“USA 🇺🇸 ~ California and Arizona “We’ve Been on the Struggle Bus For Too Long”

• March 10, 2023
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

We were suppose to leave Southern California, to head to Oregon, this week, but with such stormy weather over the Siskiyous, (mountain pass to Oregon) and the requirement for chains, we can’t do that in our big rig. (nor do we want to).

Incoming ~MORE Rescheduling

We are hoping a month will make a difference, but it’s a hard winter this year, so no telling, till we get into April, how things will go.

In Our World 

We’ve been traveling now, full time, since 2016. That’s a long time to live like nomads; on foreign and domestic soils. Not staying in one place for years on end, has it’s challenges, because the world systems operate with people (normally) residing in one place for long periods of time.

We call ourselves the “Round Hole/Square Peg” people. We just don’t fit in, like the rest of the world normally does. It is a chosen lifestyle for sure, and thankfully our recent run of bad luck is not the norm, or we would say FORGET IT!
We get our mail at my daughter house in NC, while we were flying all over the world, and now, driving all over the country. My kid is the best, and has sent us our mail when we are at a place for long enough; in a bulk package, every now and again.

BUT, it’s not always smooth sailing….a few examples being: When we need a new credit cards, due to being expired, or worse, from getting hacked, it’s WAY hard to get those replacement card, since we move so much. Banks no longer give out temporary cards, while waiting for replacement cards. On the topic of being hacked: if you get a $2.99 charge for a “dating service” that you did not pay for, is that $2.99 charge worth reporting and having your card closed? I mean getting new cards are such a major pain, when not in one place all the time. I eyeball my cards online all the time. Obviously a larger $ hack wouldn’t be ignored….. but..  

I also ordered checks awhile back. Who writes checks anymore? But I’m down to two left, over a six year period, so apparently I need some. The bank told me two weeks for mail delivery, and we were actually in a place for three weeks. They let me change my address for this delivery.
I never saw the checks.
Had to call the bank to get my money back for that order as well as stop payment on missing checks. I still need checks, but now we are on the move, so it is complicated.

I’ve used the same bank for 15 years and recently they wanted me to “prove I am who I say I am” kinda thing. Really? … that was maddening. “All they need” is a copy of the utility bill with my correct address on it. Which correct address? ..and I don’t have gas, electric, or
water bills.
They didn’t get what they wanted, I got what I wanted and it’s business as usual. 🤣
Very Strange.

We got our new AAA membership cards, recently, as Chelsie mailed these to us. My name is spelled wrong, and that would be WAY too big of a hassle to get that changed, but at least it’s got a good exp date, again.

Daryls drivers license expired, so he renewed. Where the heck do we send his new one to? DMV said it could take 30 days in the mail. He took a chance and had it sent to our house while we were going to be in California, which would give them almost 2.5 weeks in the mail, by the time we got there and left.
On the very last day in California, we checked at the house for mail, one last time. IT WAS THERE!  Miracles do happen.

Full time RV Living can mean two things; One either lives in an RV, parked, and never hits the road with it. Or, ones is living and on the move; traveling, constantly to occasionally in an RV.
These two scenarios of the lifestyle are very different from each other.
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What Will We Do?

I had also dusted off my Uber App, as the plan was to get to some car dealerships, while in Oregon. Nope, we do not WANT to buy another car, but seven months is too long to go without one, especially while traveling up through the Yukon and around Alaska all summer. I looked into renting a car for just the two months of Alaska adventuring part, and that would be a $7000 bill!
That’s not happening.

Me, driving a car, separately again, if we can’t find a vehicle with a tow package already on it, will be really disappointing for us. Our future adventuring will include eight thousand miles or more. Driving a car separately from being in The Whale with Daryl, is such an un-desirable option. I did that for a year, already, until we sold our “Rusty” vehicle while in Las Vegas.
(AWD can’t be towed and she kept breaking down)

She had to go!So, yeah, we definitely got some things to figure out.

YES  ~We Still Love Our Super Beetle!

We’ve been asked and NO, we are not parting with the Volkswagen Super Beetle Convertible, even though getting her restored hasn’t gone as planned. (Six months, has turned into ten months). She will just reside in Kingman, Arizona, till the fall, when we come back.

