I'm an over-the-road trucker, and I both respect and appreciate RVers like you! And yes, I'll be a full-time RVer myself when I retire, in about 3 years!?
Thanks Loose Cannon, good luck when your retirement date gets here. This type of lifestyle is pretty great IMHO.
Let me share a quick story about when I was a young Trooper just starting out. Later in my career I always shared this incident with new Troopers who were training with me as an important lesson about professional truckers.
I was working I-57 just south of the Chicago Heights area and got a call of a motorist running south pointing a handgun at other drivers. Not only was I very close to where he was last reported but I was the only Trooper within 30 miles. As luck would have it within minutes I was behind him. As soon as he recognized a squad car behind him he pulled to the shoulder and stopped. I would have preferred to follow him and wait for another squad.
I utilized felony stop procedures/commands and he complied. After several minutes I had him laying face down between his vehicle and my squad. My intention was to hold him there at gunpoint until my backup arrived, then go forward and check for additional suspects in the vehicle and secure him.
Within minutes a passing northbound car stopped across from us. The driver, a male dressed in scrubs, yelled across and identified himself as a nurse. He asked if he could come across and render aid to the poor suspect laying face down. I yelled back that my suspect was not injured and for him to move on before he caused an accident (idiot).
Then a southbound trucker stopped his rig in front of the suspect's vehicle on the shoulder. A rather large driver jumped from his cab with a baseball bat in hand and came charging back toward us yelling "Trooper, you need a hand?" I was yelling back at him that everything was under control but I don't think with the passing traffic he could hear me. Finally just before he reached the suspects vehicle he understood what I was yelling at him. He said he would return to his truck but insisted on staying put until my buddies arrived, which he did.
My lesson to young Troopers, and the lesson I learned that day was simple. If at 3am out on some lonely interstate you are getting your butt kicked by one or more individuals there is a good chance a trucker will stop and help you, but there is probably zero change a regular citizen will stop.
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