Listen to the episode
Driving Profile: Julie & Brandon
(sneak peek)
BRANDON:
[00:00:00] I was
on my way to work and next thing I know I started, smelling smoke and I’m like,
well, what is that?
And next thing I know smoke started pouring up out from the
gearshift and I was headed up a hill at that time and I pulled over jumped out
popped the hood on my, car. And as soon as I popped the hood flames are just
shooting up out of the engine hitting the bottom of the hood.
And I run back and grab the
few things that I had in my, in my vehicle, which was a case of CDs and I had a
little small backpack. And I grabbed those two things and I [00:35:00] literally flung them across the road.
(intro music)
BHAVNEET: Happy National
Best Friends Day and welcome back to Drive With Us Podcast. A podcast where we
explore driving cultures around the world by bringing on a new guest each
episode to talk about the crazy things they’ve experienced on the road, who they
are as drivers and how they became the driver they are today. I’m Bhavneet.
TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit.
BHAVNEET: Yes. She is.
TARANJIT: Yes. Thank you. [00:01:00]
This is the last episode of season 3. I really can’t believe we made it to the
end. It went by so fast.
BHAVNEET: The end? It’s
only the beginning.
TARANJIT: But I’m super
excited for the changes that are coming for season 4. Like we’re adding video.
So I’m super excited for that.
BHAVNEET: Woo.
TARANJIT: I can’t believe
we’re able to get to the point where we can add video. Exciting. And next
season will be dropping in September. So be sure to follow us on Instagram
@DriveWithUsPodcast or just visit our website at DriveWithUsPodcast.com
BHAVNEET: Or sign up for
our newsletter!
TARANJIT: To stay
up-to-date on the release the next season and see other behind-the-scenes
content. And also if you are interested in coming on the show for season 4
or if you know anyone who might be interested have them fill out the
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DM with your suggestions.
BHAVNEET: And as this season
is coming to an end, we want to hear from you. Share with us your thoughts on
the show. What you liked. [00:02:00] What you didn’t like. What you want us to
do more of by filling out the feedback form attached in the show notes
below. The first 10 people to fill it out will receive DWUP Merch as a thank you.
TARANJIT: And let’s get
into today’s driver. Today’s drivers are Julie and Brandon. Julie is a
freelance writer and blogger and Brandon is a software programmer. They are RV
full-time and have it on the road together for three years now. They sold their
house and moved into a 42-foot fifth wheel with plans to travel the country.
Just as they sold the house, COVID hit, but they decided to hit the road
anyway. From June to October of 2020, they covered nine states. Julie and
Brandon share the RV tips, the ups and downs and how to prepare yourself for
life on the road. Let’s meet today’s drivers. Julie and Brandon.
(transition music)
BHAVNEET: [00:02:47]
Welcome Julie and Brandon. Thanks so much for joining us today.
BRANDON: Good to be here.
JULIE: Thank you for having us.
TARANJIT: We’re super excited to have you. And we had a
one RVer on before, but I know every RVers’ experience is going to be
different. I’m sure you guys have some crazy driving stories associated with
it, but before we jump into your actual driving stories, I’m curious to know
why did you choose RVing and what inspired you or what got you into being an
RVer?
JULIE: It’s something that I always wanted to do and I
always thought would be that thing that I did when I retired.
Like, I’ll get old and one
day, I’ll be done with all the other things that I have to do and I can just,
get an RV and go travel the country.
And then eventually it hit me
that, I work from home. All I need is the internet. so, why not now?
BRANDON: When we met, my, my goal would have been, I
don’t know if anybody is aware of the tiny homes or the tiny home community.
That was my thought was to try to find some land somewhere. in the middle of
nowhere, preferably [00:03:47] still with internet connections and just, get a
little small home, without, so much square footage to have, to, to keep up and
maintain.
And so, my idea of a tiny home
and her idea of a RV went hand in hand together.
JULIE: We ended up in a 42 foot fifth wheel towed by
a, Ford F450.
TARANJIT: While being an RVer or even before you even got
your RV when you were just driving a, regular car. What would you say is the
most craziest driving experience you had?
BRANDON: Oh, I have probably several. At one time, I was
real big into Jeeps and Jeeping and so, I have several experiences with,
off-road jeeping. One in particular was way we were exploring this one path
that was basically driving through just middle of nowhere. I’m talking, you run
out of we, we no longer got a radio signal, and once we hit that spot, we kept
going. We was in pretty much the middle of nowhere, up in Tennessee.
And we ended up, going down
some [00:04:47] roads and paths that, we ended up taking this one path and,
running up.
This one is up the side of
this mountain. And as we went up the mountain, the road started getting
narrower and narrower. And we finally get up to the to, nearly the top and the
road pretty much runs out. It just pretty much stopped. I was the second
person in line and the first person stopped because, there was really nowhere
else to go.
I go to get out of my Jeep
and, we’re as far over, as close to the side of the mountain as possible. When
I go to get out of the Jeep. I, opened the door and I looked down and it’s
about a 40 to 50 foot straight drop down this mountain. I had to actually climb
out of my Jeep and hold on to some trees and climb around my Jeep to get up and
up to the person in front of me to see what was past us.
So if, if I wouldn’t have been
paying attention. I could have definitely just stepped right out of my Jeep and
pretty much fell 40 to 50 feet straight [00:05:47] down. We ended up having to
reverse and back, down this, mountain. I think I had to back down in reverse
about half a mile or so, driving, we’re at a good 45 degree angle in a vehicle
that that really feels like you’re, you’re really pointing straight up.
That was probably one of the more interesting driving off-road experiences. And
then, another experience I had was, I’ve actually had a vehicle catch on fire
on me while I was driving to work one day.
Taranjit: Oh my goodness.
BRANDON: Yeah. That, that one was, I had a 1981 Camaro
and my father and I, we had replaced a, a carburetor on the engine, which,
mixes the air and the fuel and, send it into the engine so that it makes the
engine go.