What’s Actually Up By Now

One of my last blog post had us in Las Vegas; Sams Town, Nevada. Since that time, we made our way to Barstow, California to deal with DMV, and trying to get our permanent registration and license plates for The Whale. The Saga continues, unfortunately. After three visits to DMV, in two weeks, we still have no plates! They got our $2000 fee (this is annually) and we got a stinkin paper temporary, good for two months!!!!
Errrrr 😡

Apparently, state to state title transfers are not always an easy thing, as there is no hard copy title? It’s an electronic title “up in a cloud” somewhere. Who knew? Now, in the covid era, apparently it’s even more challenging to get a hard copy made and sent. What happened to the age of electronic transferring?
Back to our lender, to try to figure out a “plan B.” We then sent a formal request to our lender, asking that they release a copy of the title, directly, to the DMV in Barstow.
We confirmed with a live human at the bank, they received our request. Now, unfortunately, we are tied to ONLY Barstow DMV and not just any other DMV in California, as we plan to travel North, through the state. It also sounds like, said title will be sent by USPS snail mail.Our lender sent us the form, all filled-out to give to DMV, which they then are to send out to our lender, to release the title from Arizona, to California. First stop at DMV California, we were told. “Oh, We don’t do that.” 🙄

So, we have this “in the cloud” efficiency title that’s suppose to make thing easier, only to go back to the dark ages with snail mail.
It makes no sense to us, at all.
We now are also completely relying on our lender, in charge of getting a copy of said title sent to the DMV in Barstow. We sent the formal request to them, and a week later, when Daryl called, the bank said (live human) they sent it. I then contacted DMV Barstow, (live human) and was told they had received it; (all this during our two week stay in Barstow, without a car).

On checkout day from that campground, we drove directly back to the Barstow DMV, only to learn there was no copy of the title.
We would eventually come to know, in the following week, our lender admitted they failed to send the requested document, after all. 🙄 I have no idea what DMV was looking at, when I contacted them. So, on this third visit, I asked the DMV, what happens when this title finally does arrive at their DMV in Barstow and we don’t come back to California till September? The lady told me it would get shredded in 30 days, due to inactivity. 😳
We are not allowed to get a copy of this title, in hand, either… we tried. DMV only accepts them from the bank.

Can’t EVEN Catch a Break

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INTERNET SERVICE

After having really great WIFI service, for the last year, as we drove cross-country, we unexpectedly suddenly lost connection to our mobile internet company called TravelData. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t) help us get connected again. It just ended. That was weird.
We would later learn we fell through the cracks with them, as they soon after, reconfigured their company with a new website. They changed our unlimited $85 plan, to a limited package for $140/month. We had purchased our own router and they were requiring a new router set-up, with no trade-in option.
No Thank You!
While at our Las Vegas stop, we took the leap and bought the new RV Starlink System. We got the hardware shipped to us on time, and all set-up. It would cost us $110/month. It worked great for our 1.5 weeks of remaining time in Vegas. BUT, when we relocated in our next state of California, the Starlink system did not work. Not even a little. Can’t call a live human on the phone with this company, so we sent a technician request by email, got a “ticket” number and waited for a response. No response. Sent another request. No response. Finally got a response after a week stating “Issue Resolved.” Um, NO 😤 …Sent another ticket request for help and nothing, again.
It was getting close to our 30-day return and another 30 day payment of $110, so I sent another email to have it on record we canceled them, and hoped they would get it. They got it and sent us a shipping label. 
We packed up the hardware and drove it, yes, in The Whale, to a shipping place in Barstow, and sent it back for our full refund of  $700. Within a few days, we got $250 back, so the fight was on, and our bank supported our dispute and gave us the remainder amount.
Come to find out, Starlink got us set up for “Residential” service and not RV Mobility. HUGE DIFFERENCE. They assumed Las Vegas was our residence. BIG, BIG FAIL on their part. Of course all they had to do was switch us over to the RV Plan, but they couldn’t take the time to reply to email requests for help, so there ya go.
The monthly cost for RV Mobility was $150/month for 1 Terabyte, which isn’t cheap, either!
We do not recommend Starlink, or TravelData… just sayin.

Not having internet, while living on the road, is a drag, as it is rare a campground will have good enough wifi to do much more than check emails.

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IMPORTANT REPAIR

While in Barstow, we did get our mobile repair done on our shower leak. It was really the first big issue that has come up, since living in The Whale. The repair guy had to cut a piece of wall out in our bedroom, to get to the plumbing. That made me nervous! But, he did a great job, and the wall looks just the same, and we have a functioning shower again, $600 later. 🙃
RV plumbing and parts/tools needed are nothing like in a stix and brix home.

During that winter storm that just about everybody got hit with across the states, we too got pounded (in California).

We had rain, hail and snow. The worst part were the 80 mph gusts of wind.
In the middle of the night, we heard a big bang! We waited and nothing else happened. In the morning we checked out The Whale. Everything looked fine. The grounds looked like a tornado had gone through, though.
It would be later; after it rained again, we would discover our skylight in our shower ceiling has a crack in it. We def got hit with a flying object of some type.
The good news is, the leak is very minimal and since it leaks into the shower, we will have time to get that fixed, down the road, someplace, some time, when we feel less overwhelmed.

After this major storm, we had never seen The Whale Sooo filthy. We knew there was an RV wash in Kingman, but couldn’t find anyplace before that. The big guy took care of the windshield, though, before we could even drive.
⬆️ The Windshield 

⬆️ The Windshield Washer
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This Worked!

