About the Author of this blog.

 My name is Ronald Kenneth Downing. I currently live in Beaverton Oregon with my wife Brandi Downing and daughter Jasmine. One house cat named Shadow and a much energized dog named  Heisen, who is part Beagle and Dachshund. I might add that he is a rescue dog that we adopted almost two years ago. Heisen has brought our family a lot of joy. We have lived here for about twelve years and liked the area. We attend worship services at the Church of the Nazarene in Hillsboro. Just an hours drive to the west, you have the Beach. To get to the beach, you pass through the Tillamook Forest where you can hike, go off-roading, camping, and fishing. To the east, we have Portland their signature slogan "Is keep Portland weird" and Portlanders do a good job of that and they are proud of the weirdness. Award winning Vineyards and Micro Breweries surround us, anyone who visits the area is sure to find a wine or beer that excites their taste buds.
Most of what I write is fiction. I never have been able to write short stories, because there just never seems to be a good place to quit. I would have to say that my interests for telling stories and creative writing started in second grade at Crestwood Elementary School, Located in North Little Rock Arkansas. Our teacher misses Rice was an older woman very friendly yet stern. She was a grandmotherly type of teacher. One day when I was supposed to be writing my spelling words, she caught me working on a story that I had started during recess the day before. I tried to hide it, but she had already noticed that it was not my spelling words. Misses Rice took my story from me and asked me to work on my spelling. She returned to her desk and read all ten pages before she looked up and smiled at me. Later that morning she escorted me to my special education teacher Beth Parker, who also read it. They decided that it would be best for me to work on it in her class. I had a good friend back then, named John Hopkins with whom I had shared the story. John also liked to write and asked me if he could participate, so the two of us wrote our first short novel together. It was the total length of a legal pad all 40 plus pages. Misses Parker was kind enough to edit it and type the manuscript for us, and this was years before teachers had computers in the classrooms.

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I was born in Landstuhl, Germany, October 12, 1960. Although I was not old enough to remember it, I have also lived in Rantoul, Illinois.

Our Family then moved to Moses Lake Washington. We lived there from 1961-1965.

In 1965, we moved to Jacksonville Arkansas. My father was in the United States Air Force. He retired in 1973, so I grew up in the Little Rock metropolitan area. I attended school from the first grade through the twelfth grade and graduated in 1980 from North Little Rock Northeast High school. I will say that I probably would never have graduated from High-school if it had not been for the love and compassion of an outstanding High-school Principal and a few teachers, and my parents that went above and beyond their duties. As well as some awesome friends. School subjects were never easy for me because I have a learning disability, My mother had recognized that I had trouble learning certain subjects early on. She and my father advocated for me every step of the way as well as other kids and parents. They did this through an organization that they volunteered with often.

I was married to my first wife in November 1982 we have three great kids who all now live in Missouri. I also have two grandsons who live in Missouri.

For two years, I worked as a long haul truck driver where I traveled through all forty-eight states and parts of Canada.

Even though fiction is what I enjoy writing the most, I have several years’ experience working in sales and marketing. I spent the better part of twenty years in the Recreational Vehicle industry. I still manage to keep up with what is going on in this industry through family members who continue working with Recreational Vehicles. In addition to that, I read a lot about it, visit local dealerships and attend local shows. My wife and I own a travel trailer so we camp from time to time this gives me the ability to write about various aspects of the industry. As well as camping and traveling. I enjoy a variety of things, which I will often write about here in my blog. In my blog, you will also find recipes because cooking happens to be another passion of mine. I will assure you that any recipe you find in my blog is something that I have indeed cooked myself, so it is tested before it is published.

I have done a fair amount of research on Human Trafficking; it is an ill in our society that I feel very strongly about, and our society has not done enough to reduce this horrific problem. I am a firm believer that we will never get rid of it entirely it is just like the war on drugs it is lucrative to the criminals who are trafficking people. Until it becomes less profitable and until the consequences are significantly higher than the profit the criminals can make, we will be plagued with this problem. I often write about this issue and others like it to create public awareness.

You will also find that I do not have a lot of patience for political correctness. I do believe in human rights. I believe in God, I also believe in the Constitution as well. What I do not agree with and have little or no tolerance for are issues of national or local customs and traditions. People expect Americans to change our traditions and customs because it offends people of other nationalities. The United States does not mail out gold leaf invitations to residents of foreign countries to invite them to move to the United States. These people are either here illegally; they have pleaded with the United States government to allow them to live here to avoid death or persecution in their country of origin. Alternatively, maybe they are here on a Student Visa or work Visa. Regardless of why they are here if they do not like our customs and traditions it is their problem, I  suggest that they pack up their crap and go back to the place where they came. I make no apologies for my views, and I know that may make people mad but for each that despises my views there will five who applaud them.

Along with writing, I am working on building a Non-Profit Organization called the Hillsboro Creative Writing Center. The Writing Center is to be a place where all writers twelve years of age and older will be able to work on their writing projects. To find out more about the Hillsboro Creative Writing Center, please visit us at www.hillsborocwc.org.

Ladies Behind The Wheel Of A Motor-Home!

Ladies if you are reading this article, please note it is for the husbands. When it comes to driving a motor-home in at least 85% of couples traveling in a Motor-Home, the husband is the sole driver. I strongly urge you to talk to your husband and ask him about teaching you how to drive the coach now, instead of waiting until you have to drive your RV because of an urgent situation

Does your Spouse do any of the driving while you are on the road with your Recreational Vehicle?  If you answered no, you are doing yourself and your spouse a disservice, by doing all the driving yourself. I am a supporter of men teaching their wives how to drive and park the Recreational Vehicle It does not matter if she drives every day or not. The fact is that your wife needs to know how to handle your motor-home. There are a couple of reasons for this task, and both of you will benefit from this. Sharing the driving will allow you to feel more relaxed when the two of you arrive at your destination. Another reason that your wife should know how to drive your motorhome is in the case of an emergency. 

