Campervaning in the USA.
Campervaning in the USA.
In
the US they are "RV's" (Recreational Vehicles), to the rest of the
world "Campervans".
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written permission of the author. E-mail
"All travel has its advantages. If the traveler visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own; and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy his own." - Johnson [1709-1784]
26/03/2002 Vancouver WA
Arriving at Portland airport we find that America West airlines have canceled our reservations without notice because we hadn't paid for the tickets by the 23rd. This despite the fact that when booking I was assured by the agent that they would be held. We offered to pay by debit card when booking but despite previously readily accepting the card when presented in person at the airport, they couldn't accept it over the phone because the statement address was not in the USA! Well I'm a bloody Australian for Christ sake. The operator referred the matter to management and assured me that the computer file had been endorsed to show that the tickets were to be paid for on check in! Yes they realized the policy was stupid and they were reviewing it.
At check in they said the reservation was canceled and the tickets would now cost $570 each instead of the $233 that was on offer when booking. I politely snarled through gritted teeth that was not going to happen, explained what I had been promised, and inquired just what level of management up to the President of the company did we need to talk too to FIX it! In a few minutes the check in operator had it sorted out, without any managerial blood on the floor, and we got our boarding passes, for the originally contracted $233.
Is there a lot of this stupid bumbling in the US? You certainly need to stand firm and not accept this sort of nonsense. Recall my comments from an earlier section, "in the land of the brave" you need to stand up for your rights.
Fortunately there were still some seats left, and we were early at check in, or it would have got messy. Despite the airlines bleating about people not flying after September 11, they have cut back on flights so much that planes are full, perhaps they are milking the situation for all it is worth. Despite the high cost of the flight, of only two and a quarter hours, they provided no meals, only coffee tea a d juice, alcoholic drinks cost $4. I think Americans have been conditioned to accept such poor service. After all this is not a cheap discount flight.
After being advised that we needed to remove all film from our check in baggage, because of the X Ray machines we repacked our luggage in the airport. I haven't come across baggage X Rays that damage film for years. Have they dragged out old mothballed equipment to upgrade the once notable lack of security? Well today they weren't taking any chances and we were searched and scanned and frisked, not once but twice. One American was complaining that he had the same three times before getting on the plane. Surely if they did it properly once would be enough!
Phoenix.
Collecting our RV
After a long wait for our baggage to be delivered to the terminal, and waiting for a taxi for another 15 minutes, we were on our way to "Sunland Lincoln Mercury", 4700 E Glendale Avenue Glendale, which is the dealership from which Pat sells RVs over the Internet on Ebay.
Pat had promised that they would pay for the taxi, and did so, about $33 from the airport to Glendale, a northern Phoenix suburb. Our Fleetwood Bounder was waiting for us. The size seemed enormous at first, but I have since become relatively comfortable with driving it. As promised in the Ebay advertisement all of the major appliances were working, and Pat demonstrated them all to us. The engine started and ran smoothly, and the generator worked properly. The 4KVA Onan generator only has 167 hours on it since new, so like the vehicle it has had very little use.
There were of course a few minor things broken on the vehicle, but then they do say in the ad that it's not a new vehicle you are buying, and some maintenance may be needed. OK that's fair enough.
The two areas where I feel that Pat was not sufficiently frank in his Ebay adds were in relation to the condition of the blinds/curtains in the vehicle, which are generally not working properly, and are seriously sun rotted on the outside, filthy and dusty, and need extensive repairs or replacement.
This vehicle has spent all its life in Phoenix (according to records supplied with it) and it is a very dry desert climate, so there appear to have been no serious water leaks. However the sealing around the roof vents and air conditioner is very cracked, and would I feel, be sure to leak if we get into wet weather.
I feel that both these items would have been clearly apparent to Pat, and are of sufficient seriousness that they should have been disclosed frankly on Ebay, and not left under the cover of the obvious statement that "this is not a new vehicle and some maintenance may be required". Pat usually makes a practice of photographing any damage on a vehicle, and pointing out any important specific defects. This, and his generally good feedback on Ebay, led me to trust him, perhaps too much.
Pat provided me with a gallon can of sealant when I complained on this point, so I have a chore over the next week or so to do some roof maintenance. Also I will seal around all the windows with silicone rubber. [ It turned out that the sealant he gave me was old rubbish that had hardened in the can, and was useless, so I had to buy new sealant at Wal-Mart. Thanks a lot Pat.]
