A New York "Education"

[JudyJB]

I stayed four nights in a state park northeast of Niagara Falls, NY, and this week had my first lesson in New York "Parkways." In NY, as I discovered, "parkway" is code for "low bridges."

The confusing thing is that these parkways have only a warning sign at the entrance that says "No Commercial Vehicles." Since my motorhome is not a commercial vehicle and is not even considered a truck in most states for speed limits and going through inspection stations, I ought to be able to drive on these parkways, right? WRONG!!!

The good news is that I got off quickly after figuring out why my GPS was warning my that this road was not built for RVs. The bad news is that there are tons of these parkways in NY, so I will have to watch out for them. And the other big problem is that many of these are divided highways, so if you accidently discover yourself in front of a bridge a foot shorter than your vehicle, you might not even be able to turn around. (Discovered these warnings on the internet.)

So, I will have to stop free-styling and start paying more attention to the routes my Rand McNally RV GPS is selecting for me. I ended up driving almost all of today on country two-lane highways loaded with fruit and vegetable stands. Got two small baskets of the most wonderful black raspberries! Yum.

[MelissaD]

New York is also famous for marking their bridges low. If you watch you will see 13'6" semi's go under bridges marked 12'6". Unless it says "ACTUAL" on the sign it's normally marked a foot low. I was told this was due to lawyers. Really confusing

[Pooker]

My hubby was a clearance specialist. It was his job to "clear" a shipment from point A to point B by checking over/under passes, electric/telephone lines, bridges, signs beside rail tracks that could get hit, turns that trucks couldn't make, etc., etc. He said one of the biggest problems he had was when a road would get resurfaced and the signs and clearance info wouldn't get changed. Resurfacing can add 6" or more. I guess that's why he often personally traveled to check out the route along with a railroad or trucking company engineer. Ya never know!

Back where I come from there was a railroad overpass on a very busy city street. You could drive under it in 3-4 different lanes. Huge signs told truckers to use only the left two lanes because the height was very different from one end to the other. At least twice a year a large truck would get stuck under the right side overpass and they would have to let all the air out of the tires to tow it out. Wonder if that situation still exists?

[chalet05]

Judy, been there done that! The sign I passed said 'Passenger Vehicles Only'. I was beginning to get the picture when I man went by, stuck his hand through his sun roof and waved his finger as in 'no,no' at me. Luckily, there was an exit coming up.

At another spot, I passed a sign about clearance height up the road a ways. Thought about it a minute and luckily found a place to turn around!

[havingfunnow]

Yikes! Glad you found the berries, it least.

[JudyJB]

I bought my expensive Rand McNally GPS because of an experience having my old GPS routing me through downtown Mansfield, OH, during business rush hour. Mansfield is an old town with narrower streets than usual and those old railroad underpasses that were rounded on the top. One had a very tiny sign that I could not read until it was too late. It said 12" and at the time my vehicle was brand new and 11'8". I made it under it, but to this day have no idea where the 12' had been measured--side or middle.

Also managed to almost drive under a 10'8" underpass in Mackinaw, Michigan. Those two experiences made el cheapo me spend the $350 on the GPS that Is supposed to keep me from going places where I don't fit. The problem is that I have to learn to listen to its advice. Luckily in this case, I finally did, but it is really tempting when your GPS gives you direction to your campground as being 3 miles away and you see a sign pointing in another direction telling you it is only a half-mile away!

[Bethers]

Judy, I very well remember when I was going to Liberty Harbor RV Park in NJ, across from NY to visit the Statue of Liberty, etc - and looking at all the roads going to the right with these very, very low bridges. I mean, I'm not sure some of the larger pickups would have fit! And I knew my turn to the park was to the right. I was sweating all the way until I got to the park safely.

Something else to be aware of. The roof damage on my last rig, which haunted me for all the rest of the years I had the rig, was because a gas station put a sign at a lower level than the height they had listed for their canopy - and it stuck out with a pointed edge. Needless to say, about halfway down my rig, as I pulled closer to the pumps, that sign hit the edge/top of my roof, ding, ding, ding, etc. So, while their posted sign was correct for the height of the canopy - they put a sales sign sticking out lower. And they had the gall to expect ME to pay for damage to their sign. When I balked - and told them they should be paying for my damage, they called the police. Small town America. Police didn't make me do as the station wanted BUT told me it would be best for me to leave town. As I left I did say that IF they contacted my insurance company, I'd sue them. I should have sued anyway, had I known the damage it caused that wouldn't be seen in the immediate future.

OK, this wasn't NY, but close!

[carold]

Melissa, that's exactly what happened to us going to Niagra Falls. Went down a ramp and then saw sign about height allowance. Pulled over immediately, called Fleetwood to check our height. Just as we were ready to pull out the phone rang and said they gave us the wrong height....it was taller so don't go under. we called the HighwayPatrol and they sent an officer to hold up traffic so we could go the wrong way to get back to the main road. Meanwhile I see a big bus go under the bridge and???? Next another officer comes over and gives us a hard time about not reading the sign at the turn about height restriction..to make a longer story shorter, the overpass was really tall enough for us to go under. They were just trying to restrict big trucks from using that route. ARG! carold