Sunday, November 16, 2014

Driving by the seat of your pants

You know how when you are driving (or you're a passenger) and you try to guide the vehicle by "body English" - moving your body the way that you want the vehicle to go?

You know how it doesn't work in a regular car?

It *really* doesn't work in a motorhome... in case you were wondering!

One of the most challenging things in driving a motorhome is trying to avoid getting into situations that you can't get out of... well... almost anything can be gotten out of, it just is a little bit more complicated when you're 32 feet long, or about 40 feet with the Jeep on the back. And it is additionally complicated by not being able to back up when the tow vehicle is attached.

After lunch, we wanted to fill up with gas before heading further down the road. There was a Sams in Jackson, the price on GasBuddy was good, so we decided to go there. Garmin got us there, and we were able to find the gas pumps pretty easily.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the pump we pulled up to only would let us fill once (have I mentioned that we usually have to fill in two separate transactions as it cuts off once it reaches $100?). We weren't full, so we decided to move to another set of pumps to finish filling.

This Sams had a very tight entrance and exit, and they had further complicated it by putting a pile-on with "Exit Only" at the Exit. In addition, there were bushy low trees growing on the side of the road outside the gas pumps.

As I was exiting the station area, it became obvious that I wasn't going to make the turn without significantly scratching the side of Miss Daisy. There wasn't any way to back up with the Jeep attached, so, while blocking the exit for the gas station, we jumped out and disconnected the Jeep. Even with backing up and staying as far as possible from the trees, we got some significant scratches on the side...  :-(  Oh well.... we will try to address it when we get home...

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