I don’t know whether we didn’t
hook everything up right. I I’m quite sure one of the hoses that we replaced
potentially had a, a pinhole leak in it, which, let just a little bit of gas out
or it could have been a faulty carburetor where I’m really not sure. But I was
on my way to work and next thing I know I started, smelling smoke and I’m like,
well, what is that?
[00:06:47] And next thing I
know smoke started pouring up out from the gearshift and I was headed up a hill
at that time and I pulled over jumped out popped the hood on my, car. And as
soon as I popped the hood flames are just shooting up out of the engine hitting
the bottom of the hood, now I run back and grab the few things that I had in
my, in my vehicle, which was a case of CDs and my, I had a little small
backpack.
And I grabbed those two things
and I literally flung them across the road. And I run back in the back and
popped my trunk. And I always carried a small fire extinguisher and I pulled
that fire extinguisher out. And I started spraying my engine that really didn’t
do anything.
So I went back and I actually
had another gallon of, water for like a radiator. I always carried extra little
things like that with me. And I started pouring out water on it and that didn’t
really even do anything. And I’m already calling 911 while I’m in the middle of
this, trying to get somebody after to put my, car out.
I was sitting there just
watching my, car starting to burn to the ground. [00:07:47] And a waste
management truck, a garbage truck pulled up on the other side of the road. The
guy got out and hollered at me and said, Hey, come get this fire extinguisher.
And I run over across the road.
And he hand me this really
huge fire extinguisher. I grabbed it out of his hands and run over to my car,
popped the pin. And I started spraying the car, the inside of the car, the
console where your dash and your CD player and all that stuff, all that was
already starting to burn.
And it was melting down into
the floorboard. And I was able to hit all of that with the fire extinguisher.
And I finally got it all out, handed the fire extinguisher back to the guy, and
didn’t even think to even tell him thank you or anything. He jumped back in
the, in the garbage truck and kept on going, never had a chance to thank him,
but I finally had gotten it all out.
And about 10 minutes later,
the fire truck finally shows up. And it took them about another five or six
minutes to figure out how to get the water running on their fire agent to start
trying, to douse the car, to make sure it’s all out. That was definitely an
interesting experience to say the least.
[00:08:47] BHAVNEET: Interesting. I would say more like terrifying,
but I mean, at least you were prepared, it didn’t help, but you were prepared
somewhat.
BRANDON: Yeah, I was, I tried to be. It’s one of
those things not many people I’d think carry fire extinguishers in their
vehicles, but just so happened. I had one at that time, unfortunately, it
didn’t help, and I still, carry one to this day.
TARANJIT: Especially after that moment, I would I think
you will definitely carry one now.
JULIE: Being in an RV. We carry 4 or 5 now, but we
definitely keep one in the truck too.
BRANDON: Yeah, and all of them are, fairly big size.
They’re not the little small ones that you put, like in the kitchen. They’re
the house size fire extinguishers. I’ve actually had to put a, another vehicle
on fire before all that was on fire before also were where I used to live
before we sold my house and we got into an RV. It was an intersection there and
there was a lot of wrecks there.
TARANJIT: Normally, I feel like people don’t experience
at least one car fire and you experienced more than one.
BRANDON: Yeah. I guess I’m [00:09:47] just that unlucky.
TARANJIT: So speaking of your RV, when you went to go
find your first RV, what was that experience like? And are you in that same one
now?
JULIE: We’re still in the original one that we bought.
Before we bought this, we had been looking and shopping for probably 2
years. Every time we thought we knew what we wanted, like we were set on,
on a fifth wheel at one point, we thought we were going to do a toy hauler so
that we could have an office space in the back. And then we decided that we
didn’t want to do that. And so then we were looking at a class A for a while,
and we’re pretty well set on that, but the way the process went when we we’re
finally ready to buy was that I had sold my house.
And basically, I had a certain
amount of money that I was willing to put into this and all of the class A’s
that we could find that we felt confident weren’t going to leave us stranded on
the side of the road were a little bit beyond that price point that I had. And
so we started basically from [00:10:47] scratch, going through all the RV lots
and finally found this particular layout that we’re in, which is the 42-foot
fifth wheel with a very large front bathroom. So that was the selling point on
this particular rig, and I’m like of all the things that I need in a house. I
need a comfortable bed and I need a comfortable bathroom.
Everything else is negotiable,
but give me a comfortable bathroom. And so when we found this layout, I was
like, this is it.
BHAVNEET: What I found really interesting was that you
mentioned that you drove really far to get this RV. Like, I don’t know if this
is normal, but like the other RVer that we talked to drove halfway across the
country to get his RV. And I think you say you drove like 900 miles.
JULIE: Yeah. It doesn’t seem completely
abnormal. But I wouldn’t say it’s the norm either. For us, it came down to, we
found this layout that we wanted and we knew we weren’t gonna buy new. We were
gonna let somebody else take that hit. So it became, shop around and try to
find A where, where we could even find a used version of the [00:11:47] layout
that we wanted, which is not the most common layout.
But literally the closest ones
we could find were 600-700 miles away. And then we found this one and it happened
to be 900 miles away, but it also happened to be about $10,000 cheaper. So it
was definitely worth that drive.
TARANJIT: What was it like driving with this for the
first time?
BRANDON: A lot easier than I expected. I will
start with that. But before we got this RV, the, the longest thing that I had
pulled before then was an 18-foot car hauler, which is an 18 foot trailer
that’s, that’s designed to carry vehicles, which I would use to carry, my Jeep
to go do the off-roading and, what we call wheeling.
