Pumpkin Patch RV Resort, Hermon, ME, May 6-17, 2024
The above picture is for illustrative purposes, but it does give you, the reader, a flavor of the panic we experienced while traveling US-20 in New York. Immediately after a horrific sound of rending metal melded into a sound like we ran over something, EJ and I looked at each other and exclaimed "Holy shit!! What was that?" A glance in the side view mirror revealed a large shiny black and white flat object flipping end over end as it passed over the Explorer being towed by Miss Mosey.
Of course, this being a 2 lane road with nonexistent shoulders meant there was no where to pull over to assess the damage. After 5 miles or so we found the Moondance Restaurant with a wide enough shoulder to park Miss Mosey. The adrenalin was definitely pumping as we set out to discover the havoc reeked upon our traveling home and car. I am picturing multiple shattered panels as this thing bounced down the roof and a broken windshield in Pearl (the Explorer being towed) as the panel smashed into her before flying off and shattering into a thousand pieces on the pavement
Unbelievably, other than a few scratches on the forward air conditioner cover, it appeared the flying solar panel missed both Miss Mosey and Pearl . While I was on the roof marveling at the lack of destruction, a red Ford pickup stops. The lady driving it explained to EJ what she saw happen.
Even though we were on a federal highway which is supposed to have a minimum 13ft-6in clearance over the road surface unless other specified by signage, we hit an overhead wire. Bare in mind that we only stick up above the road 12ft-6in. She said it was rather spectacular watching the solar panel spinning the air before crashing onto the pavement and disintegrating into a thousand pieces. She thought the wire we hit was a live electric wire so she called 911 to report it. She offered to take us back to the scene to recover whatever pieces were recoverable. Knowing that once a solar panel turns into a thousand pieces there is not much to recover, we declined her offer.
She left and EJ and I were left standing waiting for our heart beats to return to some semblance of normalcy and a policeman pulls up. He wants to know what happened. So we explained what the lady had told us. Because it was a tree covered road, apparently the low hanging line blended into the shade and we never saw it. If the Ford pickup lady lady hadn't explained what happened we would still have no idea what occurred. The policeman explained we hit a "phone line or internet line" and that it was not a live electric line like the lady thought.
He wanted to know the dollar amount of the damage done to Miss Mosey. After we told him it would cost us about $250 bucks to replace the solar panel, he said he wasn't writing a report for less than $1,000 and beat feet out of there.
We finished removing what was left of the panel frame and headed on to our destination Esperance, NY. We would be staying at an Elks Lodge with no hookups. but lots of grass and stuff for Gabby to explore.
This where the panel used to be...
And now the new panel is installed and all is right with the world again. We are ready to continue boondocking.
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