Ignore the knock?

[tx2sturgis]

If you hear the knock AND you see red and blue lights flashing outside your vehicle, I would advise you to answer.

This ramps up the situation tremendously and this exact thing happened to me one time, in the middle of the night, at a rest area in my work truck.

I heard the knock, popped open my sleeper vent, saw all kinds of flashing reds and blues, and the officer firmly demanded that 'Sir, you need to move your truck, right now!' I asked, What's wrong? what's going on? He yelled up at the vent, "Sir, we have a helicopter heading in, meeting this ambulance, and we need this space to land it!!!"

OK!.....still half asleep, but adrenaline pumping, I pulled the sleeper curtain back, got in the driver's seat, in my skivies, and proceeded to move the truck about 300 feet to another open area nearby.

Right after I set the airbrakes, I hear and see the Lifestar chopper landing right where I had been parked...plenty of open space on the pavement without my dang rig in the way!

They move the patient from the ground ambulance to the chopper, and off it goes, all within about 5 minutes. Cops left, ambulance drives off, and I roll back into the sleeper, unable to go back to sleep for an hour....

My advice:

If you see red and blue flashing lights, ANSWER!

Pop a vent or open a window slightly (if possible) to communicate. 

Wear SOMETHING in bed so you won't be nekkid when greeting the officers, or anyone else.

Don't park where they might want to land a chopper. (this one is VERY hard to predict!)

 

[John61CT]

Under a tree or power wires' a pretty safe bet

Great story. . .

 

[tx2sturgis]

Under a tree or power wires' a pretty safe bet

Yeah that's a given....but this was a paved rest area with metal tee-pee style picnic table shelters on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in New Mexico....who knew it would be a transfer point for traffic accident victims? 

BTW, that rest area is a casino now...everytime I pass it, I remember that night.

But after that night, I developed a habit of parking on dirt (if possible) when in remote areas, rest stops, at roadside tables, etc. 

You just NEVER know....

 

[speedhighway46]

Hello tribe:

I’ve only been knocked on one time. I was parked for the evening in a Mennard’s lot (like Walmart and Cracker Barrel Mennard’s had just instituted a new Corp policy of supporting overnight camper parking). About 8:30 pm I get the “knock knock knock” on the door of my Peterbilt Motorhome conversion. I cautiously answered the door, expecting I was going to be asked to leave because this store didn’t get the Corp memo abt supporting overnighters.

I had parked in the far outside parimeter of the lot; quite a hike from the front door of the store. When I opened the door there stood a Mennard’s employee, a young man in a bright orange vest. He took the effort to walk all the way out to my vehicle to tell me that their parking lot was scheduled to be spray seal coated later that evening, and I might want to relocate across the street to Walmart to avoid any damage to my Motorhome.

I thanked the young man profusely and gave him $5 for a hamberger!

I’m glad I answered the “knock!”