Awning Deployment while in motion, not recommended

Trip Start May 01, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of United States  , Michigan
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

We are following the Michigan Lake tour, which takes us up Lake Michigan and down Lake Huron in a circle around Michigan. We reached the Mackinaw Bridge and decided to drive over it as part of the tour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinaw_Bridge on the return journey across the bridge the Eagle awning decided to deploy and that this was the time to extend to the open position!! Before we could stop the open awning slammed into a lamppost, we were only doing about 25mph but it ripped it from the mounting with such force that it bent the arms, at which point the springs that wind it back in (and should keep it there) yanked it back closed, unfortunately it was 12 inches further towards the rear than it should have been leaving a large dent in the Eagle above the kitchen window.
 
Thankfully, we were able to straighten the arms enough to get us off the bridge, we secured it using Brent's shoelaces, all the while a growing crowd of rubber neckers were blocking the bridge. Once we were off the bridge we re assessed it and decided it was not a total loss and set about realigning it and straightening the parts we could. Except for the dent and a few scratches its OK and will last the rest of the trip (we hope).   Amusingly in typical "dumb safety notice" fashion there is a label that says do not leave in open position whilst in motion!! 
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