That’s what I would, pull to,
to carry my Jeep. So we went to, to pick up this, 5th
wheel RV and, I had used a drove around 5th wheels before when
I was in my early 20s. I used to work for, I work at a co-op or a, fertilizer
plant, which, we had, big [00:12:47] semi-trucks. And we had these semi-truck
trailers that we would use to carry grain and things like that out from our facility
to other places. Now I’ll never drove those on the road, because I’m not
licensed et cetera, but. I did have to move them around. And, so I was
familiar with how 5th wheels, how they would turn and how you back them
up and pull them, et cetera, versus what you call a bumper pool, or, one that’s
hooked up to a hitch. What I was not familiar with was how to deal with the
length that this thing was. And so, Julie went in and signed the papers and
everything was good. And they come out shook her hands and said, have fun with
it. And that was that. Once we got hooked up and we got pulled out to
where we could get to the road, and it was that first couple of few miles,
which was straight to an RV park was a little, it was a little
discerning, because we was hearing certain things and things were happening
that we weren’t quite expecting. And [00:13:47] one of those major things
that originally scared us, but turn out to be not a big deal is a lot of these
RVs have the system on the hitch that connects to your vehicle that will shift
and move a little bit to take some of the what they call it chucking where the
RV wants to keep going forwards, where the truck is not moving forward because
of say bumps or dips in the road, et cetera.
And so this, RV was doing this,
this chucking thing, and we were feeling that hearing that and it concerned us.
We was like, is something broke? Did we not hook something up right? What
what’s going on? We finally got it into the RV park, and got settled and it was
like, okay, we’re good for a week.
We’re going to research this.
And that’s where, you know, we went back to the YouTube and started, reading on
what this is.
JULIE: You skipped over you having to park the RV for
the first time.
BRANDON: That was the first place was, well, in
RVs there you have basically two different types of sites. You [00:14:47] have
a pull through site, which is where you just drive straight through with your
RV and you park, you just drive straight through you, sit down and you’re good.
The other kind is the backend
where you have to actually navigate back up into the spot. Fortunately, Julie
was smart enough to make sure that we got a pull through side so that we
wouldn’t have to worry about backing this thing up first day, we got it.
Unfortunately, Brandon pay attention to the roads and the road signs very well
as we were coming into this park and I missed the turn to turn left, to get to
our site.
I get past that turn in and I
realized that I did. And so. I’m like, okay, well, I’m gonna have to back up
this road so that I can actually catch this, turn here that I need to make. So
I had Julie get out and we’re on the phone.
She’s talking to me trying to
tell me okay, because it’s fairly narrow. And, and I started turning to
back this thing up and, luckily, one of the maintenance guys that works at the
park come through and like, what, what are you doing?
What’s going [00:15:47] on?
And I’m like, look, man, we just bought this thing. I have been hooked up with
this thing for about 15 minutes. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m trying to get
over here. And so I’m trying to back up here and I couldn’t keep going forward
because there was a gate and it was like a dead end.
And he was like, tell you
what. Just follow me. I’ll lead you through this gate and we’ll circle back
around and you’ll be able to make that turn. I was like, Oh, awesome. I
followed him, he’s on a little golf cart and he drove me up to this gate and
opened the gate and we circled around and was able to finally get into our RV
spot.
JULIE: Just to back up a little bit, this is the first
week of September in lower Florida. So it was 90 something degrees outside and
we had already spent a good hour just trying to hook our hitch up to the rig to
even get it connected to the truck.
It was just, it was miserable.
And all we really wanted to do was get in the house and get the water hooked up
so we could take a shower. But then when we went to hook up the water hose, we
were about 10 feet too short.
At this point, we were just
like, well, I don’t [00:16:47] know what to do. So we’re just done. We’re going
to Walmart or we’re buying another water hose.
And that’s what we did. And we
came back got everything hooked up, got our showers. And then after the fact
when it was all done and we’d had a shower and had time to think about it, it’s
like, wait, we could have hooked the house back up to the truck and moved it 10
feet.
So we could actually reach
everything. But just that first time out, you don’t know what you’re doing.
And there was so much of that
on that trip of just the little, little things that you’ve learned, and we’re
still, we’re still doing it. There’s some mistakes we’ve still made repeatedly.
We just, we keep going. Luckily, the driving part has been relatively easy.
It’s almost always the parking that causes us problems.
BHAVNEET: Yeah, that sounds crazy. And I think you said
mentioned before that you have this system down where you’re like you’re
outside and he’s driving and use like wireless headsets to communicating guide
each other.
JULIE: Yeah, luckily, we do. We’ve, we’ve seen so
many, people who are trying to park their rig and, and you’ll see
[00:17:47] one of them outside, just screaming and yelling and pointing and and
doing all these things. And, the person in the truck can’t hear them. They
can’t see them. It creates frustration.
And there’s this ongoing joke
that you know, if you’ve not gotten divorced while trying to park your RV, you
don’t really RV. We’ve never really had an argument while trying to park the RV
because of the way that we do things. We can get on our phones and we both use
our wireless headsets and a lot of it comes from his background with jeeping
and with having to guide people through questionable situations.
So, he taught me that
language. Instead of, go to the right or go to the left, which is what we
usually hear people screaming. It’s always, you need to take, the tail to the
passenger side or, it needs to be more to the driver’s side Things like that.
Our method of communication is
such that there’s no, there’s no screaming or yelling. Somebody in the next
slide over, they won’t even hear us. And we’ve had that comment the next
morning people wake up and they’re like, Oh, we have new neighbors. We never
heard you come in. We’re shocked. And it’s like, yeah. We [00:18:47] don’t feel
the need to make the whole town know that we’re here.
BHAVNEET: Like, we’re just that awesome. You know.
You mentioned earlier that you
are recent, RVers. I think you mentioned that you, you started full-time RVing
right before the pandemic hit, right?
JULIE: We’ve bought the rig a little over a year ago
and we’ve technically lived in it full-time since then. And had done a few
trips, but most of our movement have been within a hundred-mile radius of our
hometown. But then Brandon sold his house in late spring. So right after
everything went into quarantine and shut down for the pandemic, was when he
sold his house.
And then we hit the road and
so we’ve been full-time traveling RVers since June.
BHAVNEET: That must have been a very different experience
having to travel during the pandemic.
Since you have been to so many
different places, have you noticed while driving any, are there any particular
types of [00:19:47] drivers in different areas?
BRANDON: Most definitely. What I have noticed, is
Memphis, is just one of those. It’s just absolutely terrible drivers. Memphis,
Tennessee, West Memphis, Arkansas. It’s just absolutely terrible drivers with
terrible roads. Every road we got on there just felt like it was pretty much in
a state of disrepair.
