Our home was almost impounded. My wife was able to convince the Federal Way, WA police to allow us to tow our RV to another location, rather than impounding it.
It was about 8 pm, and we were traveling in our RV, which has been our home for the last six months. The engine suddenly cut out, and I was able to coast it off of the road and into a parking lot of a dance studio in Federal Way. The owner of the studio came out and talked to us. I asked if we could stay the night and have our mechanic come in the morning. She called the security company that the studio contracts with, and they said that they would tow any vehicles that were in the lot after the studio closed.
Since we had no money for a tow truck, and no place to tow the RV anyway, we decided to chance it. We were not towed overnight, but the next morning we were approached by a woman who said she was the cleaning contractor for the studio. She wanted to let us know that she had seen a note for the receptionist to have our motor home towed if we were still there when they arrived.
Our mechanic showed up at about 10:30 the next morning. We were working on the RV as people started pulling into the lot around noon. When we saw a man unlocking the building, my wife approached him, and asked for leniency to let us fix it. He said he would give us as much time as he could.
At about 1 pm, a police officer pulled into the lot, and entered the building. Shortly after, he came out, pulled up next to us and said, "You have to leave this parking lot now, or you will be arrested for trespassing. The owner doesn't want you here for one more second."
We said we understood, and I tried to get the RV to move. It would run with the key held in the start position, so I tried to hold the key while putting the car into gear, but it would die every time I tried. So we gathered our stuff, and put it on the sidewalk next to the road. We leashed the dogs, kenneled the cats and grabbed as much of our stuff as possible.
Our mechanic helped load our stuff into his vehicle and drove me to a friend's house, who we had called to ask if we could stay a night or two. In transit, my mechanic told me he would loan me some money to get it towed, so that it didn't get impounded. My wife, who was still near the RV, was able to get a pay advance and borrow a truck from her employer. She called the tow company that had helped us a few weeks ago and convinced them to tow us about 15 miles for the same price as they had charged us the last time it broke down.
We are now stranded in the parking lot of a shut down grocery store, near our apartment that we moved out of six months ago. For two nights, no one has bothered us. I've worked on the motor home almost non-stop, and we still haven't figured out what is wrong.
I'm on my way to install a new ignition switch. Hope it works.
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