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Troll Under The Freemont Bridge

This sculpture of the troll, is hiding *just* out of sight.
He holds a life-size, almost pink colored, VW bug underneath the Freemont Bridge

Once upon a time, a young(?) woman from Connecticut, relocated with just her 22 year old cat, to the other side of the USA, to settle in Washington State. She had found a nice home in a town called Mukilteo (which meant "good camping grounds"--surely, a positive omen!). She started to get the hang of her new job, and her new environment, and so she felt pretty good about her accomplishments so far in her new environment.

As she ventured forth in this "strange land", she came upon a place where she could indulge in one of her "back east" passions, and be crew for a hot air balloon company. Oh Joy, oh rapture! The people who owned this balloon company had some classic VW bugs and vans. It reminded her so much of her good friend and Hot Air Balloonist, Brian Boland, of Boland Balloons in CT. (who also had vintage vehicles such as a Messerschmidt bike with a side-car, and who used an old VW van as his main "chase car").

"This is like being home", she thought to herself, and she smiled!

Well, it came to her attention, that these new friends and employers, needed some cash, and were willing to part with one of their "babies". There was a beautiful Pink VW Bug (who was approprately named Pinkbug) that was for sale. She was soooo pretty. She had a large roll back top, and white interior, and a white wicker basket to store things in under the dash. Sigh....!

Well, the naive lady, decided to purchase this bug from her friends and employers.

She gave them the check, and off she rode to a VW place to have it checked out and tuned up. To her chagrin, the gentleman pointed out that it was a wreck. Not only did it need a new transmission and engine and brakes (despite what her employers told her about these items recently being newly installed), but it's body was rusting and rotting away! Why, he even pointed out to her that they used nails to keep the underside of the door together. As a matter of fact, this mechanic was "their" mechanic, and he was outraged that they took advantage of her. He was willing to back up what he said in writing for her!

Now, please don't be too hard on our "heroine"..she really wasn't normally so dumb, just trusting. And, so, she went to her weekend employers, and said, "Look, all these things are wrong with my Pinkbug, will you make this right?", and they said to her, "Sorry, we already spent your money".

Well, at a loss about what to do, she talked to her other employer and friend, John, who gave her some sound advice about getting her money back, and returning Pinkbug to the original owners. After a few months of persistence, she did get her check back, and said her final good-bye to the pink bug [BTW, she did not use it during the interim, as it was not safe to put on the road...so it was promptly returned to the owners, after the eye-opening talk with the mechanic.]

Moral:
Methinks there are probably a lot more "trolls" lurking in the "Emerald City"... that things are not necessarily what they appear to be... and yes, Auntie Em, there is *no* place like home.

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