Chasing Adventure

Yes, she does.

Do you know how many times Greg and I get that question when people either realize who’s driving the truck or if they ask? Why is that so shocking?

I guess I have only personally met a couple women who pull long rigs like Maverick, and they are FIERCE women. If that means I can be categorized with them, yes please.

To be fair, I don’t do it alone. Well, the steering of the wheel and the pressing of the gas/brake I do. However, I have enlisted help along the way. If you were to ride in the cab of Pearl on a travel day, you will notice 5, yes five, screens working. Since you are not in the truck with me, I took a couple pictures on a safe stretch of road to explain my helpers.

The top little screen is my Rove camera. This tool has a couple functions that help whether I’m pulling Maverick or not. It will record on a 3-minute loop at all times, so (God forbid) if there is an accident (whether we are involved or not) we have a recording of the incident. It also triggers the recording when the truck is off, but jarred enough to help in case of theft. Finally, if you’ve heard me talk about Pearl, you will know that I refer to her sweet wheels as sexy legs. They are 37″ Venom Power tires on 22″ Fuel wheels. Sexy legs. When the tires were installed (before I bought it), they didn’t calibrate the speedometer to the tires, so when Pearl says I’m going 65 mph, I’m really going 72 mph. The Rove camera tells me how fast I am actually going.

The next screen is the cameras on Maverick. The one showing is the back camera, and I use it like a rearview mirror. It is very useful when knowing if I can change lanes in passing someone, since Maverick goes WAY back there. When we are in traffic, I can switch views to see the side cameras as well, which will show me if there is a vehicle in my blind spot. We use them a little when we have to back into a spot, but honestly, Greg helps 99.9% of the time there.

The screen on Pearl’s dashboard is used for maps and Spotify, played through Android Auto. Sometimes, when there are multiple turns/directions, I tell Pearl she is being mouthy. Maybe driving alone all the time isn’t the best idea if I’m having conversations with the truck…

In the cubby, is my Tire Linc screen showing me the tire pressures and temperatures. I think I have this part finally figured out (see Tires 101) and we haven’t have any tires issues since we left FL. The tire sensors are internal and the monitoring system sometimes loses the link. If that happens, it dings 6 times and then within a few moments, the link is found and all is well. Going over really bumpy roads causes the link to be lost, so I’m not afraid to admit I have shut that one off before.

The final screen not in the picture is my phone. Running on the phone is the GPS app through RV Life, which has our whole itinerary loaded up and gives us roads ‘safe’ for our rig. Now, this doesn’t always work, which is why we match that route to Google maps and Pearl’s GPS. Once we have a singular route, that is loaded up for Pearl to follow and give directions.

If you look really close in Maverick’s camera, you will see the Jeep because Greg drives behind me on the highway to make sure I have support for changing lanes or some little 4-wheeler trying to climb in the back of Maverick. When we get closer to leaving the interstate, he drives ahead of me to scout of traffic, roads, low-hanging branches, construction, parking, etc. Coming to wherever we are parking, he has already figured out the best way to have me pull in so we are settled and level. I call when I am close and he guides me in the whole way. Some spots that we have gotten into and out of, I am shocked. I couldn’t do it without him!

So, yes, I pull the camper.

~Katie