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!