Apart from these things the vehicle seems to be in excellent condition, drives perfectly and is fully consistent with it's 21,000 miles, which I believe is absolutely genuine. The vehicle has been regularly serviced and all seems in good running order. It has full ownership records from new, and has had only two previous owners. Extensive repairs were undertaken in 1998 and 1999 to a lot of the domestic systems when it last changed hands. There are detailed receipts for all the work done, and all the service manuals for all the on board equipment have been provided to us.
After paying for the vehicle and a call to Progressive Insurance to pay for and activate our insurance, the Bounder (with an emblem of a Kangaroo on it, seems appropriate for a couple of Aussie tourists) was ours with the bill of sale and title handed over. We also received a temporary registration permit tag, good for only three days. Arizona authorities will issue only three day tags, to enable you to drive interstate, and they won't extend the time according to Pat. This isn't sufficient time for us to get our Oregon plates as we need to mail the papers to our ex host in Vancouver, who will file them in Portland, get our plates and post them back to us express delivery. What to do? Just don't worry about it says Pat, as long as we are insured we shouldn't get into deep shit, even if we are pulled up for having an expired temporary tag. Well there doesn't seem to be any better solution, so that's what we will do.
Pat gives us a map ("Mapblast", from the Internet) to a Wal-Mart, about six miles north, it's not safe to stay at the dealers, such a rough area he says. I am apprehensive about driving such a big vehicle, but once on the road its not so bad and we make our way to Wal-Mart at 5845 West Bell Road Glendale, for our first boondocks in the USA.
Several RV's are parked around, and we select a spot. The security golf cart comes up to us and a very friendly security guy tells us we can't park just here, because the city has put up signs preventing overnight parking in that sector of the car park, and we might get booked, but if we move less than 100 meters to another part of the car park, we can stay with no problems. So after doing some shopping for essentials for our van in Wal-Mart, we retire for the night. After traffic dies down we have a quiet and uneventful night. Wal-Mart, great place to stay when you are in town, and FREE.
27/03/2002 Phoenix AZ.
It is very spacious and comfortable, more than we need, but then that's the way American vehicles are. "Don't leave home without it", seems to apply to just about everything in the USA when you go on holiday, not just to American Express Cards!
We spend the first part of the day filling out the Oregon DMV forms to register our vehicle in Oregon (because it is about the cheapest state to register in and we have the assistance of our friends in Vancouver Washington and in Oregon who are filing the papers and providing the essential "address" in Oregon). Also there is no sales tax in Oregon, whereas if we registered in Arizona we would be liable for Arizona state sales tax of about 11%, yes even on second hand goods.
Then after a bit more shopping at Wal-Mart, off to the US Post Office, where guaranteed next day delivery of a modest envelope with the registration papers costs US$12.57, and for up to two pounds the same service to return the plates to us is $16.23. Dammed expensive for postage, about A$58 for two pieces of express mail! See what I mean about "don't use services in the USA"! In this case it is worth it, as the ordinary mail service is so variable and often slow, that we could be here for three weeks waiting for our plates if we didn't pay out for the fast service. To have the plates returned they will be sent to me at General Delivery at the Phoenix suburban post office near where we are staying, courtesy of Wal-Mart. Such an address would not normally be satisfactory for registration, but this is not our registered address, and our ex host is sending them on to us, not the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles.
Next to the supermarket to buy some "real food". We make corned beef and salad sandwiches for lunch with pumpernickel bread. Then we find several "Thrift Stores", that's American for Charity Shops or secondhand stores, to outfit our RV with crockery, cutlery, pots and pans and cooking utensils. About $28 sees us accumulate all the really essential items, others can wait until we see better choice and value.
Thrift stores are almost a major industry here. Like everything in the USA they are corpratised and very commercial. Goods seem to be relatively expensive for secondhand, often junky stuff. The charities or "non profit organizations" that actually collect (or at least hire out their name to the collectors) all the secondhand goods and clothing that these stores sell, do not operate the stores themselves. I suspect that there is a very high level of collusion on prices, as stores in Vancouver WA and in Phoenix AZ have absolutely identical prices on items like second hand plates, cutlery, glassware etc. I also suspect that the lions share of the profits goes to the big corporations running the stores, and the charities get very little for allowing the use of their names by those actually collecting the goods. People donating goods, thinking they are helping a charity are in fact, in most cases, mainly funding a large corporation, and the charity gets a few crumbs from the table. Typical of the American way of doing things, and not one that appeals to me as an honorable form of charity.
By this time we are ready to return to our Wal-Mart car park, to prepare a delicious dinner of medallions of pork fried in olive oil and garlic, and served with an assortment of lightly boiled vegetables, REAL FOOD, the like of which we haven't set eyes on since landing here. Another quiet night, except for them sweeping the car park about midnight, but its free and seems perfectly safe. Other RV's join us, but no one parks close.
