A Women's RV Forum run by Women RVer's!

Did any of you watch the tonight show with Jay Leno Wed night, Drew was talking about driving an RV and loving it but admitted she spaces out at the wheel so not a good combo driving a RV. Drew said she went into a small gas station and did a Evie trick and tore off the air conditioner on the roof of her RV. Said some lady in the little booth was screaming at her through the microphone and the way she told the story was hysterical!!

The other day, I stumbled across a documentary on a PBS station titled, "Ride of our Lives" which is about a midwest family who rented a class C RV to drive to Arizona and pick up his elderly parents. They rented a class A as well for the elderly parents to live in (son drove the A, adult grandchildren drove the C). They were taking a 2 month cross country trip to see America, spend time w/the elderly parents and give them "one last trip of their lives".

The son who orchestrated the trip knew nothing about RVing (no one else did either), and he was documenting their experiences, including shearing off part of the C in a gas station. Quite interesting.

I saw it too and also thought about Evie and wondered if anyone else had watched.Could just see the lady screaming at her from inside. I remember some of her earliest appearances on the show and she was always so cute and talkative.
One time on my first road trip adventure a friend and I stopped for gas, we were pulling a U=Haul and the gas tank opening was sort of between the license plate and the hitch. Well...I thought I was all set, turned the pump on to fill, and the gas nozzle fell out! Somehow we got it turned off and my friend decides she will try. This time instead of putting the nozzle in, she says ok turn it on, she is looking at me and when I scream she notices she is washing the car with gasoline. Now... you wonder why someone didn't come running at the first mishap but oh no actually I think they were frozen in disbelief inside. Finally someone had the presence of mind though to snap out of it and turn off the pump. So, there we were, with a really smelly vehicle wondering what to do next, we didn't think we could go through a car wash. So of course we decided to have a little refreshment, came out drove about a block and the skies opened up and it just poured. We must have worn our guardian angels out many times on that trip.

I love Drew Barrymore! I didn't see this show tho. She didn't flash Leno like she did Letterman, did she??! I can see her being an RVn woman.

I KNEW that would come back to haunt me! I just knew it! Hey, at least I'm in good company! Wish I had seen the show.

The RV tech. who checked over my rig after I peeled off the A/C, satellite dish, etc. told me not to feel bad because the last rig he had to estimate was a huge diesel pusher and the GUY had peeled off everything including the roof itself! And the old gas station roof I hit? It had already been hit 2 weeks before by a trucker!

Guess this isn't as rare as we think!

Face it Evie, this is going to haunt you forever!! Just look at it this way, gives all of us something to talk about! It almost happened to me in Alaska, but just as I started to drive under the roof at the gas station I looked up and there was a sign that said 11ft. I managed to swing Hope to the right (thank goodness I was on the outside pump!) and missed taking off everything on top. But believe me, I was sweating that the roof would clear! Happens to most of us at one time or another. There's kind of an unwritten law that says if the overhang isn't marked with how high it is, it's at least 14ft. 'Course that doesn't apply to you 'cause you weren't actually at a gas station.

It almost happened to us in Canada on our way to Alaska. We needed diesel - finally found a station but with an unmarked canapy over the pumps. Bill stopped and I went in to ask the people if they knew how high it was. Nope sure didn't. A guy from across the street came over and said you just might clear it if you let out the air in the suspension. He added he would stand on the hill across the street and watch as he had a good view of the roof and the canapy from there. So out came the air - Bill crept forward the guy waved him on. We made it - got diesel - got out the other side and refilled the air. The people at the station said they would measure it and post it. Lots of help but it turned out okay. Also on last trip to Mexico a couple of years ago we took out the power and telephone lines over the street in one little town we drove through. Oops. Gots to remember to look up too. Being very careful this time.

Oops! It was in Canada, not Alaska that I almost took off the roof....and BIL took down power and telephone lines in a CG of all places in Nevada...So, you see, Evie, you're not alone!

Oh heavens Evie, I thought you were talking about flashing when you said that would come back to haunt you. I was desperately reading...who did you flash...where did you flash...WHAT did you flash. I'm disapointed. Go flash somebody and tell us about it.

wow, I can hardly wait to have this kind of fun

Sparkle, not everyone likes to flash people - although I think the jury is out on you - as you did threaten to flash Elvis and the entire audience at the one show we saw. I think one man there almost had a heart attack.

Did we talk about the damage to my roof from a gas station in NY on the way to Soos' 2 summers ago? If not, maybe I should just file that story away

I'm beginning to wonder if I reeeally want to pull that trailer out of my yard.
Marda

'Fess up, Beth.

Okies, will fess up, as Liz puts it.

This gas station in NY had a sign showing over 14' clearance. Do NOT believe everything you read. Actually, the real canopy did have that clearance, but because of town restriction on their road signs, they took a sign and put it at an angle above one of the gas pumps. This sign was not at that clearance, stuck out about 2 feet at an angle from the pump at about an 11 foot clearance. I thought I was over far enough to miss it. Ha. All of a sudden I could here a scraping sound - as it scraped along the very edge of the rubber roof. It hit and cracked off the edge of the cover over the refrigerator before I could pull completely away from it.

I continued to get gas, and here came an attendant telling me in not very nice terms that they needed my insurance card and I needed to sign paperwork that I would pay for damage to their sign. I was boiling mad, and jumped in the rv, grabbed my camera, and went to take pictures of their clearance sign. That brought the manager out - and they called the police on me. I proceeded to tell them that if they should report this to my insurance co or make a claim (there was NO damage to their sign that I could see - and the employee even said to me a truck had bent it the week before) - but IF they contacted my insurance co they would be hearing from my attorney - as their clearance sign is the only thing I should have to follow - and it obviously is wrong.

The cop saw a fight coming between the manager and me - and he convinced me to just give them my insurance card to copy (I did - with the above comments repeated) and get out of there. I said, but hey, THEY should be paying for any damage I HAVE. Well, I climbed up- and decided it would take an attorney to get anything from them, which would have cost more than fixing it - so unless they contacted my insurance co (which the cop did tell them they'd have trouble if I contacted an attorney) - I just got out of town and on to Soos'.

Moral of the story - carefully LOOK at everything - even if the sign says the clearance is good. I got some water inside here when rains came at a torrential sideways downpour - but was able to fix it with a rubber sealant caulk stuff along the scrape - and had to replace the vent cover for the fridge.

After reading all the stories, it is easy to undertand why some of us have a liking for the B+ models . Small is beautiful!..... And less challenging for some of us to drive. I still have to work to be sure the antenna is down! It is not a good thing to pull into an Escapee's Rally with a tree branch stuck in your extended Antenna. Think they could see the newby a mile away......

Tina