Moab UTAH USA

[T1 Terry]

Hi Peter & Sandra,
How did your friends go with the insurance etc when they bought the Winnie in the the US?
I wonder what the rego/insurance rules are with 5'ers, I'm guessing the go could be to buy the tug in Canada, get all the rego and insurance there, then head down through the US, pick up a 5'er and set it up for boondocking, then travel till the visa runs out, park up in one of those storage places and fly home for a mth, fly back and go again, sell both when you are finished, it would still be cheaper than the rental option.
The slide on as you have chosen is another option. Apparently I have family in the US but I never bothered with the contact stuff, that's what mothers and sisters do... I'm now the sole serviver, no idea who they are or even what their names were so lobbing up on the door step and asking a favour might not go down too well

[Peter and Sandra]

In some states you can own, reg and insure a vehicle even if not a resident, you would still need an address so that is where friends come in.
I have also heard and met people whose sole point of contact in the US is the dealer they bought the rig from, use their address and reg and insure in their own name.
The friends with the Winnie have friends in CA so use their address.
Keep in mind that storing a RV in any but the bottom level of the US means winterizing it, it freezes and/or snows over most of the upper portions so all water systems have to be drained and refilled with potable antifreeze, grey and black water systems the same to ensure no water is left in the system to freeze and break/crack plumbing. The same goes for vehicles, we've had antifreeze in the windscreen washer tank for most of the trip because if it freezes then itbreaks the plastic bottle and the pump.
I know we all reckon we know all about cold in Oz but believe me it is totally different over here, we've been down as far as -16 C over night (only -4 inside as the heater was on its lowest setting) but it is when the days don't get above-2 or -3 that things start to really hit home about how cold it gets. We have a loo with black tank and after a couple of days the whole thing is solid even though it is totally enclosed within the slideon camper. After taking an hour or so to unfreeze the slide valve with a fan heater we now put 2 litres of antifreeze in the tank before we use it, release all pressure from the water system overnight after the showerhead cracked one very cold night, disconnect water and sink drains overnight, lift the wipers off the screen and make sure the doorlocks have plenty of graphite in them so you can unlock the doors in the morning. Lots of vehicles over here have a keypad on the drivers door rather than a lock for that very reason. Lots also have remote start so that you can start the engine and run the heater to melt the frozen door rubbers that stop you opening the doors even though you have unlocked them with the key ))

[Peter and Sandra]

I forgot to add that the reason we came later after the peak summer season was to avoid the crowds but the downside is we are now having to deal with winter, currently on the coast in Georgia and it is still cool enough to wear a sloppy joe and long pants all day. Got up to about 12 today.

[Peter and Sandra]

The interstate system is great if you want to get from A to B quickly but we prefer to do the smaller "back" roads which take you out into the smaller towns and quieter areas. We try and avoid cities and so far have managed to do that, so far we've only been stayed in San Francisco and Denver, both where we had someone to show us around which took a lot of the pain out of it. We've been through a few though ans stayed in a few smaller ones but the other day we went right through the middle of Atlanta Georgia (only half a mil live there) on the interstate at 55mph or better, at its widest there were 8 lanes in EACH direction and at one big intersection there were 4 levels, not for the fainthearted!
Bushcamping over here is very hard to do, there are so many people everywhere, National Forests and BLM lands are about the only possibilities and they are pretty rare in some areas. When travelling Walmarts and other shopping centres quite often allow overnight stopping as do visitor centres in some places. Like at home in Oz there are small towns that are seeing the money available from the tourists and provide free overnight stopping areas, dump points, water facilities and RV spaces in the carparks and streets, the latter quite often in the main drag not down a side street at the back of town.
But then I guess that the numbers do justify it over here with what must be millions of RV's around and being travelled in.

[Dot]

Peter & Sandra, with all your USA travelling, have you at any time felt at all uncomfortable or unsafe??

[Peter and Sandra]

Actually no, but most of the time there has been two vehicles travelling together, we split up and go our seperate ways occasionally but mostly have been travelling together, they have an identical setup to us, ute and slideon.
The only "moment" was one morning in a remote state park when we looked out the window at first light to see a big Grizzly amble past, we were by ourselves at the time so as we were the only campers there so were the only possible meal that morning ))
There are a few things that could eat you over here whereas at home the only thing that will like you as a snack is a croc.
On the whole we have found everyone to be very friendly and most go out of their way to assist when asked a question, we've even had people hop in their cars and lead us to somewhere we are having trouble finding. Others have told us of places to camp overnight or offered somewhere to park.
As I said before we have spent the majority of our time here out looking at the sites and not visiting cities so our dealings have been mostly with the locals.
The weirdest thing we've found is the ever present sighting of hunters and armed people walking, riding quaddies and ATV's in bush areas. The other one is the sight of people driving ATV's on the road in some states.
We're in a South Carolina State Park tonight, $10 a night including power and water, showers and loo's available if needed. We had just finished popping the camper top up and a couple wandered over to ask us over to "that big white tent over there for a feed later on" if we would like to join them for NYE. The phone works as we aren't far off the interstate so we have internet )