28/03/2002 Phoenix AZ.
Cleaning day. The van's roman blinds that are badly deteriorated by sun exposure, and are dropping copious amounts of dust and fibers, and the cords of most have come adrift so they don 't pull up the blinds. They are really putrid, and I am a bit peeved that Pat did not point this out in his description of the vehicle for the Ebay auction. I think it was a serious omission and the matter of that and the roof requiring sealing, but also not being specifically stated, other than a general reference to the possible need for some maintenance, in this case amounts to dishonesty.
We decide to take the blinds down and wash them in the bathtub with detergent, and rinse with hot water from the shower. It seems to work quite well, and they drain quickly in the dry desert air of Phoenix. I then use the sewing kit we carry, with extra strong thread for making any necessary running repairs to our back packs, to sew the cords and wire terminations back on to the blinds. It takes quite a while and I get four done, out of the seven in the van, today. The rest can wait for tomorrow. Unfortunately I manage to burn a hole in one blind, by hanging it in the side of the van, and without realizing it covering the flue of the water heater, which of course starts up automatically when I am washing the next blind. Shit! Sharon even questioned, should I hang it there, but I wasn't switched on to the problem, and said it would be fine. Well when I smelled smoke it wasn't!!. Sometimes I get too preoccupied with what I am doing, and don't pay her enough attention. Oh well, its only a small hole, no actual flames, and at least the water heater is working properly!!
Sharon is busy cleaning everything in sight. The van looked clean in the Ebay photos, but on closer inspection everything needs a good clean. Whoever buys it will get a great vehicle as it runs like a new one, and although some things show a bit of wear, and some of the paint is a bit faded, mechanically it is in extraordinarily good condition for a 15 year old vehicle.
I head off to the Wal-Mart and buy a few more tools, a caulking gun, silicone sealant, construction adhesive, can of mineral Turpentine, a hammer and some tacks, to add to the $19.95, 150 piece mechanics tool kit I bought there last night, ready to tackle any small jobs on the van. Not that I could tackle anything major with this little toy tool kit, but there are always small things to do that are much easier, quicker, and less expensive to do yourself. We also buy some folding chairs ($5.94 in Wal-Mart, aluminum frame with plastic webbing, quite comfortable) we can use for sitting outside the van under the awning. Wal-Mart is a good place to get most things you need, that are not specialized enough to need to go to a Camping World store.
Bounder, I'll call our RV that because that's its model name, and it suites the Kangaroo which is the emblem on each side, came with all the manuals, full repair and service history. In the comprehensive records, which fill a small filing box, I found extensive work had been done on the various domestic systems in 1998 and 1999 when it seems to have changed hands for the first time, and it looks like we are only the third owners. From the repair records, it looks like it had become a bit run down by the time it was 9 years old, and the new owner spent quite a lot of money getting it back into top condition. I still cant get over it that all the systems work! We saw so many vans around Portland a couple of weeks ago, and in none of them could I be sure that anything worked, some wouldn't even start, the standard of presentation for sale was miserable in most cases. Our van has also spent all its life here in Phoenix, which is a good thing from the point of view of having no problems with rust, or dry rot due to the almost inevitable roof leaks that seem to plague RV's, as it hardly ever rains here in Phoenix. Except tonight, we are having a thunderstorm, lots of thunder, and light rain. If the roof leaks maybe it will show up tonight.
Even the electric leveling jacks work. Not that I need to use them here as the Wal-Mart car park is almost perfectly level. It is a very expensive option, four independently controlled electrically operated jacks descend from under the vehicle, to enable you to adjust them to ensure you are perfectly level. A great improvement on blocks of wood under the wheels that we used in our little Ford Transit in Europe in 2000.
We were concerned at how to put out the awning, as things were a bit rushed, as we hadn't arrived until after 4PM, when Pat was showing us how the systems on Bounder worked, and we didn't get around to the awning. I found the instructions in the filing box, and also documents indicating the fabric was replaced in 1999, so hopefully when we get around to trying it out everything will be in good condition. It even has a screen room that attaches to the awning to form an insect free enclosure.
More real food, tonight we have stir fried steak and vegetables served with pasta, Sharon found some packets of dried herbs and a few spices at a Safeway Supermarket yesterday. No more yucky greasy hamburgers will we have to suffer.
