Outside of Nashville, we decide to take a break and do a little shopping at a store that is visible from the freeway. Shopping done, we head back onto the freeway. It’s Dave’s turn to drive and he decides to make a right rather than a needed left hand turn. “This intersection is too busy to make a left without a traffic light – I’m going to go right and turn around where there’s a light.” Dave said.A few blocks down, Susi saw a hotel on the right with a big empty parking lot right at the corner of an intersection with a light. Unfortunately, before she could point it out to Dave, he was in the left lane for a left hand turn. “Why are you turning that way? There’s a great place to make the turn around on the right?” she asked. Dave proceeds to tell her, as he’s turning left, why it’s always better to turn left, so one can make a right hand turn into traffic.
Unfortunately, he didn’t notice that this street is one block long with a big sign at the end stating ‘no outlet’. On the right are two entrances along this short block, and Susi points to the first one with a little strip of stores they could pull through and get back to the main street. “There, there, turn there….” she yells as Dave, once again, goes by the entrance to the parking lot. Dave has his eye on the second building, which is a brand new fire station with a nifty flag pole in the frount. “There’s always a circle around those flag poles.” Dave confidently states.
Except for this one…which has a small sidewalk. Did I mention that we cannot back up when we are towing our little box? Now, Dave could tell you why we can’t back up, but to make this story a lttile shorter – take my word for it – we can’t back up. On the far side, Dave spots a driveway to the back of the fire station, which is the only way to go forward. “I hope there’s an access in the back to the main street for the fire trucks.” Dave prays.
Would you believe that the drive way was just like ours – it only led to the 3 bays of the fire station! Dave used the entire surface of the parking pad to see if he could make a circle and head back out. Nope – panic sets in as we realize we’ve now blocked all three of the fire station bays! The only option is to unhook the car fom the RV and back them both up seperately. Since the car is at an angle to the RV, Dave discovers that the hitch is frozen. He’s pounding on it with a hammer as the first fireman strolls out to chat.
“You folks having a problem?” he asks as he leans over to see what Daveis doing. Susi replies, “Can you tell we’re neophite RVers that can’t read signs?” The fireman chuckles, “Wouldn’t it be easier if I opened the bay door, drove the fire truck back around and you could pull through?” the fireman calmly asks. “Yes!” Dave and Susi both emphatically state. As the fireman opens the bay door, Dave throws his hammer in the tool box and climbs in the RV to drive through the station.
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Susi, being the supportive wife that she is, races to get her camera to record the event with the other firemen who have come out to watch the show. Due to her inexperience as a videographer, it was only after she shot the footage that she realizes it would have even been better if she had raced to the front of the building to get the door opening, the fire truck leaving, Dave driving through and the fire truck pulling back into the bay! As she hops in the RV, a speaker goes off and Dave yells, “Hurry up – we’re blocking the exit!” Thankfully, it was just the friendly fireman talking on his radio about those “crazy tourists…”
It’s pretty quiet as Dave makes his right turn into traffic…until Susi says, “Now I understand why it’s always important to plan for a right hand turn.”
Be prepared – due to time constraints Susi hasn’t had time to enhance the viewing of this video with music. You could hum “On the Road again” or better yet, “Hit the Jack, and don’t you come back no more, no more…”