And then we got out West. And
one of the things that I noticed out more in the Midwest out, you know, Iowa,
South Dakota, not really Colorado, but also Texas, some of those, bigger States.
I noticed that a lot of the roads, people don’t really cluster as much, it
seems like they do in say the Southeast, Colorado.
Some like some of the bigger
areas and it’s probably because it’s so open, I felt more at ease driving
through Iowa, driving mostly through Missouri, as long as you stay on the paved
roads, that’s another story. But, you know, if you get into Iowa, South Dakota,
all those States, it was just super easy [00:20:47] driving.
Everybody was, was totally
cool on the road. Everybody would give you your space and, be fairly courteous
especially us being as big as we are. You know, we have to merge onto or off of
a road or interstate or whatnot. People would give us our space and, and be
courteous. In South Dakota and I believe it was a lot of people that, just
wasn’t from the area or, or just didn’t care. There was a lot of people
carrying their RVs that I felt were traveling much faster than they should have.
And definitely traveling much
faster with a crosswind that, was pushing them. It looked like they were
pushing and there are ways around a little bit. So they were swaying, their RV
was swaying back and forth. They didn’t care. They were still gonna run the 75
or 80 mile an hour speed limit that it was out there. And. that was a little concerning.
Now, Colorado, especially
around the Denver area, I really felt like the, drivers around the Denver area,
They made it their mission to cut you off, to cut in front of you just to brake
and catch an exit, to try to speed up past you to get in even though there’s
really not room between you and the [00:21:47] person in front of you.
And that’s just with us
driving our regular truck. The speed limit or maybe a little bit more just
depending on what the, flow of traffic is doing. And you still would have
people that felt like everybody else was driving half the speed limit.
They were going that much
faster, trying to zip and zoom everybody. Like everybody had somewhere, they
had to be 10 minutes ago.
BHAVNEET: Denver sounds just like the East coast. Have
you ever been like more North on the East coast?
BRANDON: I have been around the DC area, and, Baltimore
but I didn’t drive it. I was actually with a coworker of mine. We were up there
for work and he did all the driving. And, I think it was around Baltimore. No,
no. It was around, Arlington, Virginia. And we were having to drive from
a hotel in Arlington over to George, the George Washington, George Washington
airport. I’m not sure which one it is. But, we were out in just terrible
rush hour traffic and it was bumper to bumper and, just absolutely terrible
feeling. Like I was so glad I was not [00:22:47] having to drive that.
JULIE: I have actually driven out there. I drove from
Alabama to D.C. and back at least once to move my stepdad down here. And it was
not fun. But I would say that I would still take DC over driving Atlanta. And
while I was in DC for that trip, he actually guided me to the, my first
successful parallel parking.
Cause that’s not something
that you have to do around here and I’ve never really had to do it and I didn’t
want to do it there, but he was like, you don’t have a choice cause you gotta
park and this is where you’re going to park it. And I’m going to show you how
and tell you what to do. He did an excellent job of telling me exactly, how to
torque the wheel and what to do in order to get into this pretty tight parallel
spot with, truck. But yeah, that it’s not, not someplace I would choose to
drive and. I don’t think I’d want to even be in the rig, driving through that area.
But I think to me, the worst place that we’ve had to drive through with the rig
was, the interchanges of Dallas Fortworth, just going from like the North side
of [00:23:47] DFW to the South side, that stressed me being in the passenger
seat more than driving Atlanta.
BHAVNEET: Wow, DC, Baltimore. That’s our neck of the
woods. And I totally understand how crazy it is. I can’t believe you’re first
parallel parking experiences was there in D.C.
TARANJIT: And in a truck.
JULIE: Yeah. I mean, I’m sure I had parallel parked
before. Cause we have our downtown area, there’s parallel parking, but it’s
almost always open enough that you can pull through a couple of spaces to get
to one without having to actually parallel park.
TARANJIT: Yeah. D.C., I feel like parallel parking spots
are very, very tight. But going into what type of driver you are. I know you’ve
mentioned earlier that Brandon typically drives when you have the RV. Are
you ever planning on driving the RV and if given the option, would you prefer
to be the driver or the passenger?
JULIE: I do want to learn how to drive the RV. And a
piece of that is just being somewhere where I feel confident to be able to even
[00:24:47] try. We’re constantly on the lookout for a really large
parking lot to where Brandon could show me what to do. The other option is to
find an RV driving school, which they do exist, but they’re closer to larger
cities. And then when the pandemic hit, it’s just gone off the radar a little
bit. But I think in general, I’m definitely more the passenger. I mean, I
like to drive if I’m the only one in the car. Like I have zero qualms about
driving. It’s just, if I get really, I get more nervous when there’s somebody
next to me.
BRANDON: I prefer to be the driver. And mostly that’s
because, if you’re riding in the passenger seat, there’s really nothing that
there might be a brows your phone, or, uh, you know, look out the window or
whatever. And if I’m driving, I’m already looking at the window, but if I’m on my
phone in the passenger seat, I tend to get carsick, if I’m sitting there trying
to read something.
So it doesn’t really do me
very good to be sitting in a vehicle for hours on end and not have anything to
do, except look out the window. My preference that if I’m going to be in the,
in the vehicle, I might as well just be driving. And, maybe it’s a little bit
of [00:25:47] a, control, factor. And as far as what type of driver, when I was
younger, I was definitely the speed demon. Now I’ve got plenty of stories about
things that I should not have done as I technically licensed driver, but, had I
got caught on a couple of those things, I’m sure I would’ve gotten at least a
couple of tickets each time.
Nowadays though, especially
with the, truck that we have, it’s a 2014 Ford, F450. It weighs about, around
9,000 to 9000 to 9,500 pounds just by itself. It’s a 22-foot-long vehicle and
it doesn’t stop very easily. So, I’ve definitely slowed myself down over the
years. I’m still an adrenaline junkie, but I don’t go looking for it. I don’t
have my vehicles to give me that option anymore. Because I would probably
if I had a really nice sports car, I would, have to see what it can do from
time to time.
