Accident aftermath

We have had a horrible few days, homeless, driving a truck that is now questionable, and having to pick through the wreckage for bits of our lives.  We found the “happy camper” frame in five pieces, but never found the picture of us and the grandsons that had been in it.  Broken glass is everywhere and salsa among other things splattered on everything.  We take turns melting down and comforting each other.

The steamroller has helped.  Somehow we were taken over by a local insurance adjuster/collision repair specialist/teddy bear/steamroller of a guy named Roy.  He said, “You two have been through too much to be in that Super 8 in Quartzsite; you need to relax at the casino.”  Next thing we knew, we were in a room at the Parker, AZ, casino, looking at the Colorado River and the mountains beyond, sitting in the hot tub to soak away the aches from the accident, enjoying good meals.  The next day he had us in a class C motor-home toy-hauler (meaning the back is a garage for motorcycles or whatever).  It's just what we needed to store what we could salvage from the wrecked camper and to sleep in.   

It appears that our truck is totaled because the cost of repairs would be more than 60% of the value.  I am feeling a bit skittish about the accident and thinking maybe we don’t want to tow again with the Tundra after it had been twisted and hung up in the air.  We decided to get a new bigger truck.   Quartzsite right now is the best place to buy a camper, because they have more RV dealers per square mile than any place else on earth, and they want to move the campers now because most dealers are just here in the winter.  Today we bought a Ford F250 in Blythe, CA and a 27 foot 5th wheel in Quartzsite--a lot of money in one day.  We fell in love with both at first sight and think we got good deals.  We have always saved up and never financed any vehicle, but this was a bit sudden and we haven't had  time to transfer investment funds--another strange thing for us, to have to finance.  It will take another couple days to get a 5^th wheel hitch installed and the camper set up.  To avoid paying California or Arizona sales tax and just pay Wisconsin sales tax which is less, we have to take delivery in a different state.  So we drove across the bridge from Blythe to have a Notary Public witness that we took delivery in Arizona.  Same thing with the camper—buy in Arizona but show that we took possession in California.  So weird.  The insurance still has not been settled, and we can’t go until that happens.  We still have not hit the flea markets and shops Quartzsite is famous for, so we hope to do that too before we head back to Phoenix.