Also, whilst in Barstow, California last month, since being car-less, and eight miles from a market, Daryl got creative and tried a Grocery Store Delivery Service.  I gotta say, having never needing that service before, it was nice to have it as an option, until we can figure out what to do about getting some wheels again, once we get to Oregon.

You know what else works, when having no car? Uber Eats! We tried that while in Orange County. We have a favorite Sushi restaurant we used to go to after church, and always looked forward to dinner there. It’s been a year since we’ve been home, and apparently Sushi Nori burned down! Bummer. But, we learned they have a sister restaurant, nearby, and we ordered, using Uber Eats. It was great and we would def use this service, again. 

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Time Marches On

All in all, though we had some small “wins,” we did not leave Barstow feeling very good about many things we tried so hard to accomplish while there: the title issue for The Whale, and having already left our VW behind, months before, after faithfully waiting for nine months. Plus, now, no traveling internet.

We were feeling pretty defeated.

In addition, the idea of purchasing another car to deal with registering/plating with another state-to-state title transfer, REALLY started feeling like a very bad idea, too.

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Making Decisions

The better plan, we decided, was to return to Kingman, Arizona, far away from this next winter storm, hitting California. Since we are hanging out anyway, waiting out this crazy winter storm season, we might as well try another chance of getting possession of our convertible. AND, because we have a rebuilt engine in the Bug, IF it gets done, it needs to be in time for us to put some miles, on it, while we are still in the area; testing for any issues.
Our plan is to drive one hour to Needles, California DMV from Kingman, to register the Bug and get plates. We have the title, so there should be NO drama, there. If that test run goes well, we will, next, drive back to Barstow, California DMV (3.5 hours) to get our plates for The Whale, after the title copy gets there.
How will we know if and when they get it? WE HAVE NO IDEA…. calling to check if they had it, didn’t work last time. The good news is, Barstow DMV already did the VIN and vehicle inspection on our Motorhome, during our first visit, and she passed with flying colors, so no need to return with The Whale to get plates. It’s a good plan on paper, so far.

⬆️ The last time we saw our VW, was mid December. She was pretty stripped down. The engine was out and on some guys kitchen table in his house, being rebuilt.
Kingman, Arizona did not escape the recent winter storm, either. They got over 14 inches of snow and without plows for this normally mild-temperature area, the whole town, including the nearby Interstate-40 was shut down.

By the time we reached Kingman, this week, the snow had melted, and life began to return to non-snow operations. No work happened on the VW in this time, but it was parked inside the shop.
We are now getting sunshine and 70 temps. I’m sure that will help get things going again! 🙏
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Home Sweet Home

After we left Barstow, we headed to our house in Orange County to spend four days organizing our storage area, then “moving” EVERYTHING out of The Whale that we will not need or want for our Spring/Summer/Fall trip. By doing this, it will make breaking camp much easier and more efficient, as we will be heading through Canada and into Alaska, starting in May. What’s now gone, that changes things up, and lighten the load are:

2 Tiffany Lamps, 2 standing oscillating fans, rugs, bird feeders, bird bath, outdoor decorative lighting, decorative bedding/pillows, weed blower, outside gas fire ring, a few kitchen appliances, 2 rocking camping chairs, 2 folding tables, canning equipment/jars, 2 metal detectors plus digging equipment, and our carvings from Papua New Guinea we had hanging on the walls, inside.

We have always Glamp/Camped at least two weeks to two months wherever we’ve gone, on the regular, up to now. For the first time, this spring, we will be on the move; especially for two weeks of boondocking, up through Canada, in to Alaska, and again, upon our return, back down through Canada, (after summer in Alaska) returning to the lower 48.
Once we get to Alaska, we will set-up in campgrounds for about a week per each move, and one place up to two weeks; all over the state, as we explore, and have fun adventuring.
30AMP is more common than 50AMP, but we can convert. Some campgrounds have no sewer hookup, and we will adapt.
As much as I just love my “homey” touches in and out of The Whale, it’s way too much stuff to deal with, breaking camp on the daily. And you know what, it still feels homey and looks great!
“Things, are just Things.”

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California, Here We Are!

The drive from the desert of California was really spectacular! California also got hit, big time, with snow storms in the higher elevations, last week. Coming through, there was still snow on the ground (hwy was clear) through the Cajon Pass and I’ve never seen that. The hills were also not just green from all the moisture: LUSH and green (not drought brown and dry). It’s not even spring yet, so it’s way early and so pretty!
As we drove along the Santa Ana River, it was actually rushing and turbulent in some areas. This is normally a small stream. I’ve never seen it flow like that!
⬆️ Not my picture from up in the mountains of California, but it’s pretty safe to say the drought in California has ended, for now.

