 Hey birdwatchers, today I'm going to talk to you about age discrimination, driving down scary mountain grades, RV driver education, what that trickly noise is in my house, and if I have another indoor RV garden. Happy Sunday, everybody. It's Robin with Creativity RV, and this is the Sunday Morning View Queue where I answer all your best questions about my full-time RV life. Let me start with questions about age discrimination. A few weeks ago you may have seen that I did a video about online jobs for people 55 and over. I did show a few different companies and one of them, Recruit and Field, was sharing their jobs on social media. And they would give an age band there that they were looking for like 25 to 45, 55 to 69, something like that. The top age that I put in any of those examples was 69. So I got a lot of questions about why there was a cut-off and was there age discrimination. No, they're looking for people in a certain age range to test things out to make sure that those things work for everybody in that age range. You just have to look a little bit. And yes, it's still on sale for $2.99 for one more week and then it's going back to the regular price. Okay, let's get to the next question, which is about RV driver trading. Here's a question from Edna. She says, I know you had driving lessons when you got the fifth wheel. How do you locate a teacher? And could you please do a blog on what to look for or how to find a school or teacher that is acceptable to insurance companies? When I complete a driver training course, I get a discount. No, I actually didn't take lessons when I got my fifth wheel. I was going to because like you guys know, I had two 25 foot all-in-one rigs before I got this fifth wheel. I had never chowed anything in my life. I just went out on faith that I could learn how to do it. So I bought the RV and I had it delivered to an RV park because this was in winter in Colorado. And I asked the guy that delivered the RV from the dealership if he could give me lessons. And he was game. The problem is we scheduled like three different times for him to come out and teach me. And every time there was a big snowstorm and we couldn't do it. My friend Badge offered to come out to Colorado and drive with me back down to Arizona. We're trying to run the snow. So that's what we're doing. And I got all my my to my mitts. I got my insulated coverles and my winty boots. So I think we're good to go. Now he showed up also in a blizzard. Literally it was just on our heels. So I asked him to drive us out of there. And then I just learned on the job. Basically he got in the passenger seat and I drove 13 hours. And by the end of that, it was no problem. She's going to drive this freaking thing right now. This is a big time. I'm ready. Let's go. Let's go. Stop talking about it. No, I'm going to watch you. I want to put it in gear and let's go. You like it a lot. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Now I love to take an actual driving class. There is one through RVSchool.com. I'll put the link below that offers actual training through good instructors, but they only do it in certain locations. And I was not in one of those locations. I think those might be good, but I don't know. I don't have any experience. Do any of you please do put it in the comments below. Now as for insurance, I did find that if you get your insurance through the Family Motor Coach Association or FMCA, they will give you a discount if you take one of the two classes I just mentioned, but that means that you have to go through their broker. I also found in some comments that GEICO offers a discount if you take a course through the NTSB, but I couldn't find any information on that, so I don't know if that is legit. If you know, please do tell us. Otherwise, the only discount that I know that insurance companies offer is through AARP and it's for taking a driving course called 55 Alive that doesn't have anything to do with RVs. If you want to get a discount on your insurance, be really clear with your agent before you take the class and get an actual list of what class it is that you need to take that they'll accept and what the discount's going to be and how long you need to recertify. Is it every year or is it every three years or something like that? It's a great question for all of us, if anybody has any additional answers, please do put it down below. The next question comes from Lisa Gray who said, Hi Robin and Doug, I'm hoping you could give me some advice on finding routes to avoid steep hills or how to be prepared for them. I'm in the process of converting a 23-foot shuttle bus and I'm a little nervous about descending large hills. Oh, well, first of all, congratulations on your shuttle bus. I have to tell you guys a funny story. If you go way back in my videos, I did a video called Am I Scared? About Life on the Road and I said in that video, yeah, I've been wicked scared a few times but every single time it was something that I did myself. My first trip west, I was leaving Colorado and I was going over a pass called Raton Pass and I was in shorts, it was a beautiful day, wasn't that concerned about it and then this big fog bank came up and so I decided to pull over so I could change my clothes because it was getting cold and try and look up online what the weather was going to be and what this mountain pass was all about. Well, of course, I was all up in my head and not paying attention to what I was doing and I pulled up and there was a little parallel spot that was on an angle next to this hill and again, the entire place was just