Nov 03, 2019
You won’t believe what has happened now, plus some Mexico updates
In fact we still can’t believe what happened.
We decided to go to a movie last night as we needed to do something fun. We found a theatre with those lovely recliner seats that was showing the new Judy Garland movie. Suddenly a huge bang and our necks whipped back and forth. We got rear ended just 1/2 block from the theatre. Thank goodness our car is like a tank but we both have sore necks, and are stiff from the whiplash, etc. It was a young girl as in sweet 16 and she had only had her license for 3.5 months. From how she was acting it appears that she may have been texting. There were three lanes of vehicles all stopped for a red light, perhaps 8 – 12 cars ahead of us. Suddenly she drove into us. She admits she wasn’t paying attention and that it was her fault.
The damage is mostly to our bumper.
But it will have to come off, the frame will have to be checked and so on.
So the police came, information was exchanged and paper work was done. All the while I had a splitting headache and my neck ached. I also could not stop shivering. I was in shock. I stayed inside the car and called sweet 16’s insurance company as we had been told to make a claim. We were done about 90 minutes later. We headed back home. We had a late lunch with the anticipation of movie popcorn but once we got home we just sat there shell shocked.
Still love my new dishes. and yes I will have a glass of wine with lunch every now and then.
The GPS was making me dizzy. So many overpasses and off ramps.
Today I contacted my assigned US adjuster with my sweet 16’s insurance company via voicemail and email. We have a 7AM appointment with Cummins tomorrow and if everything is fine ( fingers crossed ) we are heading straight out of town to Lake Havasu. So if a US adjuster needs to see the Jeep they better do it ASAP in the morning. I explained that we are in transit from Canada to Mexico and won’t be back to Canada until April 1st so could he please call me first thing tomorrow. He is not working over the weekend but did email to say that he has assigned me to another adjuster and that I should contact her. I did and she is away on holidays 😯 From her voicemail I went to a fellow and then it was suggested by the initial adjuster I had that I call a supervisor who in fact is only returning from holidays tomorrow. So I spent another afternoon on the telephone dealing with all of this.
I also called ICBC ( our BC Canadian insurance company ) to file my insurance claim and she told me that I did not need to have our car checked by the US adjuster. She said go and have a nice holiday and we can deal with all of this in April. Of course we will have to have a phone conversation with whomever our Canadian adjuster will be and will need to send in our accident photos. Well that all sounds easy peasy. I am still leery of leaving Nevada before a local adjuster sees the Jeep. Does any one have any input on that?
Friday this truck pulling a long 5th wheel took the corner too wide.
He eventually got pulled out by another pick up truck using a simple chain.
How do you get those heavy bricks up there to hold the dish down?
We woke up yesterday to a new hole being dug right next to our RV. I guess the first pipe break was part of this one. We still have a big hole outside of our door as well as dirt and muddy water along the side of the RV. In the whole big picture of our lives right now, not a big deal.
Just before we left home Colin put a new smart TV into the RV. The old one was not smart. Colin had to create a border along the top and the bottom to fill those gaps. It was not easy to find a small smart TV to fit a specific space, but of course after much online research I did. I really have to get away from being online so much.
Yesterday he plugged in our sound system plus a few other things. That piece of wood acts as a brace so the TV stays put when we are driving. It is a permanent fix behind the TV and the hole it goes into is covered up.
We both spent yesterday getting things ready for the trip. Colin is putting on our Canada flag stickers on the RV and car windows. It does make a difference in how we are treated in Mexico by officials at the border and along the road. Colin even fixed the kitchen fantastic fan.
The RV park here is so busy that they are removing their storage sites and putting in more RV sites. They claim that business is booming. We certainly are seeing a good number of younger RVers here.
Today we went out and did our final grocery shop which is hard to do. We don’t know if we will be on our way tomorrow or ?? My Visa was fine the first time but declined the next two as was Colin’s. One was a small store and the other was a fast food place. More time on the phone this afternoon with Visa 🙄 At the fast food place they took the card and were tapping it but it would not take. Visa told me that when traveling away from Canada that we should always insert the card and use our pin number. Much safer.
Long time blog reader, Michael, who crossed into Mexico via Nogales, sent me this report yesterday “The roads are the best ever, best USA quality, and the bypass was easy tho the new surface a bit bumpy. Made great time but a line at K21. More later, moving on today.” He was referring to the new Hermosillo bypass and KM 21 where you get your paperwork.
Just now tonight, he sent me this report, “We are in El Mirador tonight. Roads again were best ever with a new bypass around Ciudad Obregón. Much easier but PRICEY! Road out to the park was in the worst shape ever but still good. A few big potholes to watch for and the right lane showing wear”.
Based on this I am beginning to wonder if we should drive straight to Navajoa the first night and stay at that large truck stop north of town. It is not the best of locations 😥 Considering we don’t have a generator nor batteries it would be nice to only stop the one night before arriving on the Isla. Any thoughts?
I also received an email today from Shaw Mazatlan and they confirmed to me that our current satellite equipment will get us Shaw programming but not all the channels. A direct copy/paste from the email “You get here tv from F1, and F2 satellites those broadcast the major part of the channels from Shaw. G1 satellite carries the local cities channels from Shaw”.
