For the last several months, we've had a faulty connection with the electronic control module (ECM). While driving along the roadway, the wiring harness to the ECM would cut out and the engine would shut down. Occasionally, being easy to unhook and reconnect, but more often than not would take many repeated tries to successfully restart the motor and restart our journey. At first, this was only occuring a few times a week, slowly it increased in frequency from a few times a week to many times a day, to unfortunately many times each trip.
Yesterday morning we were at a local wifi spot for work. I entered the newest blog post, Katherine completed her shift with the lifeline. With our work completed we began backing out to leave, Kat asked to pull back in because the email of nightly documentation to her supervisor, hadn't finished sending. As soon as I put it back into park, it died and never restarted. The ECM wiring harness that leads to the relays for the engine, is shot. We had been awake since 1130am the day before. Katherine called her father, there weren't any suggestions he could offer. With no one else to phone, we put out a call for help on social media. Within minutes folks began asking about our safety, requesting a list of items to assist, and searching for parts to fix it. Katherine and the kids rested, while I walked to each nearby business to ask if someone with a large truck could move us across the street to safety. After over three hours of asking every person with a truck, I eventually gave up. Luckily, we found a friend that was able to get us moved to safety, since the McDonald's management gave us until dark to have it moved. Once the regular people at our safe area saw we were in trouble with our camper van, they pulled together to get tools, information, and get us settled into a legal spot to park the camper. One helped us charge our phone, another gave us a ride to the grocery store to stock up on needed items, and one other checked out junkyards online for 100 mile radius and found a couple camper vans like ours to call about the harness. I had no idea I would write an entry called "We Need You", and literally that day have numerous people fill our needs during the stressful emergency. We are still stranded, but have lots of good friends, acquaintances, and fellow advocates working to help us this time. I cannot tell you how incredibly grateful we are that folks have been so amazing.
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Authors:James and Katherine are a transgender couple raising two kids. They were southerners when coming to understand themselves as trans. Ultimately it lead to a nearly three year road trip to find home. Now they are re-housed and still focused on outreach in the transgender community! Archives
October 2020
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