And doing it once I would want
to do it again and again, and it would, it would all come back. But, nowadays,
I feel like I’m more of a, relaxed, just stay here, I’m going to [00:26:47] be
in the right-hand lane. I’m cool right here.
BHAVNEET: Well, that’s a good thing, I guess that you
have your truck and RV to slow you down. Julie, would you agree with his
driving type?
JULIE: In my experience with him, I’ve not experienced
that speed demon side of him, thankfully. So I mean, to me, he’s just, he’s a
good driver. I, I have no qualms at all being in the passenger seat with him.
He just takes it slow and easy, which I appreciate.
BHAVNEET: Speaking of driving and while driving, you
probably experienced so many annoying drivers. So what would you say is your
biggest driving pet peeve?
BRANDON: Left-hand driver’s hands down. That’s number
one for Brandon. I cannot stand somebody that stays in the left-hand lane.
JULIE: For me, it’s texting and driving like people
who are more concerned with whatever is going on in their car or in front of
them than they are with the actual road. It scares me and it bothers me. Even
if whatever it is that they’re doing, isn’t necessarily directly affecting me,
which if I’ve noticed it, it is obviously [00:27:47] affecting me in some way,
because they’re doing something that’s impeding my ability to drive. It just,
it, it infuriates me to a large degree.
TARANJIT: Yeah, I can agree with you on that. I feel like
that’s very dangerous, but a lot of people do it and they don’t realize that
they’re putting not only their life at risk, but they’re also putting like
everyone else around them at risk, because anything can happen considering that
they’re not paying attention to the road.
Has any of these drivers that
were annoying to you or get on your nerves, has any of them ever had road rage
towards you? Or have you ever had road rage yourself?
BRANDON: Oh, I definitely get road rage. I will
definitely have, have some choice words between myself and the windshield on
the craziness that I’m seeing other people doing.
JULIE: The only example of road rage for me
personally, that I can remember, would have been somebody who pulled out in
front of me to then go 10 to 15 miles below the speed limit. So they basically
cut me off first and then slowed down. And then every time I would try to
change lanes to get around them, they would change lanes.
[00:28:47] And do that thing
where you’re trying to speed up to get past them so then they finally speed up
you just, you can’t get around them. And I actually ended up getting a ticket
over that particular incident because as this is happening and I’m trying to
get around this person. A cop sees it and tags me for speeding.
BHAVNEET: Those are the most annoying is driver and it’s
it’s even worse that you got pulled over.
JULIE: Right.
TARANJIT: I can’t believe that driver was, it seems like
he knew what he was doing and he was doing it on purpose to like, get on your
nerves.
JULIE: I totally feel that way.
BHAVNEET: So now that we know a little bit about the type
of drivers that you are. Let’s go back to your driving first. How would you
describe your first-time driving experience and who was it with?
JULIE: For me, I think everybody has that like, you’re
5 years old or something, and somebody puts you on their lap and let you
control the wheel while they take the pedals. I had that, at five, but then
like my first time actually, like trying to drive the car by myself would have
been, when I was 15. I had got my permit and my mom’s trying to teach me how to
drive in this [00:29:47] giant land yacht.
And she took me to like a
school parking lot. I was just so uncomfortable between the size of the car and
my mom being in the passenger seat that I just freaked out. And I was like, I
can’t, I can’t do it. And my mom basically threw her hands up too. And I was
like, yeah, this isn’t going to happen in this car.
And I was like, I’m just going
to wait for driver’s Ed. And then I get into driver’s Ed., and the first time
we all go out, it’s, the driving instructor and I’m three students. so when it
came my turn to drive, I’m that much more nervous because now I’ve not only got
the teacher next to me, but I’ve got two of my peers And so, we’re driving down
the road and we’re in these, I went to high school out in the country. So
there’s these back roads that are really curvy two-lane country roads, and we’d
come up behind a tractor on the road and, the driving instructors like, okay,
now you need to pass the tractor.
And I was scared to pass a
tractor. That’s going 10 miles an hour. That’s how scared of driving I was. And
so after that first time, like he put me back in, in study hall and we’re a
couple of weeks from the end of semester and he comes and gets me. And it’s
just me [00:30:47] and him.
He’s done with everybody else.
And he takes me out and puts me on the same roads, same tractors. And he’s
like, we’re going to do these windy roads until you’re comfortable. It was
probably the best thing that could have happened because by the time we were
done with that semester, I had no issues whatsoever.
And I, in a way probably went
the opposite direction because I was so much of a speed demon to a degree at
that point. And just too comfortable that by the time I actually got my license
and got to go out and drive with a friend in the car for the first time. And I
really hope my mom doesn’t actually listen to the podcast cause she doesn’t
have a story.
We’re driving down this really
curvy road I had my best friend in the passenger seat and hit this curve.
That’s probably about a 45 degree angle. Hit it probably too fast that come
into the curve and the car just does a 360. Just spun all the way around.
And then it just, hit the gas
again and took off like nothing happened. And My mom has never heard that
story. I don’t think.
TARANJIT: Oh, my God.
JULIE: If I know. If she knew that, she probably would
have, never let me drive [00:31:47] again.
TARANJIT: Yeah, I bet. Our driver’s Ed, we, it was always
just one-on-one. I never had that experience of having other students in the
car so I can imagine how nervous or nerve-wracking that must have been with
other people. Not only are you nervous because there’s the driver instructor in
the car watching you, but you also have 2 other students judging your
driving.
BHAVNEET: So were you guys able to pass your driving test
on the first attempt?
BRANDON: Yeah I was. I had gotten a lot of driving
experience beforehand and, so I was, I was able to jump in and take it. I
was a little concerned, it was kind of freaky cause here, I don’t know about
other States, but here you actually take your, driver’s test with a state
trooper.
You know, I’m sitting in a
vehicle and then, you know, obviously the state trooper’s sitting right next to
me and that freaked me out a little bit. But yeah, I was able to get through it
first trial with no problems.