Al, another long time blog reader, sent me this link about Shaw, it is most interesting. At the bottom of page one there is a list of the channels that you can get and those that you can’t. The next two pages also have some interesting discussing about the life of the current two satellites that we are using. Once those are gone so will our Shaw TV. https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29952599/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1.cfm
I think that about covers everything for tonight. I am worn out, you might say frazzled. Sorry if this post appears to be all over the place. Tomorrow is a huge day for us. Some fingers crossed would be wonderful.
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Fingers crossed. I was pretty frazzled just reading this too. This has been a most trying trip for sure. Just keep saying, “We WILL get to the Isla, we WILL!” No more drama please.
My new mantra is just that ” we will get to the Isla with no more issues nor drama”.
You guys just can’t win! But maybe that is it and everything will go perfectly tomorrow. Sending all kinds of positive vibes your way.
Thanks for those positive thoughts. We hope that this is our last wrinkle on this trip.
I just had my car fixed from accident in US. No more appraiser. Just take it to their approved auto repair place and they handle it all. If you have approval to wait until April, all good. Cross that problem off your list.
Thanks for the info Sally. None of the fur have called me yet this morning.
You just can’t seem to win this year. Last year’s RVing disasters were a deciding factor for our house purchase but….do we miss the RV….you bet! It all goes away if you can just make it to the Isla.
Colin did mention last night that perhaps we should just start eating on the Isla and just drive down. We will see how today plays out.
ICBC will fight on your behalf with the American insurance company and will fix your car. Just make sure to keep in touch with that claims adjuster (document date spoke/what was said-they record their calls fyi) Well crap. OK, from here on out smooth sailing!!!!!!
Thanks. Been sitting at Cummins for 3 hours with no news yet.
Oh My, if you did not have bad luck you would have no luck at all Hope yogurt things straightened out and can carry on safety down road.
We really appreciate your support George.
Sorry to hear about your adventure in Las Vegas. Been there done that with Insurance Companies. Our 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland was stolen from our parking spot at our condo. The tracking system we had on it showed to ended up in Tijuana BC Mexico. So if you see a Velvet Red Pearl JGC with California Handicapped Lic. Plates on it just wave at it. LOL
We dealt with insurance adjusters and it seemed like they thought we arranged for some body to take our JGC. We replaced it with a Black JGC.
Hope things get better for you have a safe trip.
OMG. Really. Wow. So very sorry that happened to you. Lovely to hear from you. Thanks for following the blog.
Contessa,
Sorry to hear about the accident. Cell phones and driving are a terrible combination.
FYI, I hesitate to say too much because insurance is regulated on the state level in the US and I have no experience with Nevada, but I can’t ever recall having direct contact with an insurance provider other than my own. I was always advised, both at work and in personal claims, to make clear (to anyone seeking information) that my insurance rep was the single point of contact for any info regarding the claim. It is an adversarial system, and you would not want to risk giving information to the adversary that you have not also shared with your advocate. Your insurance provider may have different instructions, but I would have no hesitancy about documenting and then following their advice about how much contact to have with sweet 16’s insurance.
Frankly, the damage to your jeep is the least of it. A US chiropractor could run charges up to several times the value of the Jeep. “Sweet 16’s Insurance Carrier” should be delighted that you will be completing your holiday outside of the US.
Again safe travels and see you soon.
Thank yo for you input. Appreciate it. Yes if we were staying in the US we would likely go see a chiropractor or two. I can hardly wait to get to El Velero and have a good ( hopefully ) margarita.
WOW
What have you done to the God’s to be so unlucky!
Hope your luck changes for the best.
Take care and let us know how things evolve
Hugs
Pierre and Diane
No idea what we did but after 22 years of RVing I guess it is our turn to be hit hard.
Hi Colin and Contessa…this certainly is not something that you needed!
I was in an accident in Arizona a few years ago and ICBC will go to bat for you, they definitely want the US insurance company to pay.
Rods sister was driving so she was in regular contact with both the insurance companies. Continue to call them both seems to be key because I think the US company was dragging its feet.
Sending you positive vibes for smooth sailing to the Isla!
Love and light…Carol
So wonderful to hear from you. Really appreciate you input and support. Only 6 more sleeps – I hope!!
Hello sorry to hear about your Jeep.
My advice is take it to the nearest authorized Jeep dealer get an estimate. Adjuster or no adjuster insurance will honor the estimate.
Chuck
Thank you for this input. We will try and get that done while here in Lake Havasu. This trip is turning into a nightmare.
Oh, good grief! What a nightmare! I have been rear-ended before, and I know how painful that is. I am so very sorry! Like you said, though, good thing the car is tough! Only 16. ugh! That’s gonna cost her parents dearly on insurance!
This trip is turning into a nightmare. Only 6 more sleeps if we make it. Going to try and arrange to have the generator removed as we drive into town on Nov. 11th. That way we don’t have to break camp to remove it. Erik still things he can repair it.
Thank for that lovely reminder of the shrimp burgers at Tony’s. Twenty four hours from now we will know the que pasa of it all. Fortunately with the time change last night we won’t have to be driving in the dark tomorrow. Our appointment with Cummins is at 7AM. We will be driving separately and I don’t like driving in the dark, mostly as I never do it any more.
Safe travels and hugs to Laura.