For example lets say that you live in Alabama, you and your wife are on your way to Yellowstone and then to the Oregon Coast. No real hurry to get there since the two of you is retired. Then about the time you reach Cheyenne Wyoming, you start feeling a lot worse than you did a month ago. When you and your wife were still planning this trip, which at that time you convinced yourself that it was all the excitement of making the trip. So you decide to visit the Emergency room, only to find out five hours later that your condition is serious and that you are going to need surgery and soon. You are also told that you will not be able to travel for three weeks, and you cannot drive for at least six weeks. The travel plans that you made did not include six weeks in Cheyenne, which is about 1450 miles from home, yet almost 1600 miles from your final destination. If you had just taken a few hours and taught your wife how to drive the Motor-home, this situation would not be such a big deal.

Most women are intimidated by the size of these vehicles, and rightfully so they are pretty big. The first part of the challenge is to get them behind the wheel. If you have a motor-home, this can make it a little harder to do. And most of it has to do with the height and the width of the coach. After all, are used to driving their car most of the time, and this is something different and significantly bigger than anything you have ever driven. First you will want your wife to become familiar with the layout of the dashboard. Just as you had to do when you first bought the coach. Once she becomes familiar with the dash and you are confident that she knows where everything is located. Next go through your basic setup procedures to make sure that she is comfortable and able to reach all of the controls with ease. Now she is ready to drive. I suggest that you start off in an empty parking lot somewhere, only because this will feel less threatening. Most large parking lots have a street that goes around the parking lot. This street is usually out of the main flow of traffic. Yet it is still marked off as a street with center line.

The driving forward is only part of being able to handle the recreational vehicle. Being able to backup is just as important as driving; you never know when you might get into a tight spot that you have to back out of. Also to having to park your RV in the campsite. For this part of the procedure, you will need seven markers, flags road cones whatever you can find to mark off an area. Make sure that they are big enough that they can be easily seen by the driver. In this first exercise, we will only use six of the markers. As shown in this diagram. You will want to place two markers on each side of the vehicle. The two cones on the right and left should be set about 20 feet apart, and 3 feet from the edge of the vehicle. Take the last two cones and set them up in the back to resemble a fence or curb. Once you have done this, drive the motor home around and set it up for a right-hand turn to park as if you were parking in a campground.

You want to start with a right-hand turn also known as a blindside turn because they are more difficult. Once she has mastered, this left-hand exercise turn will be easy. Repeat the exercise until she is comfortable. Then move the cones one-foot closer on each side, and try it again. Most motorhomes today are equipped with backup cameras and monitors so you can see objects behind you; these are extremely helpful for all of us.

We have all been there, we pull into the park, stop at the ranger station to register and get our site assignment. When we find our designated site we can see that parked directly across from us is a huge Fifth Wheel. The truck is sitting in the street a little, and of course we cannot leave out the tree. The trucks owner is out on a bike ride with his wife, it's unlikely that they will be back anytime soon. So for this exercise we have created some obstacles she will need to maneuver around.

This last backing exercise is entirely optional; the chances are that you may never use it. However, it is a fun activity. Also to that you can take pride in knowing that you can do it when most people would have a lot of trouble on their hands if they ever had to use it. It goes by a lot of different names, I call it the weave. Set the markers in a straight line at or about 30 feet from each other. Position the coach so that the first marker is on the right, and it is even with the rear wheels. Then start backing up and in between the markers. This is a maneuver that they teach in most truck driving schools. I can tell you from experience it is much easier with a motor-home than with a tractor and trailer.

When you are practicing with markers, there is really no need for a spotter. However, spotters are needed when backing into a campsite, a driveway, or any other place where there are fixed objects that can cause damage. You need to be able to see the spotter at all times. There is one other backing maneuver called the 1,2,3 method this only works in ideal situations where you have plenty of space. This method is probably the easiest. Find the center of the rear wheel, measure eight feet toward the front of the vehicle. Place a small piece of stripe tape on the coach as a marker.

 Pull the coach forward until the stripe tape, is even with your spotter on the left. At that point, turn the wheel all the way to the right until your spotter is even with the rear wheel. Then turn all the way to the left as you are backing in. Not too shocking that most of the body work that is done on motor-homes were caused from backing into an object, trees, buildings or cars. This is why you should have a spotter when ever it is possible.

Now that we have all the backing up and parking out of the way, let's hit the road. Before you begin repeat the basic set up procedures, seat position, mirrors, steering wheel all need to be in a comfortable place  Start out with roads that are less traveled, this will reduce her tension and feel less intimidating. Show her how to make some turns so that she can learn about things like where to start the turn while remaining in the proper lane. Maintaining safe distances from the vehicle in front of you.  If you cannot see the tires of the car in front of you, then you are too close.It is always best to pass freight trucks and buses on the left. When you pass on the right you are at risk of being in the drivers blind spot. if the other driver can not see you, he may attempt a lane change thus causing an accident. When both of you become at ease with the progress that has been made, then you are ready for the highway. Out on the highway it drives like any other vehicle and you would take the same precautions. Remember guys keep calm; be patient, build the driver's confidence by letting her know that she is doing a great job. There is one danger that you have to worry about. After she has learned how to drive your coach and she has become comfortable; she may not want to give it back. Until next time happy travels!