JULIE: [00:32:47] Yeah, I passed on the first time. I
don’t really remember much about it at this point or how well I actually did.
TARANJIT: So you’re mentioning that you took the test
with a state trooper.
BRANDON: Yeah. At least in the county that I took my driver’s
Ed test you it’s actually a state trooper part of the, police unit that are the
ones that. I think gives the test as well as the written test as well as the
actual driving test.
BHAVNEET: You’re driving tests rules and stuff are very
different down there. Did you have to parallel park on your driving test?
BRANDON: I did not, which was a super concern for
me. The day before my dad and I, we actually went to town. Cause I took
my test on a Monday. And so the day before was a Sunday and in the town that
I’m from pretty much everything is shut down on Sunday. Up around the
courthouse and which is where we would go to take the driver’s test at the time.
Nobody was there. So my dad
actually took me up the day before to make me practice parallel parking. Cause
I was concerned about that, but yeah, no, we I’ve never had to parallel park at
all in my driver’s test.
JULIE: [00:33:47] I think they technically had us do
it on our test, but I think it was like I said where several spots were open
and it wasn’t you had to pull in and do the 3 point get it in just right.
We were pretty much able to just oh pull through these two spots and ended up
in and do parallel parking space.
BHAVNEET: You were allowed to do that.
JULIE: I know right. I don’t know. I pass. I don’t
care.
BRANDON: I do remember one of the tasks that she did
give us when I was given my test was I had to park next to a curve. She had me
pretend that this is either, I can’t remember whether it was uphill or
downhill. So she was like pull over and park at this curb imagining that that
it is downhill. Which she was testing me to make sure that I would turn my
steering wheel the correct way.
TARANJIT: That’s interesting. We never got tested on
that, but that’s a good skill to get tested on and know, especially if you do
end up going somewhere where you had to park on a hill. So that’s great. After
you got your driver’s license, did you ever get a ticket?
JULIE: [00:34:47] I’ve had a few. I think the first
ticket that I had I was 16. My mom was in the car with and I pulled up to a
stop light. And for some reason my brain thought it was a stop sign probably
because I was used to being out in a county where that’s all we had. We didn’t
have any stoplights out in the area that we lived in.
And driving around, we pulled
up at the stoplight and the traffic was clear so I went. Cause that’s what you
do at a stop sign. As soon as I went through that red light, one I realized
what I had done and then I also immediately realized that there was a police
officer right behind me. So I just when ahead and pulled off. I was like, I’m
getting pulled over. I just pulled on over. And the cop was decent about it
because I did pull right over. I explained to him what happened, but I still
got the ticket.
BRANDON: Yeah, I have gotten 4. I believe it is. The
first one was a speeding ticket. I think it was, 2-3 months after I turned 16.
I’d gotten a speeding ticket in a, in a little speeding trap area that they had
set up. [00:35:47] The second one was a failure to use a turn signal, because I
had switched lanes and at that time, I was actually in my, Camaro that I had
that I, that eventually caught fire on me.
And I was young and, the funny
thing is it was the same cop that got me for my speeding ticket back when I
first turned 16. The third one was, I was sitting in the turning hand lane and
I had pulled up through, into the intersection to turn left and the lights on
my side turned red and I assumed apparently incorrectly that the, side the
cross traffic road, the road that was running, perpendicular, had turned green.
Well, I’m sitting in the middle of the intersection. So I’ve got right of way
or at least I thought I did to make my turn because the intersection has to get
clear before the other road can go.
Unfortunately, what had
happened was that the lights had turned red on my side so that the turning lane
could go green on the other side of the road from me. And I thought I needed to
go, so I went [00:36:47] and when I went, the state trooper happened to see me
do that and, nailed me for running a red light. Which, you know, I wanted to
fight him a little bit on it, but, there’s no fighting a state trooper.
And then another one was, an
area that they had recently reduced the speed limit. I know for a fact the
speed limit was 55 and they had recently come through and dropped it down to
50. And I didn’t notice the speed limit sign because of a car that had about 3
or 4 more people in the back seat than they should have.
I mean, they had like 8 or 9
people in this vehicle and, I was trying to get around them and just so
happened, it wasn’t the exact same area that they had just dropped the speed
limit sign. The cops are sitting there, using it as a speed trap. And so I got,
I got pulled over for that too. That’s my four tickets.
JULIE: I can’t believe you remember every ticket you
got. My craziest ticket was the one that I got from a bus driver. It was not
even a police officer involved in this ticket. I got a call one day, asking if
I drove such and such car. And I was like yeah. Where are you driving it at
this time at this place? Like yeah.
And a few days later I get a
ticket in the mail for passing a bus that was stopped. [00:37:47] A school bus.
And I’m like I didn’t I mean I vaguely recalled the bus and they didn’t have
the stop arm out or anything.
Down here in Alabama, there’s
almost like they always have a stop arm that comes out to tell you that they’re
stopped and you need to stop. Don’t pass because people are getting on and off
the bus. And that’s if there’s any buses because they’re not that common or at
least they weren’t at the time in the area that I am from.
And then I had moved to
Michigan, which is where this happened, school buses were the norm. So this bus
had stopped and I went around it. And I got nailed with a ticket. But I fought
it. I showed up in court and I was the only one that showed up in court. Bus
driver didn’t show up. The police officer who actually wrote the ticket that
wasn’t actually at the thing, he didn’t show up. So basically it was like,
since nobody showed up, the judge just threw it out.
TARANJIT: So going back to Brandon’s tickets real quick,
you mentioned that you got a ticket for failure to turning on your signal.
That’s something that’s highly common here in Maryland. No one uses their
signal. [00:38:47] So I feel like if that same police officer was here, people
were getting tickets left and right.
BRANDON: Nobody does down here, either. That’s goes back
to that I mean that same cop that we felt was targeting younger people. The
thing that I forgot I failed to mention was there was this, van that was just
in front me. It was just a work van, like, I think they were like plumbing or
painting or something. And they made a turn. They didn’t even used their turn
signal. And then I don’t even recall that their brakes lights even worked. But
he didn’t see that. He saw me, in my Camaro, going in another lane to get
around some people, and he decided that I needed a ticket. So he give me
one.
