swampy and i have discussed pippin and decided its time to sell him and get ourselves something a bit more modern.
its not only recent events that have prompted this decision~we started half discussing it a few weeks ago when swampy had the diagnosis of osteoarthritis in his lower back which is also causing pain in his hips. he is already having a lot of pain when driving and so we talked about how we would work around that~the main answer to find something with power steering. swampy's health is paramount now.
i also realised that all the mechanical work he has been doing cannot be helping him and with an older vehicle that is something that has to be done.
so when he comes back from vanfest he will take apart the engine, find out exactly which bit needs replacing, replace it and then put our pippin up for sale. then when he has sold we will look for the right replacement~we have something in mind and have been doing a lot of research over the last two days.
the silly thing is i have become so attached to pippin and his quirkiness~he makes people smile and wave when we drive down the road and i almost have the feeling that letting him go will take something of me away.
i am not sure if that means a thing to you reading this~it makes sense to me...its almost as if my camper defines who i am and by having something modern and anonymous will make the essence of me disappear.
of course that is totally ridiculous...but there you go~the mind works in mysterious ways!
however i looked deeper and realised that i am not defined by what vehicle i own and that we can buy the most anonymous thing out there and make it our own, make it individual. the new camper will be much larger than pippin and of course considerably younger and have power steering~a must for swampy, more economical and so cheaper to run~all of this will mean that next year we will be able to get out and about more and travel further afield...
all of those places we have been promising ourselves the past few years will finally be able to become a reality~for years we have talked about going further afield, up to wales, the lake district and even further up to the wilds of scotland and one day ireland.
well with the new and improved camper we will be able to~so really we are opening the way for more adventures~this time in more comfort.
7 comments:
i know exactly what you mean about pippin. i was the same when my cats died. after i'd gotten over the grief i realised i'd no longer be the crazy cat lady. But i still am inside. Besides if anyone stood and spoke to you for long enough i'm sure they'd realise how individual you are. And to be honest strangers aren't important, its your friends and family right? Good luck selling pippin. If i could drive i'd be tempted to buy.
I know how you feel, we had an old converted A series which we happily travelled in all over the country, but he was flooded in a flash flood and we just couldn't find or afford a new 3lt engine to replace it and keep him on the road. We finally bought a caravan a few years ago which is hippyfied to our tastes now and is so much more economical since we don't need to tax or insure a second vehicle, we can leave it and travel round wherever we're staying and we can leave the dog in if we need to. Change is not always bad, just difficult to get used to sometimes! :) (By the way, one of my cats is called Pippin!)
hello you two - oh how I know what you mean.... John is talking about selling chugga before she rots to death on the drive - I don;t want to because she makes me smile... but I know in my heart of hearts its really the right thing to do - letsomeone else love her and look after her - I let Tilly go and still miss her but it is noce being warm in the winter so I suppose every cloud has a silver lining!
Yes, I very much understand. Our beloved 1985 VW van helped raise our children. She too draws comments and all VW's are automatically "hippified". she has taken us many wonderful places and is a little tired. We don't dare take her too far afield at this point. She at one time was the new van, the one that would never replace the "old van" (Hubby had a 1969 when we met) the thing is, and I just realized this, I still love and miss the old van, but the new van turned into just as much a part of the family. Whatever you find, fill it with love and all will be well.
Kat
Oh i felt just the same when i sild my old VW Beatle x
so sorry to hear about pippin's troubles....*sigh*
I've owned a few *quirky* vehicles in my time and it's my experience that once you've named them, they become an entity unlike any other...
I've also been very much attached to my cars at different times..and it was always sad to let them go..
I'm sure you'll find something to carry on the work of pippin...
~blessings~
I can totally understand that you feel sad about selling Pippin who was so long with you and is so “individual” and special. But I am glad you see all the advantage of a more modern camper! You will get to love that one, too, after some time and you will make it special.
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