Warning To RV Travelers: Don’t Use Waze

So as far as travel and directions go for me, Waze is LIFE.  I even use it for updates when I’m traveling to places that I actually know how to get to.

Ok…that and the police notifications. 😉

So naturally, when we are traveling with the RV we want to know the best, traffic-free way to go.  We should just use Waze, right?

Wrong. Very wrong.

Here’s why.

Last summer, we were traveling from NJ to Maine.  We stopped about 4 places along the way.  The first leg was NJ to Mystic KOA.  You would think that we would just take I-95 the whole way.

Waze had a better way for us.  Less traffic, it said.  So, we went with it.

So now we are on this beautiful highway in NY, headed towards Connecticut.  Waze took us on the Hutchinson River Parkway.  Not knowing where we were, I sat back and enjoyed the new scenery.

Cue a “max height” sign.

The warning sign alerted us to the fact that the overpass ahead was 11 ft, something inches.  I frantically started Googling “Jayco X213 total height” because, of course, I had no idea.  I’m panicking in the passenger seat as Chris assured me that it might be close, but we’d make it.

As we approach the overpass, and I’m yelling at Chris to “stay in the middle,” we clear it.

::phew::

For you visual readers, this is a photo taken from their website so you can see what I’m talking about…

See why I was freaking?

What a nightmare!  I’m thinking that we were going to end up like a can of sardines under there.  Of course, as I’m Googling, all I could find was pictures of trucks that crashed into the overpass not knowing that there would be a low clearance ahead.  So I mention something about getting off as soon as I can when I see another sign.

Clearance:  9ft [something] inches.

Holy. Crap.

I’m freaking out.  What are we going to do? There are no exits on this damn road!! Back to Google, I go because I’m SURE that we can’t clear that.

Chris slows down and we are going to cause a scene now because we literally don’t know what to do.

As we approach the overpass, and I’m praying and holding my breath, we go to the tallest part possible.

The antenna of the RV scrapes “screeeetchhhh” as we go under.

I can’t take this anymore! I’m about to have a heart attack when I see an exit.  “Get off!” I yell.

Thinking the worst is over, we get off the unknown exit and our Waze voice starts yelling at us that we’ve disobeyed them.  I look ahead and realize that we are exiting into a city.

Like a real, legit CITY.  Who KNOWS where we are at this point?  The Bronx?  I don’t know!  All I know is that there is no way that an RV trailer with two fairly inexperienced towers should be attempting to navigate this path.

I’m frantically trying to find a way out of this mess and I get a route to get us back on I-95.  I’m screaming out directions and without hitting anything, we make it out of this city situation.

Only to see a tunnel sign ahead.

For those of you who don’t know, you can’t take open propane into a tunnel.

RV’s have propane and ours happened to be open because it was keeping our refrigerator running while we travel. (This is highly controversial…some people say absolutely keep it running and others are like NO WAY! Up to this point, we’ve been on the “why not” side of the debate.)

There’s no way out.  We are going into this tunnel whether we like it or not.  It’s happening.

So I start Googling, “How much is the fine if you get caught in a tunnel with an RV in New York?”

It was evidently upwards of $400 or so, for your information.

At this point, we had no choice.  We were in it and we had to deal with the consequences if we got them.

Thankfully, we made it out of the tunnel without harm to anyone…or a fine.  We got back on I-95 and made a pact to not get off no matter what.

When we take the trip back to Maine this summer, we I will be sure to research how to get there without low clearance overpasses and/or tunnels.  I’m pretty sure if we just do it the old-fashioned way of sticking to the main road, so to speak, we’ll do just fine.

This leads me to my next question to research…

Are there any apps that are meant for truckers or RV towers that help you avoid tunnels and low overpasses?

If you know of any, help me out. 😉

~Michelle