June 13, Friday – He Told You to Stop

I really wanted to get around Hampton, Newport News and Norfolk before the morning rush hour so I was up at 5:15 and at the 6:00 ferry with Snee-Oosh with the land dinghy in tow. The deck crew put me up against the vessel’s midline superstructure and I was second to last in my lane with two other traffic lanes to my right. Out of habit in close quarters I folded back my big mirrors against my doors. When we reached the other side and off loaded, I waited until everyone had cleared out of my lane and was waiting for the deckhand to clear out the middle lane so I would have more room but he waved at me to come ahead. Slowly I moved forward watching him like a hawk because I could not see a thing because my mirrors were in. He was standing off to my left when I cleared the superstructure just as I heard a crunch. I stopped; he yelled. Snee-Oosh had bent the mirror back on the first car in the next lane over. The cab had missed the Honda but the body struck the mirror. The deckhand was too far to my left to see down between the two lanes and I was just watching his lead.
When I got out, an officer came down the steps and said to me in passing that I didn’t stop when the deckhand said to stop. I said, “Say,what!!”. Someone was covering his ass.
Being in emergency work, I’m very much aware of being inside the “event zone” and know what’s it like to operate under adrenalin. I had to keep bringing myself back on focus even though the mirror and a scratch on it size of a small finger nail. I remembered to get my camera out and photograph the mirror. This would make my insurance company happy. This is my first “accident” ever. (Also I just turned 7,000 miles today)
But I had to really turn my awareness to where I was going: to the famous engineering wonder of the world – the seventeen and a half Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel.
This highway feature has been in the back of my mind since the conception of the circle tour. “You are totally out of sight of land.” “You go down under the sea while you are over the sea” “It’s only two lanes wide.” So I got in line and paid my $28 and took my chances. I drove real slowly so that the big tanker truck in front of me could get way ahead. Two miles out you go under. The semis coming toward you in the tunnel play absolute hell with your RV steering – push to the right; suck to the left. “Steer through it” was my mantra. The light at the end of the tunnel was always a welcoming sight. Two one-mile long tunnels and one big high bridge but most of it on causeway bridging set in 35 to 45 feet of the shallow Chesapeake Bay. Party on!