Monthly Archives: November 2013

Shelter Island

Yesterday we started out as usual. I posted to the blog while Donna was at her exercise class. When she returned, she had a couple of telephone meetings. I putzed around, then walked to the RV office to see about a refund for the trailer parking. I’d paid in advance to park the trailer in their lot for 30 days. Since it disappeared after 6 days, I thought I should be entitled to a refund for the unused days. They refunded my entire payment.

We rode the scooter over to Shelter Island around 1:00pm. We went to the Kona Kai Marina to meet Mark and Emily Fagan. Donna and Emily connected online through an RV group on Facebook, but had never met in person. Mark and Emily sold their home in Phoenix in 2007 and went full-time RVing. Their RV has been in storage for the last 3 1/2 years while they lived aboard their 44′ Hunter sailboat, Groovy. They cruised the coast of Mexico all the way down to Guatemala. Emily and Mark are photojournalists. You can read about their adventures and view outstanding photography at roadslesstraveled.us. They’re actually selling their boat and returning to their RV.

We had a great time sitting in the cockpit of their boat and talking. We discovered so many similarities between us, it was wonderful. Mark and Emily are avid cyclists. Mark also is into motorcycles and has been riding since he was 16. Emily is a writer, like Donna. They met in a cycling club (just like Donna and I). They have two granddaughters – so do we. We all lived in metro Phoenix at one time. Mark used to live in Sterling Heights, Michigan not far from where we used to live. We visited for nearly 3 hours and the time flew by. We’re looking forward to another visit before we leave San Diego.

Mark and Emily Fagan aboard their Hunter 44 sailboat

Mark and Emily Fagan aboard their Hunter 44′ sailboat

When we left Shelter Island around 4pm, we were hungry. We rode over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill on Morena Boulevard. This place serves outstanding food, not your usual tavern fare. Donna had the poke plate (say poe-key). I had seared ahi tuna.

Poke plate

Poke plate

Seared ahi tuna plate

Seared ahi tuna plate

When we returned to the RV park, we found we had new neighbors. We met Bud and Mona, who are parked next to us. Bud lives about 30 miles from here in Escondido. He’s taking some time off and enjoying Mission Bay. We sat and had a few drinks. Bud has an old washing machine tub that he perched on top of a cut-off 55-gallon drum. He used it as a fire pit. This worked really well. The holes in the sides of the tub allows air to circulate. With plenty of air, the fire burned hot and clean with very little smoke.

Washing machine tub firepit

Washing machine tub firepit

Later, Mona served shrimp enchiladas that she made. They were delicious. Mona has a couple of stand up paddle boards. She offered to let us try them out. We’ll have to give it a try one of these days.

Mona's shrimp enchiladas

Mona’s shrimp enchiladas

This morning my youngest daughter, Shauna, picked me up in her car. We drove to the airport where I dropped her off for a flight to Washington, DC. She is a student at Cal Western School of Law. As part of her scholarship, they sent her to Washington to visit Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Kennedy. She will be in the court chambers on Monday to hear oral arguments. I look forward to hearing about it when she returns on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, we have her 2013 Jetta TDI. I think I’ll take advantage of that and look at cargo trailers today.

Insurance Claim

Sometimes we think no news is good news. I’ve been waiting for a few days to learn how the insurance company will handle the theft of my trailer. No news wasn’t good news. After I filed my claim, the claims adjuster phoned me on Tuesday. Her name is Nicky, she told me she needed to gather more information and would get back to me.

I was a little uneasy. I have an irrational distrust of insurance companies and the uncertainty was frustrating. I was polite and patient with her on the phone. She was the one who could help me and being a demanding customer wouldn’t help my situation. We agreed to talk again on Wednesday afternoon after she verified the facts.

We talked again on Wednesday. Her office is in California, my insurance policy was underwritten in South Dakota. She apologized for the delay, but said she needed more information from the state of South Dakota before she could determine how to apply the coverage.  She said she would get back to me on Thursday. I was feeling like she was looking for a way out of the claim, but I stayed cool, thanked her for her diligence and told her I looked forward to hearing from her.

Yesterday, Nicky called me in the afternoon. She told me she verified how the coverage would apply and had the necessary forms from South Dakota. With some restrictions, replacement of my trailer and contents will be covered. One of the restrictions is the maximum amount applied for any single item in the trailer. The maximum they will pay for a single item is $500. I had a few things in there worth more than that like my shotguns. I’ll do what she told me which is to list the actual value of those. For example, if I list the SKB over/under double barrel shotgun at $X,XXX, I will receive $500 for it.

She advised me to itemize as much as possible. For example, I shouldn’t list assorted hand tools as a single item valued at $X,XXX. I should itemize the individual tools. That way I can be reimbursed for my actual loss without hitting the $500 restriction.

She was really helpful and I felt like she was on my side. Today she will e-mail me the necessary forms, then follow up with a phone call to go over them with me. She wants to ensure that I understand the forms and fill them out correctly to avoid any further delays.

Most of you are probably naturally polite and patient. I try to be, but sometimes I feel like I need to drive an issue. In this case, I feel that being polite and patient with Nicky helped. Maybe she treats every case this way, but I really think she wanted to help me get the most out of the coverage I paid for. This life of retirement might be mellowing me out!

This weekend I will go online to find the value of the items we lost. We’ll complete the forms, then we can start shopping for a new trailer. I won’t be able to replace everything, but this is about the best outcome I could have hoped for.

I know some RVers insure their RVs as if it was another car on their policy. Don’t do this. Read your policy carefully. I’m glad we purchased a Progressive  full-time RV insurance policy with contents coverage and a rider for the trailer.

Today, the sun is shining and the skies are blue. When Donna returns from her exercise class, I’ll go for a bike ride. After lunch, we’ll scooter over to Shelter Island to visit Mark and Emily Fagan on their boat at the Kona Kai marina. They have been full-time RVers and sailboat cruisers since 2007. Their web site is roadslesstraveled.us.