Roof Grinder

Back in November of 2018 Elizabeth and I left our home in King George, VA to pick up The Beast (our 2007 Newmar Essex motorhome) in Virginia Beach, VA. To get there we had to drive through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnels (HRBT). We checked the height on the sign of the eastbound tunnel. It showed 14’6.” This gave us 1’8” of clearance as the sales brochure lists the height as 12’10.” Right?

We picked up our RV and started the trek home.  I was driving The Beast, and Elizabeth was following me in the car.  We had a set of walkie-talkies so we could communicate between vehicles.  Elizabeth would pipe up from time to time with helpful information like “lane position” when I was not centered in my lane.

As we approached the HRBT we both kept our eyes glued on the over-height warning signs. They did not indicate that we were over-height.  I continued to drive as I was going off the assumption that the tunnel was 14’6.” When I saw the sign for the older, westbound tunnel, it showed only 13’6.” That is an entire foot of clearance gone. When I saw that sign, my pucker factor went to 11. Some quick math in my head gave me 8” of clearance.  Plenty of room…

When I was in the US Navy, I had to hunch over or tip my head to the right or left to dodge cables and valve hands in the overhead. I am 6’6” tall and the overhead in the ships passageways was usually not. So when I was about half way through the tunnel, I noted that I was hunching in my seat. I was not afraid of hitting the roof with the RV, but my head! I was not used to sitting that high or having that tall of a windshield. It looked that close.

After we had The Beast at home for a while, I wanted to measure its actual height. Once up on the roof, I noted that a previous owner had added a remote control spotlight. When I measured, the total height of the coach came to 13”2!” When we went through the westbound HRBT that first day, The Beast only had 4” of clearance… We will NOT do that again!  That’s way too close for comfort.  We have learned to plan our trips and check the route in our RV’s GPS unit as well as online and paper maps to avoid overheight and overweight conditions.

This planning and GPS came in handy when Elizabeth and I were on our way to cousin Warren and Sharon’s home in Greenfield, OH. There is a covered bridge on his road that has a 9”2” height and a weight limit of only four tons.  We checked it on all maps and made a call to Warren. He verified that the bridge is one mile east of his house and that we were approaching from the west.  We made SURE to pull in his driveway and not bypass it.

Warren made sure our stay on his farm was welcoming.  I was allowed to operate his skid steer with a round hay bale grabber attachment. I moved bales to the bale wrapping machine he had attached to his tractor.  There are no skid steer loaders on US Navy ships so this was a cherished memory for me. Thanks Warren!

Cool as a Cucumber

When we sell our stick and bricks home and move into our RV full time, for an income stream I plan to transition from full-time to part-time-on-call work with my current employer. This would require that I ride US Navy ships or deploy to other locations to conduct radio and radar testing.  When I am on travel, issues may arise that would require Elizabeth to be able to move The Beast (Elizabeth’s current name of our RV). I offered to take her to a local empty parking lot for basic RV driving lessons, but Elizabeth politely refused.

In a previous blog entry, we described where Elizabeth and I attended the Spartan Motors RV Owners Training Academy in historic Charlotte, MI. One of the training sessions consisted of personal, on‑the‑road drive time with a certified instructor, including basic driver guidelines, hazard awareness and avoidance, as well as control and recovery and the driver’s role.  Elizabeth was in the driver’s seat while I was in the back, on the couch with a bloody nose, which was not from being punched in the nose...

The session started in the parking lot with the instructor helping Elizabeth learn how to judge where the back of the coach is by using the rear view mirrors and not the rear view camera nor by leaning out of the driver’s window. Then she learned how to find the front of the coach to enable her to stop at a stop bar without going over or leaving too much space.

In the second phase, Elizabeth drove out of the parking lot, driving around town while learning lane positioning with an eight and a half foot wide bus. She was instructed on how far out into the intersection she has to go to successfully navigate and not clip the curb with the rear tires when making a right hand turn.   Then there were the less stressful left hand turns.  It was interesting listening to the instructor telling her to “Wind” or “Un-wind” the steering wheel to navigate the corners. Then it was out on to the highway.  Elizabeth started to relax, as there is not a lot to do out on the open road compared to driving in town.

Now the best part, when it was time for us to start our trek back to my cousin-in-law Steve’s house down in Goshen, IN, Elizabeth wanted to drive The Beast for the first part of our journey.  She drove through town, pulled into a fuel station, drove on the highway for about one hour and then pulled into a gas station that had a dump station so we could empty our gray and black tanks.  I am so proud of her!!!  She now has driven The Beast on four separate occasions!!!!!!

She is cool as a cucumber while driving The Beast.