When I bought the RV a few weeks ago, I knew I needed to come up with a nickname.  Turns out the most fitting name was one that I had to steal from someone else.  During a Curling Bonspiel last spring, Molly Losey, a co-rookie-curler stopped by looking pretty ragged from the night before (most likely staying up way to late doing crossword puzzles, and not at all anything to do with alcohol).  At one point, I asked her a question, and she replied: “Mitch – I’m riding front seat of the strugglebus here.”  That became her nickname.  Then when I told her about my new purchase, she … sight unseen .. dubbed it “The Strugglebus”.

Say what you want about stealing nicknames, this RV is better described as Strugglebus — because while Molly may be that way once or twice — Strugglebus has yet to be anything but.

On our first big road test of with it, Auggie and I had a hell of a rough go of it.  For starters, strugglebus sounds like an RV built in 1978, rough and messy.  It’s idle is set so badly that until it has warmed up for about 20 minutes, I need to keep my foot on the pedal at all times, including when sitting at a stop sign (where I throw it into neutral and keep it floored).  It has a lot of electrical problems, including lights flickering, emergency break light staying on all the time, and spare battery cables don’t seem to be grounded.  The highly of our run was when I pulled into a gas station, and every movement of the wheel caused the horn to honk.  That kept happening until I put it into park, then it wouldn’t stop honking.  A pull of a cord under the wheel didn’t help, I had to pull it on the horn itself.

I hoped to head out to spend the night by Matunasku Glacier on the Glenn Highway, but I got freaked out by the horn thing.  Instead, I am working on an appointment to have Strugglebus get a work over.  In theory, strugglebus should make it possible for us to get out over the winter as the summer — but I just want it available in case I go to the Curling Club for the weekend and not want to drive home to feed the pup.