Tom & Marilyn Clark
[Part V of a Series on Full Timing]
Maintaining communications while fulltiming is a bit more complex than when
you have a physical home base, but today's technology and emerging business
services makes the job manageable. We don't require daily "connectivity"
required by some fulltimers who operate a business on the road, so our
solutions might not suit those folks. Here's what we've discovered after
investigating mail forwarding services, voice mail or phone message services,
email, cell phone communications and lastly, CB's.
Marilyn: The first question people ask when they hear we are going to travel
in our RV fulltime is, "Where are you going first?" Then a look of concern
comes over their face, and the inevitable next question is, "How are you
going to get your mail?"
That question had occurred to us, too, during our early days of planning for
fulltiming. As you know by now, our Trailer Life magazines were the first
publications we read after being bitten by the RVing bug. Several mail
forwarding services advertised in that magazine, and some made it a point to
stress that they were located in states with no state income tax. That got
us to thinking about declaring residency in one of those states, and using a
mail forwarding service based in that state. (We'll talk more next time
about what went into our "home base" considerations.)
Tom: When we placed our 5W order in November '95 (delivery scheduled for
February), Marilyn and I decided to initiate our mail forwarding service
beginning January 1, even though we wouldn't begin our travels for awhile.
We had three reasons for doing this: First, we didn't want any possible
recall notices in future years getting lost. We've moved enough to know that
even first-class mail won't follow you forever. We wanted a permanent
mailing address to put on all the rig's component warranty cards. Second:
My early retirement date was still undetermined at that time. The buyout and
pool of eligibles had just been announced, but no dates had been established
yet. We could "go" anytime. Third: We wanted to begin the process of
establishing our home state, and with a permanent address, we could begin
moving things like vehicle registrations and licenses over to our new home
state as they expired.
Marilyn: We chose the Escapees mail service, and it works well for us. They
have three levels of mail handling, for three different rates. We send them
money to apply to our account, and they bundle up and forward our mail,
deducting the postage costs from our account. Each package we receive
indicates the amount of money left in our account on the mailing label, so we
always know when to send more money. SKPs have a 24-hour, toll-free number
to call to let them know where to send your next bundle, if you're moving
around. You can pick the frequency and day(s) of the week you want the mail
sent, and you can change it anytime at no extra charge.
When we visited the SKP headquarters in Livingston, TX last fall, we toured
their newly-expanded mail facility and were very impressed. It's quite a
large operation, and very efficient. I even took our video camera and filmed
our home base "Apartment #100" -- a Pendaflex file folder!
Tom: Like most folks, we get lots of junk mail. Right now, we are using
SKP's least costly level of mail service -- whatever arrives in TX gets
forwarded. We are making an effort to drop subscriptions we no longer want,
and Marilyn sends a couple letters each week to mail solicitors who use First
Class mail or who request "address correction" on their bulk mail, to remove
our names from their list. The SKPs provide postcards that are pre-addressed
to the Mail Preference Service in NY, which we use to request our name be
taken off those solicitation databases that are sold to various businesses.
We've called Good Sam and requested that they remove our name from their
marketing list. That was a big help! Check the front of Highways magazine
for the number to call.
We've begun to see a decrease in junk mail, but you must constantly beware of
creating opportunities for new junk mail. We no longer sign up for "free"
chances to win things, and never order anything from catalogs. When we
finally hit the road, our Post Office will only forward First Class mail to
our Texas address. We don't want the junk following us around!
Marilyn: That takes care of the paper blizzard, what about phone
solicitations? I must admit I'm looking forward to not having a phone!
But we don't want to be cut off from family and friends, either. We'll sign
with a phone message service about a month before we begin our nomadic life,
so we can give our number to our loved ones before we leave. There are lots
of services to choose from; we found one we're leaning toward -- PCC Phone
Messaging Service by Parrish Communications Corp. The details: for $8/month,
we can get 45 minutes monthly usage (14 cents per additional minute), 800
numbers for leaving and retrieving messages, 24-hour-a-day access, and no
long-term commitment is required. They have a few other extra-fee perks,
too, like broadcast messaging, a personal extension, and they offer group
discounts. Their number for more info is 800-362-9446.
Tom: That takes care of incoming calls, what about making long distance
calls? This is no mystery to most folks, you probably already have a long
distance calling card. We have LDDS WorldCom (got it thru Good Sam), and pay
10 cents a minute off-peak, 20 cents on-peak. I think that low rate is no
longer offered. One problem that might occur with fulltimers with no
physical home base and phone service is that some LD companies will not issue
a calling card if you don't have a real phone number. WorldCom tells me
that my card will still be good even after my home phone is disconnected.
But what about our precious email and Net access? Right now we enjoy a
permanent phone hookup at our campsite, but as you know, not too many
campgrounds offer "instant" hookups. It's iffy at best to get access to the
campground office phone for even brief periods of connectivity. Phone booths
and acoustic couplers are a less-than-ideal solution, and for those RVers
with desktop PCs, it's out of the question. So what's the answer? We
decided to downsize our PC, mainly for weight and size considerations. We
are glad we did, as now we have the ability to carry our Toshiba laptop with
modem (the credit-card kind) into truck stops and plug into the diner phones.
Our modem is digital, so we don't worry about it being incompatible (or
damaged) by digital phone lines. We have decided to get a phone line
installed at our 6-month Florida campsite, otherwise, we'll just have to log
in whenever and wherever we can when we're traveling. Although we plan to
get a cell phone for emergencies, we will NOT be using it for costly modem
connectivity.
Marilyn: We have only begun investigating the cellular phone services, and
have decided to postpone signing up with one for now. We want cell phone
service only for making emergency calls, like to 911, and for calls to our
emergency road service provider, should we break down on the road in a remote
area. Our first months' travels will be on Interstates, because of time
constraints. Then we'll be workamping in one place for the winter season, so
we won't need the extra protection of a cell phone until we start traveling
the "Blue Highways" and boondocking. We'll let you know what we've decided
upon in future updates, and whether our decision worked for us.
Tom: Instead of a cell phone, we had originally hoped that a CB in our rig
could provide the security we felt we needed. So, we purchased a very good
quality hand-held CB from Radio Shack. We had planned on using it in the
truck, and then bring it into the trailer when we camped. However, the CB
worked poorly in the truck (probably needed a bigger, outside antenna). We
were also surprised to find that most CB channels were quite weak inside our
rig. Its NOAA weather channel came in loud and clear, though, and recently
warned us of some very severe windstorms in the area. We ended up installing
another CB in the truck, for on-the-road use. At the campground, we use the
two CBs like walkie-talkies while one of us directs the other into our
campsite. This works quite well, as the noise of our diesel truck otherwise
makes speaking to each other while parking an impossibility.
This sounds like an expensive set of walkie-talkies, doesn't it? We did
try out two voice-activated walkie-talkie headsets before finally opting for
the hand-held CB. The idea seemed like a good one -- we could wear the
headsets to allow us to direct our parking efforts essentially hands-free.
The only problem with this setup was that the truck engine caused so much
interference with the radios that we could only hear static, instead of our
calm voices, "Left, NO your OTHER left, no. . . just a little bit right,
STRAIGHTEN UP! NO! S T O P!"
Sigh. Maybe static was a better choice...
Next time in this space: Insurance, finances, home base and other legal
matters.