Even if you no longer live in a traditional home, you still need some type of ‘permanent’ address. Motorhomes need to be registered and insured; you’ll want to be registered to vote someplace and some State out there is still going to want the bulk of your income tax dollars. Many full-time RVers choose their legal domicile based on the state’s tax burden. Texas, South Dakota, and Florida are very popular and there are organizations out there who offer services to set someone up as a ‘resident’ of a particular state. My wife DiAnne and I are exploring a land purchase so we may have a permanent Arizona address after the first of the year. For now, Di and I are borrowing one of the kids’ addresses as ours. Di’s daughter, Raechel separates our mail from hers, weeds out the obvious junk, puts what remains in a USPS Priority envelope and mails it to us. But, where?

USPS General Delivery service allows persons with a valid ID to pick up held mail for up to 30 days at any Post Office. Di and I knew a couple of weeks in advance that we would be here in Trinidad, CO from October 25^th through November 1^st so we asked Raechel to send our collected mail to:

David Zill
General Delivery
Trinidad, CO 81082

There are packages, too that you’ll want delivered to you while traveling. In a previous blog I spoke about using Amazon. I’m an Amazon Prime member which entitles me to free, 2-day delivery. Amazon is pretty good about getting packages to you quickly, but you’ll still want to leave a day or two to spare. Delays will happen. The Post Office will hold your packages for you for 30-days, so best to plan ahead and order early. There is one problem, however associated with Amazon. One can not explicitly specify the delivery method during Amazon’s check out process and if your order (or a part of your order) gets shipped via FedEx or USPS as the carrier that package will not be able to be delivered via ‘General Delivery. There is however a workaround by including ‘P.O. Box’ in Amazon’s first address line like this:

David Zill
P.O. Box
General Delivery
Trinidad, CO 81082

Amazon’s automated system doesn’t seem to understand ‘General Delivery’ but it does recognize the phrase ‘P.O. Box’ and flags any items in your order that can’t be delivered to a USPS Post Office.

I put together an Amazon order last week that included an under-sink water filter replacement cartridge, a replacement AM/FM antenna and a King Jack HDTV over-the-air RV antenna. All of the items were in the Amazon shopping cart, but when I went to check out, the Amazon system flagged the King Jack antenna as being unable to ship to the address I provided (a P.O. Box). I removed the TV antenna from the cart, checked the estimated delivery dates of the remaining items and completed the order.

But I still wanted the TV antenna. There are a few options to get things that can’t go to the post office. If one knows the shipper (FedEx or UPS) you can arrange to have it sent to one of their retail shipping stores. But remember, Amazon does not allow you to choose a shipper. Some bloggers on this topic suggest shipping directly to the campground’s address. That might work but you’d want to check with the campground first. You’ll also need a plan if you leave the campground before the item arrives.  I chose instead to shop for my TV antenna at a different online retail giant.

Walmart.com doesn’t yet have the vast inventory of items that Amazon carries, but they have a huge network of pickup locations around the country in their brick-and-mortar retail stores. I ordered the King Jack HDTV from them and it should be in the Trinidad, Colorado Walmart store before DiAnne and I leave the area. If for some reason the parcel gets delayed I can simply cancel the order or redirect it to another Walmart location.

Amazon and Walmart.com are fantastic resources for the traveler. Amazon’s prices are typically a bit lower than Walmart.com, but that wasn’t the case with the HDTV antenna. Walmart’s price was a tad lower. By the way, If you haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime (about $100 annually), I’d recommend it. The free 2-day shipping is great for life on the road. Additionally, Amazon Prime comes with a boat load of free online movies, videos, TV programming and Kindle books. In fact, there was so much good TV/video content that I cancelled my Netflix subscription (about $110 annually).

So far, so good! Last Friday I received the first of the general delivery orders; the 100 count box of Maude’s Tall, Dark and Handsome Coffee Pods for the Keurig coffee maker. Today I received a screen door handle for the motorhome and one other item that I ordered from Amazon. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I should receive the remaining Amazon items and the mail package from Raechel. Wednesday, Walmart should have my TV antenna ready for pickup. Wish me luck; I leave this campground on Thursday!