Just Max

I’ve been mulling over how to start this travel blog. Do I start it when I started travelling again or would it be easier to start it by telling the story of our preparations for our upcoming adventures? Should I just skip through how it is that HLD and I love to travel and why we do? Do I need to explain what “Third Culture Kids” are? I’m not sure I’ve figured out how to “tell the story” and I don’t think there’s a particular way to tell the story. Maybe as I write, the story will just tell itself and that’s really the only way the story won’t seem forced, boring and scripted? So, here I go, the story begins and will probably continue where the moment takes me, The Story of Max.

So, we got the RV we’re going to use for our travels around the continent, a 1988, Fleetwood Tioga Arrow. We got him in Bremerton for a screaming deal. According to his previous owners, HER name was “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. Here I was thinking that Dragon #1 had invented the idea of naming inanimate objects! As we drove Molly from Bremerton to the ferry to cross back into Seattle, we played around with calling her “Molly” but that just didn’t work. HLD likes using singer’s names but nothing seemed to match her and so she was Molly until either we got used to that name, or we figured out who “Molly” really was.

Molly was in great shape for ‘her’ age, unlike me (sorry! couldn’t resist it!) and I set about cleaning, dusting and disinfecting every inch of Molly’s interior, because why risk missing a dirty spot and having to take Molly out of commission later on down the line? Eeww, germs! One evening as my youngest son (starring in this adventure as “Dragon #3), HLD and I were at the dinner table throwing names around when Dragon #3 said “Max.” And it fit!

I spent about two weeks cleaning, disinfecting, sweeping, repainting, hanging curtains, and getting Max all Boho-Gypsified (yes, that’s an actual adjective!)

Max had a really nice, upholstered swivel chair behind the passenger seat that HLD wanted to keep. However, once we cajoled Koko into Max, there really was a whole lot less space in this 23′ Rv than originally imagined! Taking the chair off its bolts required WD-40 [insert appropriate licensing requirement HERE], a couple of trips to the hardware store for the right tool, a journey underneath Max, lots of elbow grease and more humor than I thought I would need.

max tools

It took a lot of encouragement and tempting with treats to get Koko inside max. Apparently, this 160lb Newfie is ok squishing herself into the back of Sally (our Prius, before having our truck Levon) but a large RV proved to be scarier than she was comfortable with, however, once she was inside and her treat summarily consumed, she was quite willing to sniff around, survey her domain and plonk herself gracefully at the entrance. Koko hasn’t wanted to get back into Max, but we really haven’t tried too hard. I’m imagining her using the previous “swivel chair spot” as a “160lb Newfie spot”, but she might have ideas of her own. Knowing her and her love of being as close to us as possible, it would be adorable if she picked the spot between the driver’s and passenger’s seat for her adventures as Nomad Newfie the First!

Koko in Max