TARANJIT: Yeah. Sometimes you’re wondering if it is just
always your luck.
I also have heard numerous
times that to court is the best way to drop tickets because most of the time
the officer doesn’t show up. So it sounds like that’s what happened in your
case, Julie. Brandon, since you did get these multiple tickets. Did you
get these points dropped or are [00:39:47] they on your license now?
BRANDON: Well, they were years ago. So, even if I had
gotten the points. They they’re all gone by a long shot. But a few of them, I
went to a driving school for. The first speeding ticket and the turn signal
ticket, I went to driving school for those, because it was either you pay the
ticket or you pay the 50 or 100 bucks.
I think it was 50 bucks. You
pay the 50 bucks and show it to the defense and driving school. And that’s all
you pay. And then it’s knocked off your record. The state trooper ticket for
the, I think it was a failure to yield was officially what it was. I would have
had to pay the ticket as well as go to driving school. And if I went to driving
school, it would knock it off of my record. But I still had to pay the ticket
JULIE: I’ve showed up to court for two. One, the bus.
And then I had another one, the failure to yield that also was in Michigan. And
that one I went to court, because the line to stop and the road were 15 feet
apart. [00:40:47] So pretty much, if you stopped at the line, you were going to
have to go forward to be able to see the traffic to know when to go. And that’s
what I had done. I had actually stopped at the line and then rolled forward and
then yielded again to make sure the traffic was good. And that’s when I got
stopped and was given a ticket. And I attempted to fight that one, but didn’t
work out for me. I’ve got a 50-50 record on attempting to fight and it working
out.
BHAVNEET: Well that definitely seems like it was not your
fault.
JULIE: I agree.
BHAVNEET: Bonus question time. Are you guys ready?
BRANDON: Bring it on.
JULIE: Let’s go.
BHAVNEET: If you make one new driving law, what would it
be?
BRANDON: Honestly, I just wish they would reinforce some
of the ones they’ve already got. I have to think about that a minute.
JULIE: They should retest ever 20 years which, I
guess, at this point I would be more than due to get retested. There should be
some interval to actually be retesting. Whether it’s at minimal the paper and
the eye sight test, or go so far as actually retesting the driving test
[00:41:47] because I feel like there are way too many people on the road who
have completely forgotten everything they ever knew when they did the driving
test.
TARANJIT: So would you to say that that’s something that
if it was required every 20 years, it should be the same fee that it was when
you went to go take your driver’s license the first time, or should it be like
a reduced cost or something that the state would cover for you to retake?
JULIE: I would say maybe a reduced cost. I mean you
already have to pay to actually renew your license every so many years. I think
it’s every 4 years here. So just make that part of maybe raise the cost of
renewal every 4 years and incorporate that cost over time. So you’re not like
you’re getting hit with it all of a sudden every x number of years.
BRANDON: Truth be told I would totally be fine with
that. The retesting every, every X number of years, just because there’s
so many people out there that took their test at 16 and then, they never look
at the road or the laws or anything ever again for pretty much as long as they
drive. And, some way to, reinforce or retrain people on, [00:42:47] the simple
thing of using their turn signals, stay out of the left lane unless you’re
passing. Some of the other things that I don’t know if there’s actually a law
for or not, but definitely on a, on merging. If you’re merging own to an
interstate, get up to speed as you’re coming up the on ramp and then merge
over. Don’t try to jump over at 45 and 50 miles an hour. That’s that’s, that’s
how you, that’s how you cause issues. I don’t know if there is a law for
that, but if there isn’t, that would be my law. And if that one already exists,
I definitely agree with Julie on some sort of retraining or some sort of recertification
process to make people and remind people to be more lawful. And truth be told,
I wish you could make a law for courteousness. That’s really what I wish you
could do.
TARANJIT: That would be a good law. I don’t know how you
would implement it, but that would be a good one.
BRANDON: I don’t know either. Just everybody get back to
having common decency for everybody else on the road. If you’re in bumper to
bumper traffic and somebody is trying to get in, let them in. [00:43:47] You
letting somebody in, it’s not gonna affect you sitting in standstill traffic.
TARANJIT: So tying it back into your RV life right now.
For those that are listening, do you have any advice or tips if they want to
get into RV?
JULIE: Watch a lot of Youtube. Don’t just watch one
channel or just the good stuff. Make an effort to seek out the bad side of RV
life. The things that can go wrong, the accidents, the things that break. All
of that. Be as aware of the negatives as you are the positives.
I feel like most of the YouTube
channels and stuff, like they really play up the positives and how much fun it
is. And it is. I’m not trying to dissuade anybody, but I feel like making that
effort to really be aware of what can go wrong. Not only does it give you a
more realistic view that you are getting into, so it’s not sunshine and
rainbows, but it makes it so that when stuff does go wrong, it’s not the end of
the world.
BRANDON: I would agree with that. [00:44:47] Do the
research. Don’t necessarily just jump into one and think everything’s going to
be sunshine and rainbows because it definitely isn’t. And you don’t stop easy.
When you’re that big and when you’re driving, you need to have way more
attention to detail on everybody’s driving. What they’re doing. So that, you
know, what’s going on a quarter mile up.
You start seeing a bunch of
brake lights, go ahead and start braking. There’s no reason [00:45:47] to get
there any sooner, especially when you’re in an RV because you know what, you
could just pull over to a rest area and climb in the back and take a nap if you
absolutely have to. There’s no reason to be in a rush.
BHAVNEET:
Right. Yeah. I totally
agree. I think people only look at the positives, and they’re like, oh this is
so great. But it’s very important to be aware of the negatives, too.
TARANJIT:
I can imagine that. Do
you think that there should be separate license requirement before you get the
wheel of this? Especially the size that you have?
JULIE: I hesitate to say yes, because that would
mean I would have to get mine, and I really don’t want to get one. So I
appreciate that we don’t. But, yes, I do.