completely fogged in. I turned off the car and I go in the back, I was in a B plus van then, so an all-in-one and I literally have one leg in a pair of pants and the whole rig starts to go like this and I thought, oh my God, the storm is really coming in, that wind is getting crazy and it turns out that I had not put the car all the way in park and I had rolled over the curb and I looked out the front windshield and I was going down a hill. I didn't know what was at the bottom of this hill, everything was fogged out, I looked like I was on the side of a mountain and I thought I was going to die. I've never been so athletic in my life. I literally sprinted down into the cockpit, jumped into the driver's seat, slammed my foot on the brake and I was like shaking, shaking, shaking. I got it into reverse and I was able to reverse my butt back up the hill and over the curb, put it in park, put on the emergency brake, turned off the car and then proceeded to just shake. I was shaking for hours. I couldn't even drive for about an hour and a half because I couldn't keep my hands on the steering wheel. Note to self, think about what you're doing, not what's coming up. Now I always, always put my emergency brake on. I even do it when I'm in, like, a grocery store parking lot. Going down steep hills can be a little bit scary when you've got a lot of weight. So here's what I do. I use two apps. One is called Mountain Directory West and the other is called Highway Weather. Now Mountain Directory West is a mess. I'm going to be completely honest with you. And it's also 16 bucks, but you can get it on Android and you can also get it on Mac. And I do use it when I see there is going to be any kind of a mountainous area I'm going through because once you figure out how to search inside the app, it will actually tell you this highway from this mile marker is going to be a 6% grade for 4 miles and the turns are 20 miles an hour or something like that. So I know what I'm actually getting into. But I wish the TechnoMadia who does the US Public Lands app and the Coverage Question Mark app which I also love would do an app like this. Are you listening, you guys? Because this one can be a little bit tricky, but I found that the information is accurate and it helps me prepare. I actually changed my route based on what I'm finding in that app. Highway Weather, the app also can be a little bit finicky to use. You always want to say plan ahead. Don't ever say travel now when you go into that app. But the reason I like that is because you can put in, let's say, I want to go from Lone Pine, California to Mammoth, California on 395. And it will give you what the weather is going to be every hour along your route. I'll tell you one thing you learn after you first get on the road is you have to be prepared for what's coming up. Now speaking of which, Sam, the man asked, where have you been traveling? It's been so windy in Arizona. Have you been affected by this? Yes, we are traveling north and it's been really windy this year. In fact, we were in some heinous winds that actually derailed our trip. The highway was shut down because of the drama that we've had the last couple of weeks. You definitely want to come next Sunday. We'll be showing you a video on that and tell you everything that's happened. Yeah, the winds have been really crazy and you definitely want to check your weather in advance, especially if you've got a high profile vehicle like we do. Okay, the next question is from Laura Olson. She said, am I hearing trickling water in the background of this video? What's up with that? Yeah, you are. I was never going to mention this, but I get so many questions on it. No, I do not have some kind of a slow leak in the RV. I actually have a water fountain for the cat. My boy is spoiled and it's all thanks to his grandmother. So, Mom, if you're listening, it's all your fault. She got the cat hooked on drinking water that drips out of the faucet. We don't have unlimited water here, so I got him a water fountain and he loves it. So I can drip the water right into it and it takes hardly any power at all. And finally, I'm going to tell you about this thing behind me because so many of you have asked. Now, of all the things I miss about having to stick some bricks, the biggest thing is a garden and the second thing is a big hot bathtub. I can't do anything about the bathtub, but I could about the garden. So you may have seen in my Class C, I took my overhead bunk there and I turned it into a full drawer garden with grow lights and everything. I really wanted to figure out how to have a garden in here, but I didn't have a space like that I could do it in until I discovered this arrow garden. I got the one behind me on a Black Friday sale. I think it was 70 bucks. So I actually ended up getting three of them at the beginning of the pandemic and I tell you, for me, it's been a great investment. I have a ton of baby tomatoes. They grow like crazy. I also have an entire thing and I also have a bunch of different lettuces and romaine. I started growing more micro-greens which I loved growing before in an RV. When we can't get to the grocery store for fresh produce, having fresh herbs and tomatoes and lettuces and grains has made a big difference for us. You can find the arrow gardens on Amazon. I'll link it in my Amazon page and the Cat Family. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer in the next PQ? Where you're going to see some drama that we've gone through? Until then, I hope you're all clean, well out there and staying healthy. Have happy travels and be free.