What should the catchy title for this “incident report” be? PLEASE feel free to add your title suggestion in the comments section at the bottom of this post. My mind is still in adrenaline rush, thoughts rushing, scare mode.

Note that I didn’t call this a “story.” It’s NOT a story. It’s a full blown report of something that happened Day 1 on the road in our 2025 Entegra Qwest SE 25’ Class C motorhome returning to Minnesota for summer 2026.

Possible Incident Report Titles?

Background: We traded our 2020 RV for a 2025 RV about a year ago. There’s a whole ‘nother story about that experience maybe coming someday. The new RV is almost the same vehicle & floorplan except importantly and heavenly with a larger fridge & freezer and microwave positioned at my 5’2” level rather than almost ceiling level. It matters!

Life changes and needs evolve, right? This year we decided we would appreciate a set of power recliner chairs and their comfort in place of the kitchen table and bench seat style area (shown in floorplan picture above). I’ve never wanted them before; but they became important. The reason for their importance shall reveal itself to ALL of us later, and the power RV shopping began. We don’t have much time before we want to head home from Florida to Minnesota.

This was how I injured my hip a year ago. When we were shopping for a different RV, too many, too many, too many camper steps were climbed up and down, up and down, and up and down until my left hip got tired and inflamed. Uh oh! My first experience with hip bursitis and boy was it a painful bugger; something which I’m still battling since reinjuring it on Turks and Caicos trip, also climbing stairs. Guess that’s my new weakness. Be wary of too many stairs.

There were No new RV’s that suited our floorplan preferences. Lightbulb! Let’s just replace the table and seats rather than buy a different RV. Much more practical and less expensive. More power shopping to find recliner style, features, desired fabric, availability, and installation on our short timeline which was getting shorter.

Bingo! Camping World in Fort Meyers had exactly what we liked; good color fabric, in stock, and they could get installation scheduled. There were a couple timing hiccups about getting it installed; but those details are not important for our motorhome incident explanation.

Where was I going with this background? Keep going. It will surface sooner or later. I hate packing and it always takes longer than we’d like, but we were able to get on the road heading to MN on Sunday 5/3/26 by about noonish. Friends (S & R) invited us to
spend our first night at their house a few hours north of Naples. It was ok to park on the street, and we could hook up to their house electricity. We weren’t sure we should; but as it turns out, it was a good choice, and we were pleased to see them! It’s been a while and we enjoyed catching up. We NEEDED this stop, especially after our
motorhome incident.

Here it comes folks. Gulp! Gasp! Take a  deep breath! Sit down if you’re not already.

I left my front passenger seat to go to the rear of our motorhome to visit the “ladies’ room.” I’ve always prided myself on my ability to maneuver in a moving motorhome. I’ve done it for 50+ years, and I grew up riding trains because my dad worked on the railroad for 44 years. We took lots of train trips. I normally have very good “sea legs.”

When I was ready to return to my passenger seat up front, I was instantly (and I mean instantly without even a nano second to respond) thrown sideways & backwards into the shower. Let me rephrase that, I was SLAMMED backwards into the shower. OMG! No religious disrespect intended; but OMG help me!

I bumped the shower faucet handles on the way down and water was drenching me. Was the hot water heater on? How hot was it going to get? Will I get scalded?

I immediately starting screaming and then screaching for Scott who was of course,driving at the opposite end of our rig. There is considerable road noise in the motorhome. Scott! SCOTT! SCOTT!!! PULL OVER!! STOP!! STOP!!!

Scott pulled over and quickly put on the  emergency brake and flashers. He immediately saw my predicament when he darted to the rear of the RV. My back was humped over the approx. 6 inch threshold where you step into the shower. The rest of my body was
crammed, squished, stuffed, and squeezed between the toilet and a short wall. There is barely knee room between sitting on the toilet and the short wall. The length of the shower floor between the shower door and the opposite wall (closet wall) is about 48 inches and a very narrow space in front of the sink which is beside the toilet. I’m 62 inches tall. I WAS STUCK! I WAS JAMMED! BOY WAS I TRAPPED!!

Scott described me to look like a turtle on its’ back except he could not flip me over. Do you get the picture?

