The congestion was tolerable for the most part, but New York City took this trip to a whole new level. I have no idea how other full time RV'rs do it, but I drove right through the Big Apple and over the George Washington Bridge with the 5th wheel and all. I'll admit, this had me a little nervous. As we approached the city and followed signs for the GW bridge everything was going well. There was a few hairy spots merging in traffic as we were nearing the bridge. Once we finally got on the bridge we felt a sigh of relief and figured we were in the clear and just needed to make it to I-95 south and hit the NJ Turnpike. Little did we know that the challenge (and stress) was just 1 mile down the road...
As we were approaching the beginning of the GW Bridge, right around the Washington Heights neighborhood, we started seeing signs for a truck route. Recognizing that we are not a tractor trailer, but drawing from previous experience, we decided long ago that we will follow all truck routes because they are often times intended to route truckers around narrow or low clearance sections of an interstate. We hesitated at first, going against the directions in our GPS, and followed the truck off of the interstate and into NYC! The last place in America we ever wanted to pull our 5th wheel!
Just to be clear, when we formulated this plan to traverse the country side in a 5th wheel we had visions of long leisurely drives through open interstate and beautiful mountain passes through states like MO, MT, SD, WY, ID, NE and the like. Driving through cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Providence, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. were not what we had dreamed of...but were very much part of the plan. So what happened next was completely out of our comfort zone.
We exited the interstate and drove directly into a bustling New York City neighborhood! As we took the exit ramp to follow the truck route we immediately recognized that our maneuverability had rapidly deteriorated. As we came to the end of the exit ramp we were nearly paralyzed with fear as we were quickly assessing our surroundings. For anyone who thought our trip around the country in a camper was a bad idea...the moment had come that I may have just proven you right!
We took our first right hand turn leading us directly into the Bronx neighborhood. In front of me was a double-parked delivery van blocking the only lane down the road. I quickly took note of the red light just a few hundred feet in front of me and made the snap decision to pull into the oncoming traffic before the light turned green which would open the flood gate of traffic heading my way which would trap me behind the delivery van. As I pulled into traffic the light turned green, but I had made it, I had already pulled into the oncoming traffic which caused them to yield to me, the 55ft 23k lb truck, heading their way. I was able to utilize the green light to my advantage and in one fluid motion went from the oncoming traffic into a right hand turn, cutting off about a half dozen pedestrians crossing the road. We're doing it...we thought.
500 feet in front of us my wife spots a bridge, 13.1 ft, my camper is 13.4 on a good day...this wasn't good. These next 500 feet were the most stressful 500 feet of my life. Every thought was passing through my head on how I was going to get myself out of this. Would I block traffic and need a police escort to back out of the city? Would I need to remove the wheels from the trailer and use a flatbed to tow it under the bridge? Do I say hell with the A/C units and barrel under the bridge? I only had questions, no answers. As we approached the low bridge to our right there was our guiding light, the on ramp to the interstate just before going under the low bridge.
We turned right and there was the light at the end of the tunnel, we did it! We navigated NYC in a 36ft fifth wheel camper!
We took the next exit for 95 south and we were on our way to New Jersey. Next stop Washington D.C.
Holy Crap!
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| The Tip of the arrow is where we exited the interstate just before crossing the GW Bridge. "It's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it" -Hans Selye |
God Bless,
Seth and Katherine
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