Well, it’s that time of year again.
How many times over the course of a year do you say or hear that term? It’s probably that time of year again every day, for one reason or another. The overuse of this cliché is the exact reason that I avoid using it, except for this time of year.
Sure, it is spring and summer is on the way, fishing season is upon us and the bugs will be coming out en mass very soon. School is nearly out for the summer, we’ll be opening up our windows, taking our fans out of storage and thinking about buying a new air conditioner for the hot weather that is approaching.
None of these things have anything to do with “that time of year again” for me. Nope. For me “that time of year again” has everything to do with a phenomenon that begins with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day.
Tourist season.
The tourist season is rapidly approaching. Many of us dread the sight of them. My good friend, Wayne Genghis, calls them terrorists, I’m sure that he isn’t alone in the use of that term. Tourists are, however, a necessary and vital part of our economy, and with the way things are right now, we need to squeeze every last cent out of each one that ventures into the Upper Peninsula.
With that in mind, we must tolerate those who appear to have stepped out of the pages of an L.L. Bean catalog. They are in the north woods, after all; they must be compelled to dress in clothing that they feel fits in with what the locals are wearing.
The only real problem that I have with tourists is that many of them drive RVs, and I don’t really have a problem with that. What does bother me is that it takes no special licensing to pilot one of these highway behemoths.
The only requirement to driving an RV is a pulse and a regular old driver’s license. There is a special license endorsement for pickup trucks that are pulling a fifth-wheel type camper along with a second trailer. I am thankful that the Secretary of State at least requires a knowledge test for such an arrangement.
For the most part, when you see a Winnebago lumbering toward you, the drivers only real qualification for operating the thing is having spent the rest of the year behind the wheel of an Oldsmobile.
I come from a family of truck drivers. I am one of the few men in my family who hasn’t had a CDL (commercial driver’s license). I did haul automotive parts for a few years in a cube-van, and I was required to get a chauffeur’s license for that.
Something about which vehicles require special licensing just doesn’t make any sense to me. I drove a van that was essentially a U-Haul with white paint, 300 plus miles every weekday, roughly 78,000 miles per year, not counting personal driving. That is a fair amount of practice and experience. I needed a special license and rightfully so.
Grandpa Camper, on the other hand, drives his sedan less than 10,000 miles per year and then gets behind the wheel of a vehicle that rivals the length of many semi-trucks with no additional licensing requirements.
I fully support the idea of testing and licensing drivers who make their living behind the wheel, I am all for the chauffeur’s license and the CDL endorsements. I really think is time that RV owners prove themselves by being tested, if not annually, at least when it is time to renew their driver’s license.
Think about it. You have a person who spends little more than a week per year driving a gigantic vehicle at highway speeds. Throw into the mix the potential distraction of other passengers, who may be milling about cooking breakfast or whatever, along with all of the sights to be gawked at out the windows, GPS units, cell phones, DVD players ... it scares me to death whenever I see an RV coming toward me on a two-lane highway.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against RVs or tourists. It just seems to me that when you combine the two, the rest of us should be assured that the tourist is qualified to drive the RV. I know that I’d feel a little more comfortable on the highway.
It’s that time of year again.
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