Scott: Where’s the water coming from?

Me: The shower. The shower! SHUT OFF the shower (as I’m feeling & looking like a drowned rat! If you’ve ever given a cat a bath, they look like that, too. Another visual for you.

Me: Now what?

Scott: What can I do? How can I help? Can you get up as he looks down at me helplessly.

Me: Does it look like I can move?! I don’t know. My back is hurting. I don’t know if I’m bleeding anywhere. What happened?

Scott: The worst ever side wind caught the motorhome and almost tossed us into the vehicle in the lane next to us.

Me: That’s when I got thrown like a rag doll into the shower. I’m hurt. We have experienced lots of side winds in our days, and this was like no other. I knew it had nothing to do with Scott’s driving. Mother nature decided to give us the ride of our life.

I did not have room in the short runway  bathroom floor to crunch up my legs. I couldn’t turn left towards the short wall. I couldn’t turn over right towards the toilet because when I did…….

Scott: What’s that noise?

Me: I’m on top of the toilet flushing foot peddle and the toilet is running. Great, huh?! Now what? Is it going to overflow and I’ll end up drowning from toilet water? Did you think the story so far was unusual and scary. WAIT!  There’s more…. like they say on those late night informercials.

Here’s where it really gets dicey. Did I say ENORMOUSLY DICEY?!

Scott: What’s going on? We’re moving. The motorhome is moving!

He looked towards the front windshield and saw us moving past trees, shrubbery and towards fencing. I’m stuck on the floor in the bathroom, and the motorhome is driving itself into and down the ditch with no one behind the wheel. Does it get more frightening than that?!

Here’s where another big “OMG Help Us” is shrieked out. The motorhome had slipped out of park and into gear because the engine was running. We were in the ditch bumping along headed for a fence or pole or both. Thank goodness it had not headed into the additional lanes of traffic on the freeway. Oh, my goodness. OH MY GOSH!

Scott hopped up dashing up to get behind the steering wheel. He released the emergency brake which had slowed us down somewhat. By some small, I mean HUGE miracle, he was able to drive us out of the ditch and back up on the shoulder of the freeway where we started out. Surprisingly and thankfully, Scott and the motorhome handled it all nicely.

After shutting the engine off, applying the emergency brake, and emergency flashers, the story continues as he returns to me still scrunched painfully on the bathroom floor on my back.

Scott: Let me try to pull you up.

Me: Uh, no thanks. That’s not going to work out well.

Me: Let me see how much I can wiggle, swingle, and shrink myself.

Have you ever tried to shrink yourself? Clothes in the dryer maybe; but your body? Good luck with that.

Somehow, I managed to do just that. Somehow, I managed to suck in my “behind” and my “chest” while wriggling and twisting under great pain until I got my legs & knees into the doorway. At that point I could “conceivably” roll over on my knees and get up. It was plausible; but not very doable because….

My back was hurting like all get out. Next problem. My right knee had meniscus repair surgery a few years ago and kneeling on it is not advisable and hurts like crazy. BUT I HAD TO IF I WAS EVER GOING TO GET OUT OF MY PREDICAMENT. This is why Scott occasionally and affectionately calls me his little bulldog. I HAD TO DO IT. AND I DID.

Almost the end of the story, right?

Ok, let’s look at the damage done to my body that was hurting and SO sore. On my lower back, a little below the waistline, I had a large goose egg blossoming.

Scott: That’s going to be a humdinger. I think you should take 3 Advil right away.

Me: Let’s see what develops.

Me (30 minutes later): Let’s take another look, it really hurts. I’m getting stiff and sore

Scott: Yup, it’s turning dark purple and this is just the beginning.

You can believe this horrific situation because “S” of “S &R” (where we stopped overnight after this accident) witnessed the almost black bruise on my lower, lower back, below my waistline. It was not a pretty sight.

Here it comes folks. The quick ending.

The finale of this incident report is about the new recliner seats. They were a Godsend. A true blessing. I was able to stretch out on the new recliner seat, put my feet up, turn on the heat and vibrator alternatively while applying ice. This is why we were meant to install these special seats. Who knew?!