Doofas time. Any body else do this?

[rionapo]

We're down there but will be up there off and on in Nov. Drop me a PM if/when you have a timeframe.


-------
Fresno's 1st 2012 Ford van.

RB E350 6.8L V-10 4WD w/Front Air Lockers
PH Top, Kyocera solar with Zamp portable unit

(If we'd bought the winch, we'd make a fortune pulling cars out of the snow.)

[daytona323]

Rented a camper van in Australia, stayed in a camp ground in the bottom of a canyon. Got distracted yakking and watching parrots. Driving up the steep rutted road out I wondered what was flopping around in the road behind me. Turned out it was what was left of the male end of the shore power cord. Swiss Army Knife and a quick stop at a building supply store and all was ok.

Ron

[BajaSportsmobile]

My wife and I are in Baja (LaPaz right now) and like a "Doofas" I left the SMB in the driveway at home. We are trapped in our little Jeep until we return next week.

When we come back down Nov. 15th I won't forget it.

[Gnarvan]

Originally Posted by BajaSportsmobile

My wife and I are in Baja (LaPaz right now) and like a "Doofas" I left the SMB in the driveway at home. We are trapped in our little Jeep until we return next week.

When we come back down Nov. 15th I won't forget it.

Prerunning??????

[BajaSportsmobile]

Originally Posted by Gnarvan

Prerunning??????

Marked the bottom half of the course for SCORE. Now we are looking for potential areas to buy a place.

[REF]

Punta Chivato, while a considerable distance from La Paz, it is just south of Santa Rosalita, where I had the best street tacos of our entire trip years ago. Chivato had a sizeable community of ex-pats that have built in very cool cliff side dwellings with a palapa style structure for RV's. At least at the time there was a very cool area for RVers to camp out on the dunes, down from a resort, where you could also launch boats from the beach, we dug up huge clams for dinner at low tide. If you haven't checked out the area, it's worth a look, we met some great people there.

[windguy]

good reading on this thread.
anyone that hasn't done a doofus move isn't human.
for me, I need a visual reminder. the checklist is a great idea but what's to remind me to look at the checklist?

I've done a few boners regarding garage doors and carports.
long time ago drove into a carport with two mountain bikes on top of roof racks on my pickup shell. The rack got sheered off of the rack's rain gutter brackets. The rack got tweaked a little, few scratches on the shell but no damage to the bikes. Moving to a house with a garage, anytime something goes on the rack I move the garage door opener from it's normal spot and put it somewhere less accessible so I don't automatically hit the button and pull in. I need to break the normal pattern or else I'm screwed.

For a camper, I'd need to put a huge visual clew on the steering wheel or I'd be asking for trouble. Maybe one of the pre-flight red flags they use on planes. See attached pic. I just get too distracted and can't remember jack s-h-i-t anymore. Hell, a few months ago I came really close to pulling out of the gas station with the filler hose still connected to my car if not for the attendant running out of the building waving her hand. I got distracted and totally forgot about the nozzle. Attendant said it's a $300 charge for ripping that nozzle out. Now I stand by the pump and wait till it's done before doing anything else like cleaning the windows. I can't trust myself to remember to go back later.

Don't think these brain farts are going to get any better with time

[sdwindansea]

I've done the "forget to latch the spare tire" trick that others have described a couple of times now. Luckily I've quickly caught it each time.

I've also driven away while plugged into shore power at our house. Luckily there was no damage to the van connection, cord or electrical outlet. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the plumbing. The cord caught on the hose bib on the side of our house and ripped it in half, flush against the stucco. This mistake was a cheap fix but ended up in several hours with the water shut off and me laying under the house in the dirt sweating pipes. I now always tie something like a ribbon to the steering wheel so I won't do this again.

[twogone]

A new one to me: Yesterday, I noticed one drop of oil on Ray's shop floor. Upon investigation, we saw that the oil drain plug was wet (oil-change 30 miles ago). Ray examined and "felt" the plug and decided we should put a new gasket/washer on it. Sooo, we drained all 13 quarts of oil into a catchpan, covered it up with a new plastic bag to prevent contamination, found that the washer thingy was in fact deflected and appeared to be OEM (17 years old). Out the door I went on a cold and blustery day. When I got back, we found that the plastic bag had blown off as I opened and shut the shop door, and about a tablespoon of windblown aluminum dust was floating around on top of the oil..%$%#@*&

Out the door I went on a cold and blustery day, 35 miles roundtrip, $80 new oil

[4MacFam]

I can't wait to post here about our SMB that we're still waiting on...or maybe I can. It's at Quadvan right now and then to SMB North.

Hopefully none of these will happen again.

1. My old garage had a 7' door, loaded 2 windsurfers with fins on van in the garage (wind was really blowing) and then backed out. Nice big hole in garage door, luckily stopped before damaging boards on door header.

2. Had my 17 year old son hook up the trailer full of junk. Proceeded to drop off site, kept hearing extra rattling, son kept telling me he double checked hook up. Hit small bump, heard grinding, quickly pulled to side of road and watched the trailer pass us on the left. The funny part was the look on the truck driver's face heading in the opposite direction as the trailer stayed on a straight course right between us. Trust your son, but double check the hitch.

3. Windsurfing/tent camping on Padre Island with my brother in-law. Nothing to hang up a clothes line so brother in-law saw the tent top, saw the van, instant clothes line. He later jumped in van to drive to town in the quiet time durring supper. Every camper along the shore line heard the loud tearing sound followed by my brother in-law's comment while surveying the damage, "Never did like that dam tent". It was a 5 beer tent, he could drink 5 beers in the time it took to set up.