May 3, 2018
Very early in the morning yesterday, we hooked up the travel trailer to Marilyn (our new-to-us RV) and drove out of the place we have called home for about 4 1/2 years. It was a bit bitter sweet – there are many ways I am happy to be out of there and moving on, but there is a part of me that will miss the level of stability we had there. Our Brucie Bruce was nowhere to be seen, adding to the bitterness of having to move. I drove down today to look for him. Whistled a bunch, called for him, was there about one of the times he is usually, no Brucie Bruce.
We made it about 38 miles north to Renton before the RV just stopped running. Uh oh. Little did I know then just how uh oh that would be. As I am writing this, we are on day 2 of being stuck on the side of an off ramp, dead in the water. I am grateful that we have not been hassled, but that doesn’t seem to take anything away from how devastated I am to still be here, not running, many dollars poorer, and still no idea why its not starting.
Off-Rampville: I-405 Exit 4a Maple Valley/SR 169
Right now, we have a mechanic working on replacing the distributor. Its the next logical step, I believe, and have been told by more than just the mechanic we have here. So far, we have replaced the battery, voltage regulator, starter, plug wires, coil, distributor cap, rotor, and…maybe that’s it. Oh! And the ignition ballast. It feels like we have done so much more but I guess that is because we had to put the plug wires together ourselves in order to have ones that were the right length. That took every bit of four hours, the last hour and a half in the dark with headlights on our heads. Ugh.
This RV is proving to be a difficult beast to need to fix. Number one, its the van front style, which is my least favorite type to work on. Number two, finding parts for it is challenging because there is no way to look up this RV. It was a limited edition that Country Camper, Inc put out right before they stopped making RV’s. Its a 1979 Dodge chassis, 360, 4 barrel, 1-ton, which, at the parts stores, opens up too many options that have some that will work fine but not others, depending on model. Putting in the VIN number to try to find out more information is no help either. Our lovely Marilyn comes up as a 2008 Hummer. Searching by license plate yields zero results. (I know! That one doesn’t make sense to me either, especially since we have registered the RV into our name.) Marilyn is proving to be…high maintenance.
For the part of yesterday I kept almost calling this RV Marv, accidentally, as in the Marv RV we went through hell with 5 years ago. I didn’t want to put that energy on this RV so told Lance we needed to name this one and quick. As I drove the car behind Lance in the RV, I tried to think of a name. She looks nice, fairly good condition, reliable (this was before off ramp-ville).
Her previous owner had named her. I am going to apologize ahead of time because I am going to slaughter the spelling of the name. I truly have no idea how to spell it. Marilyn’s name used to be (sorry) Sheniqua. Again, I am truly sorry. I tried Googling it. My spelling must be so wrong that Google’s search results show me things like businesses. Hell, spell check on here gives me Shenanigan.
Anyway, she said the RV earned the name because she would gently sway down the road. Her kids would love to climb up on the overhead bunk and they would fall right to sleep. Obviously, great memories for them.
We want to name her because, well, its a new beginning, claiming a bit, I guess, but, honestly, both Lance and I just didn’t feel that the name she had didn’t fit right. Sure, its us, I know that. Everyone sees through their own eyes and feels with their own heart and dreams with their own soul and every single one is different.
So, I’m driving behind Lance when it comes to me: Marilyn. I roll it around in my mind for a bit – does it seem to fit? what does the name make me picture in my mind? Oddly enough, the answer to the second question was Marilyn Monroe. Huh. I called Lance and told him what I had come up with to see if he agreed. He did, almost immediately. I was feeling pretty good about this beginning of a new adventure that had me slightly nervous, a bit anxious, and oddly relieved. I was driving and smiling.
And that’s about the time things went to crap. Damnit. I think getting kicked when you’re feeling peaceful, joyful even, is about a million times worse than when it happens on an average day. I’m really struggling with that today. I have found myself thinking that maybe Marv fit her better as a name. Yeah. I’m not dealing very well. Ok. I am, most of the time, but even warriors get tired.
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 