Back in the summer of 1982, when I was with the Memphis Blues Brass Band, I used to love to drive the semi-tractor trailer that carried our equipment just for fun. Of course the truck driver didn't mind because whenever I drove, he got a paid break! One day, we were doing a stadium show at University of Indiana in Bloomington, IN. We had just come off an overnight drive and so I thought I'd be a sport and offer to drive the semi to the stadium for the scheduled set-up and rehearsal. I followed the buses toward the stadium and at some point, we came upon an underpass on the one-way street we were travelling with a posted clearance of 12'6". The buses slowed down and carefully drove through. The regular truck driver was riding on the crew bus and radioed back for me to come on through, it should be no problem. I was dubious, but figured that the pro knew better than I - so I slowed to a crawl and started under. Well, you can guess what came next! I was golden for the first part of the passage - then SCREEEEECH! and I ground to a halt as the trailer became hopelessly stuck as the road rose slightly on the far side of the bridge. Luckily, I did not attempt to "muscle" through after the initial stop. After radioing forward and vowing revenge on the truck driver for my humiliation, I had to back the truck four city blocks before I found a side road big enough to allow me to turn off and find an alternate route to the stadium (did I mention we were on a one-way street?). Better luck prevailed as I happened on a fire station as soon as I got turned off the one-way, where I stopped to get safe directions to the stadium.
Later inspections revealed no damage to the trailer or the bridge (except for some ugly black scrapes along the top edge trim of the trailer and matching scrapes under the bridge).
The only real casualty was my pride, as I never really lived down the embarrassment of being introduced as "the guy who stuck the truck under the bridge once" on more than a few occassions.
As for revenge on the guy who told me I was good to clear the underpass - several months later, he was caught having inappropriate contact with an underage girl in one of the buses during a show and was convicted of indecency with a minor. Karma can be a bitch!