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RVing in and out of New York City: A nightmare for this couple Californians Ed and Pat Whitmore ended up living a nightmare after they entered New York City in their motorhome. The reason? Like all RVs, theirs is equipped with propane. Here, in their own words, is their story. "In July of this year, we drove to the site of the World Trade Center with our 21 ft. Chinook Concourse. When we got to the toll booth of the Holland Tunnel, we were told by the booth attendant that we could not go through the tunnel with the built-in propane tank. I asked what I should do, as backing up was out of the question. She called a woman over from the office, and they consulted. "Finally the second woman said she did not know what we should do — as if they have this rule and have never encountered anyone who ran up against it unknowingly before. "She told me to pull over to a turnout beside a building, and if no one came out in a reasonable time, to go on through. She did not define reasonable, so I took it to be about five seconds. Fortunately for us, this was early on a Sunday morning. If it had been during a busier time, there would have been some unhappy traffic backed up behind us. It looked to me that there was no reasonable alternative than to let me go through the tunnel once I got to the toll booth. "You would think there would be highway signs like those that prohibit hazardous cargo and gasoline trucks on certain roads, bridges and tunnels. But this was almost an afterthought when the attendant asked if I had propane on board. "Getting through the tunnel was nothing compared to getting out of NYC. We got on a route for the George Washington Bridge, then saw a sign that said absolutely no RV's beyond the next exit. We exited, and found ourselves in a nightmare. On Sundays, New Yorkers double park on both sides of the street, bumper to bumper. We had to fold our RV's mirrors all the way in, and we could not have had over an inch to spare on either side several times. It took us almost three hours to get out of the city without going through a tunnel or getting on a road that restricted RVs. "After finding ourselves in the clear with a straight shot towards I-95, we were greeted by a road barricade because of a large parade. Next time for us, it's the train or the ferry if we go into NYC. "A few well placed signs would do wonders for avoiding tunnels that prohibit propane."
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