Safeway is one of the chains where you need to have a free "membership card" to get the special prices, so we joined on the spot and immediately got the benefits. Mind you I think its a much better system at Wall Mart, they just sell stuff, specials and all with no complications, memberships, discount cards that you have to buy so you can then save money, or other merchandising bullshit that seems to plague the USA.
29/03/2002 Phoenix AZ
Thrift Stores are obviously a huge "industry" here, and there are a lot of people on the bread line in the US. The dream of the USA can easily turn to one of poverty and despair for many. Much of the stock is junk, odd pots and pans with no lids, lids with no pots, worse stuff than we find down at our local garbage tip "trash and treasure" shed back home, for nothing. But here in the USA real junk brings money, and people pay US$5 (A$10) for a crappy old pot, or a rusty cast iron frying pan. We find the odd item to add to our RV's growing inventory
We find a public RV dump station (located off the Internet before leaving home in Australia, dump our tanks and fill up with water, all for FREE! (Scrooge me loves to get something FREE!) Nearby we find a "Food World" supermarket, which specializes in Mexican and a few Asian goods, and we stock up on some spices and Thai Fish Sauce, Soy sauce, Mexican Chili sauce, and ask a bemused store employee how do we cook the tortillas we buy. More real food.
The Mexicans appear to have a much better diet than their often obese hosts, they generally look healthier, you see some slim and attractive girls, instead of the great waddling spherical tubs of lard we noted, with utter amazement, so often among the white American population. Pray they keep to a real food diet and don't get seduced into the fat, sugar and salt, high corporate profit diets, which the corpulent American peasants have been mercilessly seduced into by the cursed fast food industry, that is absolutely ruining the nations health and fitness, all for its own profit, and with no thought for the consequences.
After a bit of navigational confusion we eventually find Camping World in Mesa, and stop in their car park overnight.
30/03/2002 Phoenix AZ
So its time to try out the AAA (American Automobile Associations promised reciprocal service with my home auto club in Australia. A free call to the 1 800 number after much computer confusion over not accepting my home club code, brings a locksmith within an hour to our van. After almost an hours work disassembling the ignition lock and declaring that the only key I was given by the dealer was badly cut, he decodes the lock and makes me two new keys. This guy knew his stuff. Total cost $80, for which I pay $30 and the Auto club pays $50. If I had the higher "Plus" grade of membership back home it would have covered me for $100 of locksmith charges and I wouldn't have had to pay a cent. Also I now know how to pull the barrel out of the lock, just in case.
Always carry your home Auto Club membership card. My first experience, and the reciprocal agreement worked perfectly. Full marks AAA!
More washing of the bloody sun rotted blinds, but we realize it isn't going to solve the problem. Clouds of fiber dust still comes off them when you operate them, although the washing has considerably reduced it. Sharon is planning to make up new curtains into roman blinds using some of the slats from the old ones as weights, and to glue the fabric together at seams using PVA glue, because of course we don't have a sewing machine. We also wash the brightly coloured Mexican poncho curtain that divides off the bedroom, and the curtains from the front of the cabin. All are full of dust and dirt and turn the bathtub black.
We try to buy a camp toaster at Camping World, but discover they don't savvy proper camp toasters here in the US, and that the weird design they do sell is a lot dearer than the same thing at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart is generally good value, except for items stocked by "Dollar Stores" where everything is literally one dollar. Naturally this tends to mean that a lot of what they sell is really cheap junk, the range is severely limited by the one dollar price limit, and some things that should be 50 cents or less cost $1! Never the less you can get some good buys if you are selective and look around a few such stores. Non skid matting for the shelves in the RV is $1 a roll, the same thing $2.75 in Wal-Mart.
Between selectively shopping at Wal-Mart, Thrift Stores and Dollar Stores, we have almost fully outfitted our van in a few days for a very modest cost.
Naturally we go shopping and soon accumulate a few specials to add to our equipment and pantry. However Wal-Mart is no grocery supermarket and carries only a very limited range of food goods.
