in one but have seen pictures and know they are well built and very nice inside."
"Want to see it? Best to lay eyes and hands on it to get a good feeling?"
"Oh fur sure. Is it in one of your garages?"
"Well not quite. It is in the 'barn' in back of the house. It is essentially another nice double garage with high opening doors. Come on let's go see it."
~~~~~
"Wow, this is really nice inside. I see it has a good sized gas engine which is good for this kind of a thing. Diesels get better mileage but are more problems and I'm glad it has a gas engine."
"Yes it is fully contained. The shower is nice sized and the kitchen is very adequate. The one slide out makes for a very nice bedroom." Putting her hand on my arm, Margaret looks directly at me, "and it is set up for one bedroom as you see...we need to talk about that later." With that she showed me the rest of the RV pointing out that it has a large fresh water tank, and both gray and black water storage tanks that are very ample in size. "We'll have to find places to dump every two or three days I'd expect, and there should be fresh water to fill up at the same place."
"Yes I understand. I've done some of that in the RV that my grandpa left me. It is very small but has all the same basic things in it. I've done some fun traveling in it and something this size could be a lot of fun."
"Oh nice, what is it?"
"It is a RoadTrek 190 Poplar."
"Well Kenny, I do know what those are. That is great that you have had that experience, and plenty of experience in big vehicles, I am sure you can do the driving part. Let's go back to the house and talk about the living part of the summer."
On the way back to the main house Maggie invited me to have dinner with her. She explained that she was not above some decadence and had a really good carryout and delivery place that put together good meals for her, and asked me my dinner choices. We quickly zeroed in on some Italian sausage lasagna and she ordered that before we got to the house. She explained that she had plenty of wines to choose from, and even a couple kinds of beer, so we were all set. My mind was wondering what the meant by the living part of the summer. I was also curious about the one nice bedroom in the slide out. I guess there was a drop down above the driver or somewhere that I would sleep. Or where?
We were well into the great lasagna when Maggie looked at me and asked, "Kenny you have a girlfriend that is going to be troubled by you being gone all summer?"
"No not really. I have dated several girls in school, and like some of them a lot, but I have not gone steady and prefer to keep my options open for a good while yet."
"That's smart. This is a lot more personal question, and I do not want to shock you but we do need to talk about some things."
