Driving Miss Rita

What’s It Like to Drive a Bus?

A lot of people ask me this - is it hard to drive Rita? What is it like? I figured it would be good to get a bunch of stuff down now while it is all still fresh for me as a newbie.

I have logged over 7,000 miles on Rita now, but definitely feels still very new to me in a lot of ways. Slowly, much of the anxiety about navigating unfamiliar roads and showing up somewhere new (how big will it be? Can I back out? What if I get stuck? What if I hit something?) is dissipating, as I have successfully survived more and more varied situations.  Driving Rita is not nearly as difficult, or terrifying as I feared.

 

Space, the Final Frontier

Keep in mind, Rita is only 22 feet long – many pick-up trucks are just as long!  While she is nothing like driving a 40 foot, full sized skoolie, she does have some unique characteristics and things I had to learn/get used to.

The very first thing that freaked me out about driving miss Rita, was how WIDE she is.  Around 8 feet to be specific.  This means she takes up an entire lane most of the time.  I’m always worried about side-swiping someone.  In my lower side mirrors, I can always see the ground and can make sure I am within the lines.  At first it was super challenging and a little terrifying (especially when there are cement barriers right up to the line on the right, I’m always afraid I’m going to hit them and I do get very close!).   These days I hardly worry about that anymore, I feel pretty comfortable with my awareness of width and also always watching the right mirror that sticks out pretty far – making sure not to smack things with it (although, I have walked into it more once. Ouch).   I’m still getting used to my length in front – I often feel way too close to things, only to discover there’s a lot more room than I thought (such a short nose!).  My backup camera is one of the best things ever, I can’t believe I drove the first few weeks without it!  Sometimes I even use it on the highway, if I have to move to the right lane and I can’t really see if there is anyone behind me.  Vertical space is another thing I need to remain aware of.  We haven’t yet encountered any bridges too low, but it is definitely something to stay vigilant about.  Rita is about 9.5 feet tall at her height, near as I can tell.  I just say 10 feet to be safe.  We did go to a high school car wash in the back of a shopping center lot, and the exit was under a 9 foot roof – I was sure we wouldn’t make it, so the people behind me had to back way out and we had to back up probably 300 feet to get out the entrance!

 

Parallel Universes

I have yet to successfully parallel park in a tight space.  I have pulled in and parked parallel when there was plenty of room, but I have several abandoned attempts at squeezing in somewhere.  Maybe someday…. In parking lots of shopping centers, I always go as far out as I can and park where there are lots of empty spaces.  Often, we fit just fine in a space, and often we end up hanging a bit into another space – I like to pull into the front space and have the back into the behind space – makes leaving much easier.  Doing this way far out in a lot makes me feel much less guilty for taking 2 spaces.  Also, I get a lot more walking in!

 

Nobody Wants to Get Stuck Behind a Bus!

One thing I’ve noticed - NO ONE will let me in when I put on a blinker! Everyone speeds up and tries to pass you as soon as you try to get into the left lane…this has resulted, at least once, in me making a left turn from a far-right lane – I was just about to give up on making my turn, and everyone finally passed and it was clear, so I just made the left across 3 lanes!

 

Life in the Slow Lane

I have always been someone who drives way too fast, and have sometimes been accused of being a tailgater.  The fast lane was always for me. I don’t even know if I ever actually drove in the slow lane before.  It’s a whole other world here! It is a very rare thing for me to pull into the left lane to pass someone (and it’s almost always a commercial-made camper towing something).  But the slow lane is my life now.  And I kind of like it.  I do not dream of tailgating; I go only as fast as Rita and I are comfortable with – which almost never exceeds 65 mph.  50-55 is our favorite speed.  But usually several hours into a trip, Rita really gets warmed up and we have been known to hit 70 on occasion.   Rita really does take a while to get warmed up.  Just like me, she is very sluggish in the cold mornings!  When we first get started and she’s not above the C temp line, I can’t expect to go more than 30 mph mostly, and up hills is even worse.  It’s really quite noticeable when we first start off.  She loves to go for the long hauls, though, and it feels like she really hits her stride after a couple of hours on the road.

 

Uphill Battles

Rita does not lack any power, she has a 7.3 liter, V-8 turbo diesel motor (sometimes referred to as ‘the million mile motor’) – she will easily hit 500,000 miles. We are already at 382,xxx), so while she goes very slow up hills at times, she is NOT struggling.  You can feel her power, she is not lugging or having a hard time, she is just slow and super powerful.  When she is really warmed up, we can often even accelerate going up a hill and certainly maintain whatever speed we had on the flat. I’ve come to love the deep growl she makes when I start her up.

 

Always on Display

Rita is not even remotely stealth.  My initial vision of being barely noticeable in white shuttle bus is just a distant, fuzzy memory.  People are constantly yelling out “I love your bus!” or slowing up when passing, to wave or give me a thumbs up on the highway, or accosting me in parking lots to ask a million questions, or even ask for a peek inside.  So far, ithis has not become annoying!  It all still feels new and I am still excited about everything – I hope that never goes away!  I still get this crazy, excited feeling when I say to myself “I am driving my whole house down the highway right now!!!”

 

Getting Our Fill

Rita has a 55 gallon tank, and gets around 12 mpg in the best of conditions.  This means we can get some decent distance on one tank, but fill ups are rather expensive! I’ve been using gas apps to find the cheapest stations in places I go. I know I could dial that in better and there are gas apps with rewards and extra discounts, I just haven’t had time/bandwidth to really dig into that yet, set up accounts and whatnot.  Getting diesel seems to always be a bit of an adventure, or annoyance, depending on my mood!  Many gas stations don’t have diesel at all pumps, and often the diesel is in a separate place altogether.  I have wandered around many a-gas station wondering WTF is the diesel?? Usually there’s a spot with big rigs, and sometimes you can’t even pay at the pump. You have to go in and leave your card or ask for the pump to be turned on.  While all diesel nozzles are a different size than gas, I have encountered some that are really huge and won’t even fit in Rita! Sometimes, I also need to fill up the diesel tanks in the ‘garage’ – I have two - 5 gallon tanks that are used for the diesel heater.  It is always a messy, strenuous challenge to get those out, refill, clean up, and get them heaved up back in there.  Luckily, I have yet to throw my back out on all this.   I did learn that setting the gas cap on the tire, even though it is RIGHT THERE and the perfect height – is a terrible idea. I forgot to put it back one time and as I pulled away, I heard a horrific crunching noise.  I got out to see what I had run over and it was just a mass of pulverized plastic. It took me a minute to even realize what it was.  Luckily, I was able to find a replacement cap very quickly and it was pretty cheap, too!  I seem to be racking up quite a few “lessons learned” as we go along.