⬇️ Not great pictures through the windshield I know, but it was really something to witness the snow and green in the winter time as we headed for our house from Barstow.

⬆️ The heaviest and highest snow pack peak is Mount Baldy. It usually has some snow, but I’ve never seen the rest of the peaks with snow
Cajon Pass

⬆️ As we come down from the pass, and get closer to the beach city, the traffic increases…. Look at all those lanes!

Work-Work-Play

While we sorted, I cleaned and re-organized every cupboard and closet in The Whale. We probably reduced the weight by 800 pounds (this will eventually include both e-bikes, which we will leave behind in California, till we return in September to pick them up, again). Because we don’t have a car, Daryl kept his e-bike for now, but when we return to California, to head North (second try) we will drop it at our storage in California.

We managed to work in some socializing time, somehow, too! We have some great friends who were very flexible with our crazy schedule, tired bodies with sore backs. 
We started by stopping in to see a friend, as we drove through Victorville; on our way to our house. Carletta, we love you. You look fantastic and it was so great to see you! ❤️
Also, thanks to our other friends for picking us up at various times, so we could hangout: Pam and Dan, Frank, Joannie, Kevin and Gina. We are truly blessed! ❤️

⬆️ This is a photo from inside The Whale. We parked for one night on the road, across from our house, next to the pool and hot tub. No, our HOA does not allow this kind of RV parking, and we got a visit from the local police, by the next morning.
It sure gave us enough time to deal with offloading and organizing, though.
Sometimes ya just gotta break the rules to get the job done!

More Changes ⬇️
We also just got notice from our long-term tenants (since 2016). They are leaving the end of June, for another state. We are sad to see them go, but understand California has gotten so expensive to live in and raise a family, with the inflation.
So, if anybody is looking for a house rental for end of June, in a very desirable location of Orange County, let us know. We can hook you up! 

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One last stop in California, on our way out, is always Riverside and the Citrus Farm. It’s tradition! ⬇️

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Arizona Here We Are!

We drove directly to this RV wash in Kingman, Arizona. We’ve been, before. We clear at 13’1”… but for us, the bay was just fine. 

Always a joy and a delight when we can find an RV wash big enough for The Whale!
This is:
“Airway Avenue Car Wash”

⬆️ We returned to the same KOA campground as we had been, before; three months ago. ⬆️
We figured we would have some time to get our traveling internet issue resolved, because the Wifi provided, in the past at this campground was actually very good.
After we arrived, though, we were quite challenged by the fact The Whale was sinking and we couldn’t get level in our camp space. Moving spots would not have helped. We have big disc weight distributors to put under our jacks for the case of soft ground, but even with those big things, two of our jacks pushed them both, six inches into the ground!
Normally, these camp spaces have soil like concrete, but the recent snow melt changed all that!
The office sent over a guy with a wheelbarrow of rock and finally after holes were filled, we could get level!

Next up, we couldn’t get signed-in to the “great” internet. Whaaa? Another call to the office, and we learned some bozo (I mean individual) backed over their internet tower, knocked it down, and destroyed it.
It will be awhile before this campground gets internet, as the system is too antiquated to repair, and they have to get new.

As soon as he had a chance, Daryl hopped on his bike, to go to town, in search of internet for us. Verizon only had residential hookups, so he moved on to a nearby T-Mobile. They had exactly what we needed; a “Gateway Hot Spot” and they had a few in stock.
Daryl got it and came home, and
we were operational, within ten minutes.
We did not have to buy any hardware and the one-time set-up fee cost $35.
The best bonus; was the fact we are California residences, so our monthly fee for unlimited is $50/month! (I think T-Mobile was a start-up in California). All other state residences pay $150/month for the same service.
The sales rep also said this hot spot set-up will work in Canada, too!
Yes Please!

INTERNET FOR THE WIN!

The hot spot is slightly smaller than a football, and we can talk to a live human, on the phone, if we have any issues.
I talked to a representative on the phone already, to get auto-pay set-up and she could not have been more helpful or kind.

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Today ⬇️

Daryl rode his bike to the grocery store. He found a whole Filet Mignon (6.5 lbs) for $18. Upon closer inspection, it was mislabeled as “chicken fried steak”😜

The meat department was not available, nor could anybody else be bothered; Daryl tried. Not ones to be “looking a gift horse in the mouth,” as they say, he really brought home the “bacon,” so to speak; but in the form of Filet Mignon, and worth at least $130, and upwards of $150.

My retired butcher man (of 30 years) will slice them all nice ‘n thick, wrap ‘em up and put them in the freezer for MANY future grilling sessions.

Because of this unexpected gift, he also brought home 1.5 lbs of King Crab (from Russia).

We dined, with big smiles on our faces, and it tasted soooooo good!

Thanks Big Guy! ❤️

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