Life After Losing Our Home

March 3-7, 2023

Our motorhome tipped over and was destroyed in high winds in Texas, and we were sorting everything out. We had everything we could grab in the car, inside the boat, or in a U-Haul panel truck, and we headed east to Green Valley, Arizona. It's a great town about 30 minutes south of Tucson where Monica's dad and his wife Linda live, and we were going to be staying with our good friends Toni and Sue. We were suddenly homeless, but staying with good friends would feel like home.

We went to Idaho with Sue and Toni, and we see them fairly regularly as they pass through areas where we are -- and vice versa. They recently bought a winter home in Arizona, and they'd have a spare bedroom for us. When we finished our seven-hour drive, we found an inviting home with hugs from friends, and it really helped. We were sad, of course, and it was good to be around some happy people.

It was also very good for our dog, Lacey. She seemed to be doing fine running around hotels and meeting people, but we were still a bit worried about her. Lacey's half-sister, Mollie, belonged to Sue and Toni. They are the best of friends and can play all day. Lacey had a great backyard to run around in, and lots of people to give her attention. It was the best thing for her. She figured out how to jump up on and then over the brick wall around their backyard and spent some unexpected time with the neighbors. Lacey will be Lacey!

It was also great to spend more time with family while we were there. Things were hectic, but we made sure to slow down and have wonderful dinners with Linda and dad.

We were going to temporarily rent a storage space for our things and for the boat, but the neighbor had a large and empty garage immediately next door. We rented that space from him and the move from the U-Haul was a relatively easy one. We were getting tired of moving our things around, and we still had moves ahead of us.

Are you sure about your insurance?

We knew we had good coverage for auto insurance. They'd been very supportive in the past, and a motorhome is a really big car. We expected them to come through on reimbursing us for that, and they did. We got back more than we'd expected in a big check from them, and we were happy with how that went.

We also knew we had a separate policy to cover the contents of the vehicle (motorhome) -- at least we thought we did. Normally, this is what is covered by homeowner's insurance, but we don't have a sticks-and-bricks home. We asked our insurance agent for that coverage when we bought the motorhome a year and a half before, but we never confirmed. Unfortunately, all we had was liability insurance. Nothing we lost was covered, but luckily our high-priced things were all recovered. It was a bummer.

About half of our hotel costs were covered. We had rental car coverage, and the agent recommended getting a big van or something from U-Haul to get our things, even though we had a car already. We got a U-Haul but didn't confirm it would be reimbursed. Unfortunately, the recommendation wasn't a good one so we were out the costs of the U-Haul, too.

The amount we were out wasn't as much as the additional amount we received for the "auto" part of the coverage, so we've moved on from that. But you can believe we have coverage, now. Check your insurance, everyone, and make sure you have the coverage you think you do!

A trip back to Texas

After we found out we weren't going to be reimbursed for our belongings, Margot and Toni decided to take an overnight road trip back to Van Horn, Texas where the motorhome still stood. They picked up some dinged and bent items we'd left and got the Sleep Number bed out of the coach with some effort. They also picked up our Swivelwheel trailer. It had a flat tire and a bent piece at a corner, and it was beat up a bit. But it would still function as a trailer, so they grabbed it.

We were surprised the trailer wasn't covered by insurance we had. Our intention was to buy a trailer to carry the car as well as our few things we can't fit in the basement of the motorhome, but it was good to have the Swivelwheel. It was how we'd carry our bikes and other things.

They came back to Arizona with a lot of random and filthy things, but we found some treasure in the trash. Time well spent.

Settling in

We were finally able to relax a bit. Our schedule had been pretty crazy. It had only been a week since the windstorm wrecked the motorhome, and we were already able to find a rhythm. But it was only temporary, so we started talking about what was next. We knew we wanted another motorhome, and we wanted another Newmar motorhome. It really survived the incident well, and we knew it would be one of the safer ones if something bad was to happen again.

But we're picky -- it's our home, after all. It seemed we wanted features that the rest of the general public doesn't, and that meant most of the motorhomes we'd find wouldn't be good matches for us. But we knew what we wanted, and fully expected to get the same model as our previous coach, a Dutch Star 4369.

So, did we find something? Use the buttons below to read the third and final part to this story.