The Name

Sebb arranged the – hopefully last – appointment with the seller, it shouldn't take long, just hand over the key and make sure everything is in order: payment, papers, contract, anything else...?
So, Sebb drove back to Gohlis. Everything went exactly as he had imagined. A brief clarification of the contract points and then the key handover.
Yay!
The previous owner's family said goodbye once more to their beloved motorhome, and then came this question:
Seller: “Shall we remove the extra license plate with the name?”

Sebb: “No, it can stay.”

Seller: “You’ve seen that it’s named Gary, right?”

Sebb: “Yes.”

Seller: “Do you know why?”

Sebb: “No, why?”

Seller: “It comes from SpongeBob’s pet.”

Unfortunately, while Sebb had heard of SpongeBob, he didn’t know much more than that it was about a cartoon sponge and his buddy the starfish.

Sebb: “OK,...?”

Seller: “Well, the snail, he has a snail as a pet.”

Sebb: “If it’s okay with you, we would like to keep the name. It fits quite well. Snail, house on the back and all.”
So the nameplate stayed where it was.

Then it was finally time. Sebb wanted to drive. But something was not working according to plan. The reverse gear just wouldn’t engage, and when he cautiously tried to back up, the transmission made terrible grinding noises, but the vehicle moved more forward than backward, which wasn’t great in such a tight parking space. After the third attempt, the seller offered to maneuver the vehicle out of the parking spot, which Sebb gladly accepted. More practice was needed. Although Sebb was familiar with handling old vehicles through our motorcycle – a 1980 Honda CX500 – the most important realization was that every old vehicle had its own quirks.

After a few minutes of driving, the vehicle was finally in Connewitz. Looking for a parking spot suddenly became a challenge. No wonder Ines and Sebb had opted for a compact car a few years back when buying their everyday car, which could be squeezed into tiny parking spaces in the densely populated city. With Gary, the parking space problem wouldn't be so easily solved, which meant searching and walking a bit to get to the vehicle.