My mind must have been working on it subconsciously because just on dinner time, I have a brilliant (well we will see about that) idea on how to solve the Roman blind / curtain problem. The fibers are only badly rotted on the outside where exposed to the sun, and only the light coloured fibers are really rotten. The blinds also have a lot of darker coloured fibers which are still strong, and holding the structure together fairly well. All the shedding fiber dust is coming from the decomposing light coloured fiber. If I paint the weather side of the blinds with a liberal coating of clear polyurethane, the rotting fibers will absorb it and form a fiber reinforced sort of structure like fiberglass, that will still be flexible. This will encapsulate all the loose fibers and stop the fiber shedding as well as reinforcing the remaining strong darker fibers that are still holding the roman blinds together. The inside of the blinds has suffered little or no deterioration because it hasn't been exposed to the sun, and so won't need coating with polyurethane at all, as the inner surface is not shedding fiber dust. Well that's the theory at least. Sharon isn't impressed at first. She hates the smell of polyurethane, and says it won't work. I explain the theory, ant that we can do it in a few stages over a few days, dry the blinds in the sun, and store them in the lockers under the van for a few nights and hang towels up at the windows. If it works it will save us lots of work, time and cost. I convince her it's worth a try and after dinner of home made delicious tortillas, made with ingredients from yesterdays Mexican supermarket, I head in to Wal-Mart for a 4 Liter tin of polyurethane and a couple of cheap 50mm brushes, all up about $22.50
31/03/2002 Phoenix AZ Easter SundayA friendly middle aged Negro man, who is living in a huge 40 foot RV comes over to see what I am doing and chat. He has sold his home and everything else to buy this monster RV, called "American Dream", for a two year tour of the USA. The American equivalent of the great round Australia trip. Americans are very open and friendly in this way. Later he gives me a large screw to help fix a loose corner trim strip on Bounders roof. I wonder how he will fare financially having sold a stable asset, his house, to buy the rapidly depreciating RV. Perhaps that's how some of the many RV park residents begin the slide into poverty. Dreams need to be affordable, and unless this guy is sufficiently rich that the asset depreciation doesn't affect his ability to buy another house, he could be on the fiscal slippery slope, from which there is no way back at his age.
The blinds dry quickly in the hot sun and dry air and by late afternoon are ready to put back. There is no smell, I was right about that. The process seems to have worked and the fibers and dust has stopped shedding, but they have gone rather stiff and are difficult to pull up, until we force some folds into them. Sharon isn't really pleased with the result, but at least the dust has stopped, and if we do decide to replace them with something else, we can now do so at leisure, and perhaps start our holiday.
Our excitement for the day a police chase through the car park, and a nearby storm drain, with a helicopter circling overhead calling on the now long gone fugitive whom Sharon had, we think, seen running in the distance about half an hour ago, to give himself up.
The good news comes that our Oregon registration has proceeded smoothly and the plates were posted to us on Friday, and may already be at the Glendale Post Office waiting for us.
Phoenix has two distinct sides. Salient poverty abounds. The northwestern and western sectors are distinctly seedy, low class, rough and unappealing areas, while parts of the north east and the south east heading toward Mesa are much more middle class with numerous gated estates of obviously much better class houses and flats. In the latter parts it may be a nice place to live, mainly for the climate, if you have money, but you wouldn't want to visit here, without some compelling reason. It is one of the best places in the US to buy an RV, because of the large numbers for sale here, but the city itself is a boring mix of charmless dilapidated urban grot, and graceless modern suburban and commercial sprawl, that only America knows how to do so horribly. My initial view, formed while researching this trip over the Internet, that the cities of western America have little to interest us, or any other seasoned tourists for that matter, has been reinforced dramatically by the city of Phoenix. If Phoenix is, like the legendary namesake, rising from it's ashes, then it's a pity the fire ever went out. Its one saving grace is that it has a classical music FM radio station, funded by subscribers. An island of culture in the desert!
We're here only because we're here, and we need to get our RV fully kited out and habitable, and get our registration plates back from Oregon. Then we will hightail it out of Phoenix, and if we ever return, it will only be to store Bounder for another trip next year. The desert climate makes it an excellent place to store an RV, in a secure storage yard, for around $20-25 a month.
1/4/2001 Phoenix AZ .
We had come to Mesa mainly to visit Camping World, and as we didn't need anything specific, it was a waste of time. We have to return to Glendale to collect our license plates from the Post Office general delivery, and on the way stop off at the Giant gas station (35th Avenue just North of W Glendale Avenue FREE public RV dump site) to dump our again full gray water tank, a result of all the washing of blinds and cleaning of the van, and refill with fresh water. I am not sure how much water our tank holds, but at a more normal rate of usage, it will probably last us a week or more. In Europe in 2000 we could go for about three days on 35 liters, and in Bounder we have vastly more fresh water than that. Another stop at the nearby Food World for some more tortillas and a few more Mexican delicacies that Sharon has been making good use of over the last couple of days.
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." - Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-1895]
The Erratum of Man's History. - Conventional belief is often mistaken.-1692 - The witch trials in Salem Massachusetts, 31 people convicted.
1745 - Last execution for witchcraft in France.
Part 4 Hitting the Road from Phoenix.
Part 2 Starting Off
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