TARANJIT: It’s looks like we might’ve lost Brandon, so we
can’t get his advice for this, but I know you guys have your own blog that you
blog about RVing. Could you tell us a little bit about that and where can our
listeners find it?
JULIE: So you can find us at RVwith.us RV with dot u-s.
That’s our blog url and you can also find us on Instagram which is what we
update the most. And on Facebook. We blog about the places that we go. Blog
about the things that happen. The things that Youtube doesn’t tell you.
BHAVNEET: Well, thank you both so much for joining us
today. It was really fun and interesting to hear your RVing experience.
JULIE: We appreciate you having us. I hate that we
lost Brandon there at the end.
(transition music)
TARANJIT: I could not
imagine my car catching on fire. Like that something I feel like you hear about
or see in movies, not in real life. But I know we had another guest on season
2 mention a car fire or witnessing a car fire and then Brandon this season
mentioned his car catching on fire. Like how common are car fires?
BHAVNEET: Yeah. I don’t
know. I didn’t think they were but I mean, I guess in a warmer area, they’re
probably more common.
TARANJIT: But the other
story from J.’s episode last season it was in Boston.
BHAVNEET: That’s true.
Maybe it’s during the summer.
TARANJIT: I don’t think it
gets that warm up there.
BHAVNEET: I don’t know.
TARANJIT: But hearing how prepared
Brandon is for emergencies, it makes me…
BHAVNEET: [00:47:00] Underprepared.
Feel underprepared.
TARANJIT: Yeah. It makes me
think I am not prepared at all for anything to happen on the road. Like that’s
not good at all.
BHAVNEET: I have a kit, but
I’m not prepared.
TARANJIT: Like I don’t even
have a car jack in my car and the amount of times I get flats, I probably
should have it.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. But it’s
also making me thing I should have a fire extinguisher, too. Apparently cuz you
never know if you need it.
TARANJIT: Do you know how
to use one?
BHAVNEET: No. But you do.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I went
through training, but I don’t remember.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. I don’t
know. I wish I did.
TARANJIT: That’s the thing
with like that kind of training. They like show you how to do it, but I’m never
is never going to go in my head until I actually…
BHAVNEET: Hands on.
TARANJIT: Do it myself.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: And then an
emergency is going to come and I’m going to be like, uhuh. Fire extinguisher.
Turn on.
BHAVNEET: Turn on. I
command thee.
TARANJIT: But if you were
to get a ticket, hypothetically speaking. Like I hope you don’t actually get a
ticket from a police officer. But which one of those situations that they got
tickets for either Brandon or Julie [00:48:00] would you rather get one for?
BHAVNEET: I am kind of
shocked that failure to use a signal is something that someone gets a ticket
for because the amount of people who don’t do it here. Everyone will be getting
tickets left and right.
TARANJIT: That’s probably
why it’s not something that is given tickets for because just like everyone
else.Even the police officers do it. So…
BHAVNEET: Then I will
pretend I will fail to use the signal then I won’t I’ll get out of said take it
because it’s like, nobody does it.
TARANJIT: So you get pulled
over there like, do you know why I’m pulling you over?
BHAVNEET: No.
TARANJIT: No. You forgot to
use your signal. Oh well, no one else is. Oh okay. Fine You can go now.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Exactly.
What about you? What would you?
TARANJIT: That would never
happen.
BHAVNEET: Nope. But I can
think about it. I can hope.
TARANJIT: I don’t know
because like I don’t know what the actual points associated with each of these traffic
violations are.
BHAVNEET: I have a feeling
that like speeding or running a red light or School Bus. Those three are going
to be the big ones.
TARANJIT: [00:49:00] Yeah,
so I don’t know. I’m kind of leaning towards probably just speeding ticket
because I don’t know how bad the others would be on your record, you know, like
speeding everyone do it, you know. But like those other if you had like
everyone has speeding speeding speeding on their ticket, and you’re the one who
has accidentally ran a red light.
BHAVNEET: Well, I mean.
Forgot to use turn signal. People will be like, okay. You forgot.
TARANJIT: No, but I have
accidentally run a red light. Not on purpose at all. But I accidentally ran it in Georgia.
BHAVNEET: That was
confusing. We were trying to determine really hard if it was red or not. Like,
it looks green. Oh no. That was red. Woops.
TARANJIT: It was like as we
were passing through the intersection. Well, it’s too late. I can’t back up
now. I’m already going through. Good thing there were no cameras there.
BHAVNEET: There was a car
on the other side. They were probably looking at us like, you Marylanders.
Crazy Marylanders.
TARANJIT: Out-of-staters.
Is that what you do up there?
BHAVNEET: You don’t see
half of what we do.
TARANJIT: [00:50:00] I just
hate the way they’re making new traffic lights now where it’s just so
reflective that you can’t even tell what color is on. Like is the red light on?
Is the green light on? You don’t know. You’re guess is as good as mine.
BHAVNEET: Probably better.
Cuz we could not tell. We were sitting there for a good 30 seconds, like is it
red? Is it green? Is it red? Is it green? Maybe yellow. That long? Nah.
TARANJIT: I was like, oh.
It must have turned by now. And then I like…
BHAVNEET: Maybe it turned
red by the time we decided that it was green.
TARANJIT: No because there
was a car sitting on the other side and like the sun hit it and I thought it
changed.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: Like the way the sun
hit the traffic signal. I thought, oh. Okay. It turned green. And then as I’m
going, I looked up and I’m like, oh no. It’s still red.
BHAVNEET: Looked at the
other side and we’re like, oh. That side is definitely red. What? Oops.
TARANJIT: Not intentional
at all.
BHAVNEET: No. Well that was
Julie and Brandon’s stories. If you or anyone, you know [00:51:00] has any
crazy driving stories and would like to come on the show for season four or
five or six and so on all the seasons you can fill out the interest form
on our website at DriveWithUsPodcast.com
TARANJIT: And don’t forget
to come hang out with us on our Discord channel. So in the
meantime, we can still hang out and chat driving. So link for that is in
the show notes below. And we will see you soon. Thanks for driving with
us.
(outro music)