There is Mail!!

“So how do you guys get your mail?”

That's a common question so let me explain.

First do we actually need to get mail?

No, in a perfect world we could switch everything to electronic delivery. Bank statements, credit card statements that kind of thing is easy to switch. Just go to their website and in preferences select electronic statements.

How about magazines etc?

Well we get some of them electronically too but we canceled all our subscriptions to regular magazines because we really didn't read them.

What about junk mail?

We don't get that much because we use a mail forwarding service and they throw it away before we even see it.

A mail forwarding service? How does that work?

We use https://www.escapees.com/ they have a big mail facility at their Livingston TX headquarters. We use our mailbox details as our address for everything. They have a big bag with our mailbox number they they drop anything for us into, then they send us an e-mail telling us they have mail for us. When we want it delivering we call them and they put it all in a big envelope and mail that to us.

How do they know where to send it if you are traveling so much?

We figure out where we will be in about 5 days. Based on that we find find campgrounds in the area and call them to find one that will accept mail for people staying there. We make a reservation for a couple of nights starting 5 days from when we call and get their mailing address. Then we call the escapees and give them the details.

What if they won't accept mail?

When we get in that position (which is rare) we ask them if there is a main post office nearby and we look up if that Post Office accepts general delivery mail. If they do we call Escapees and ask them to send the mail to “General Delivery, Notown, 11111, Somestate”. That Post Office will get the mail and hold it up to 30 days. When we get there they ask to see our ID and give us the envelope.

That sounds pretty easy

And we improved things a little by paying extra each month for them to scan the outside of the envelopes. That way we can usually tell if it's something that needs attention straight away like taxes or medicare. If not we'll let the stuff pile up until we feel like getting it sent. We generally don't get it done more than once a month if that. When we hole up for the winter the service knows the address and when we call they just say “Still in Casa Grande? And they send it. The park we stay the winter at has a mail room and we have a box there that they put our stuff in, together with any park generated mail and some local fliers.

Last year we spent 4 months in Europe and we even had them send our mail to us at our daughters house in England once.

We also us the Escapees address as our legal “Domicile”, which means our legal residency, we register our vehicles there and pay our taxes based on being resident of that state. 

Everyone who uses the Escapees has a mailing address on Rainbow Drive and occasionally we pull into a campground, fill out the form and the desk person will say “That's amazing another couple just checked in and they live on your street too!!” Once the other couple were just getting ready to leave the office as she said that and all of us started laughing, We turned to them and said “We're the house on the end with the red roof” and we all started howling laughing again. The desk lady was totally confused!!

Which is why when we get asked “Oh you live in Texas!” we say “Well kind of” or most of the time “Well we don't live anywhere anymore” which always starts the conversation off that leads to the question “So how do you get your mail??