Lost posts...EDIT

Hello, how are you all? If i were to decide to come to the upper canada village in ottowa....would i be close enough to visit with you all? I spent some 1st cup of coffee time journaling this morning and then promptly lost it all....perhaps the different office program I am now using does not have an automatic timed 'save' function?  Live and learn as the saying goes.   Cindy made her first homemade butter this morning...about a month ago now as I was driving around, I spotted a local organic dairy farm.  Cindy and I went back with our 1 gallon glass jar and bought a gallon of fresh milk (like we used to do when I was a little girl in Maine)  She was so excited.  What a special way to share good food and the process of scouring in ones community for your groceries instead of just walking into a sterile, tho nicely decorated store to buy prepackaged, processed, everything!   Sarah visited this weekend - again so nice to connect with 'my peeps!'  (lol)  Whirled wind days... :)   Over this past weekend, a 2013 Winter RTR and Vannin buddy came to visit with me.  Yes, I am still in Upstate New York.  It seems that God wants me here a little longer, things just keep coming up - and incredible things at that.  But then I am not the only person who has these kinds of things happen.  Many people seem to understand about coincidences that aren't really coincidences. Anyway, as I was thinking over my upcoming travels, my son called to ask me a favor--to please have my brakes checked before I leave this area.  My son also has a 1994 Chevy G20 and recently needed to replace the brake systems master cylinder and wanted me to have mine checked as a matter of safety.  Good thing too, because I didn't need a master cylinder I needed rear brakes!  I am so glad that I had found a local mechanic shop that I feel is fair and reliable and I scheduled an appointment with John at Swift Automotive. He fit me into his schedule and Simply Van had to spend a few days away from 'home'!  I have been blessed to have my friend Cindy near by and we've been spending a lot of time together, so I had a place to stay.  John has a large storage garage behind the automotive shop and this month, his mother has been busy holding a garage sale many days.  They are cleaning up so that garage will be available for winter storage rental space for cars, boats, jet skis, travel trailers and RVs, as well as snow mobiles.  It was great visiting and getting more aquainted with thier family.  In fact, on the day that I picked up Simply Van, I even met John's dad who has been recovering from broken ribs (ouch).  John went out of his way to adjust the new brakes the day after, put some rainx on my windshield and called to checkup on how the van was doing.  I feel like I made a friend rather than just doing business.   After all the recent repairs to the van, I had been thinking it would be a good idea to add roadside assistance to my insurance policy.  Thinking that it may be a good idea to contact my current agency - Gieco- before calling AAA or Good Sam's, I made the call... after all the verification that I am me, and a pleasant, "Oh, Ms Lesa, its wonderful to speak with such a loyal customer, I see you have been with us, off and on since 1985!"  I ask my question - is road side assistance available to me and what would the cost be... Well, Ms Lesa, lets go over a few things... So he checks my current address and --- says, I see that your address is a mailing service in South Dakota.  (when did that start showing up in their computer systems?)...anyway, I told him that I live a Full Time RV lifestyle.  He said that he was sorry to hear that and that my policy would be canceled.  (what?!)  After asking a few more questions to clarify why I was being dropped, the 'really nice' Gieco guy tells me that he's not suppose to tell me that the cancelation process takes about 2 weeks. Wow. How generous.     So what does a Full-time Van-isher/dweller/kamper person like me do?  Go straight to Google - and all the online Vandweller, CheapRVLiving, Full-time RVer sites and forums and ask questions --- read up old insurance articles and posts.  Then armed with that information, I start making calls.  It is interesting to find that only 5 US Insurance Companies will insure Full-Time RVers. Those companies are Escapees-Bancor South, Good Sam's-National General, Progressive, Geico and Allstate.     Yes - Gieco is in that list....so what happened to me?  The Gieco RV lady I spoke with told me that they would be more than happy to insure me as a fulltimer, if I would simply sell my passenger van and get a Class B camper van instead.  Or they could insure me as a regular passenger van if I would get a home, like house or apartment, or if I bought a piece of land.   I fell through the cracks of their insurance system.  So I called Good Sam's only to be told the same thing.... As you can imagine, I was stressing out about then and wondering if I was ging to be able to find insurance or continue my current adventures or not.  Then I read a few more posts from forums and that didn't actually make me feel any better - because I realized that many people living similar to me, use Aunt XYZs address or they have a storage building or use their brother's address. I have had to become very independant, have had some bad experiences trusting others and it is best for me to use a mail service.  So back to the phone I go.  I call Progressive who gives me a quote - even after I tell them that "I live in my van"!  I can't hardly believe it - and being a careful person,, I ask for the quote to be sent via email as I consider my options to make a good decision.  Wow - then I contact Escapees company - and what a lovely (kinda cute actually) southern sounding man I spoke with.  He was so happy to share insurance stories and rv stories...He said that what I had found out so far was true and that I could not only get insurance and keep my lifestyle, but that he most likely would be able to get even Progressive to give me a better quote - at least lower the deductables and get road side assistance--- we will talk again tomorrow.  I thought for a while, that I might need to change the state that I have chosen for residency, and that may be true although for now, I should be able to have better insurance coverage and road side assistance.