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Our new favorite family in Washington

I’ve got a general RV/Arnold family update on the way, but I wanted to take a minute and document a story of unusual kindness.

It was the morning of August 1st when we got a call that my dad had died unexpectedly, and we needed to get back to Indy as soon as humanly possible. Not yet knowing exactly what we were going to do with the RV or how we were going to get our stuff back to Indy (we brought no luggage on this trip), we started the 3 hour trip towards Seattle/Tacoma, the closest major airport city.

Amy made some calls along the way and got connected with a storage place in Tacoma that could store our RV and car, and she confirmed with the airline that we could simply load up some cardboard boxes with our clothes, etc, and check them like any other baggage. We were told that someone would meet us at the storage location to unlock the gate and take our payment info.

When we arrived at the storage place, we were met by the owner, Bruce. He asked us a few questions to make sure he understood our situation correctly, including our lack of luggage. He called his wife Debbie and before long we had more than enough luggage and a ride to the airport. We never signed any papers and Bruce never took any payment info; we just exchanged email addresses so we could let him know when we would be coming back to Washington.

Fast-forward two months, the Arnold family returns to Tacoma Washington.

Debbie picked us up from the airport and took us back to the RV. She told us that we could return their luggage to their main office a couple miles away whenever we were unpacked. I asked Bruce earlier what we owe him for the two months of RV and car storage (or the use of his luggage and the chauffeur service, for that matter), but he would not take anything for any of it.  In lieu of payment, he just asked that we keep an eye out for someone else in need as we travel the country, and be ready to help them out.

Oh yeah, before we arrived, Bruce noticed a tire on the RV was getting low and had it filled up, and had both our RV and car washed.

As I said, this was a story of unusual kindness, and it came at a time when I needed it most. Consequently, Bruce and Debbie are a permanent part of Arnold family lore. We can’t thank them enough for their compassion and generosity.

There are still some good people in this world, folks. Hopefully this story will inspire you to be one of them.

P.S. If you ever need storage space in or around the Tacoma Washington area, contact Bruce and Debbie at Maxi-Space.