April 9, 2023

For six-years I have enjoyed living my nomad lifestyle on my own terms, and the thought of returning to my past way of life; though rewarding, productive and profitable. It was financially draining, physically confining and time consuming. Further, I had a mortgage note, yearly increased property taxes, county taxes, state taxes and federal taxes to pay. As well as mowing and edging my lawn; cutting, pruning, and replanting hedges; repainting the interiors of my home and shoveling snow. These were the energy and financial drainers that made it easy for me to sell my home; rid myself of many important belongings and walk aways from my traditional lifestyle, which was how I was raised. However, I discovered living a lifestyle with minimum to no overhead expenses is appealing and doable. In fact, I love it!

I kept my most expensive belongings, collectables, office equipment and enough furniture to furniture a two-bedroom apartment if I had to shorten my nomad travelers due to illness or harsh weather conditions. I never expected to feel pressured to change my nomad lifestyle because of harsh weather conditions caused by climate change.

Meanwhile, for the last three years there has been an internal mental insistence; warning and directing me towards finding an apartment to move my belongings from my storage unit. No matter how many times I dismissed this insistence it returns often.

Annually, I return home to Sioux Falls. The purpose is annual checkup visits with my doctors, mammograms, and medication refills. As well as visit, chat and workout with my gym rat friends, and reconnect with other Sioux Falls Nomad travelers, who also returns to our local fairground camp area to homestead until it’s time to leave before the winter season begins, because we are all snowbirds. This year because of crazy weather conditions including tornadoes, hurricanes, snow, and wind storms, I returned home nine days later.

Meanwhile, for the last three years there has been an internal mental insistence; warning and directing me towards finding an apartment to move my belongings from my storage unit. No matter how many times I dismissed this insistence it returns often.

Annually, I return home to Sioux Falls. The purpose is annual checkup visits with my doctors, mammograms, and medication refills. As well as visit, chat and workout with my gym rat friends, and reconnect with other Sioux Falls Nomad travelers, who also returns to our local fairground camp area to homestead until it’s time to leave before the winter season begins, because we are all snowbirds. This year because of crazy weather conditions including tornadoes, hurricanes, snow, and wind storms, I returned home nine days later.

Instead of seeing the original camping residents in motorhomes and trailers. I saw a new scene, one similar to a twilight zone episode before dark. I saw an empty fairground covered by frozen snow piles and gopher holes in lawns inside and outside the fenced perimeter of the fairgrounds parking areas. The smell of gophers, dampness and mold was pronounced. The apprehension of my nine-month-old Shepherdadoodle puppy was obvious by his refusal to step on certain grass areas to potty. This is the worst effect of climate change for people that live his/her life as nomads. If weather conditions continues as it has from October 2022 to April 2023. Full-time No-Mad Motorhome Dwellers won’t have many places to call home. We will have to travel in caravans as clans members to ensure our survival, I said to myself.

The next morning, I reached out to the fairground’s camping coordinator to determine when the fairgrounds will open for returning camping residents. He confirmed South Dakota had a very harsh winter making it hard to remove snow piles, repair campground sewage-lines, and gopher ruined campground areas, he said.

Has any other fairground residents returned, or am I the first?

No, you’re not the first. Others have returned, who I have talked to as well. Once I explained why we won’t be opening until May, some returnees decided to return to Arizona, some went to the Red Barn, and to other cities, he replied.

Okay, I will do a few google searches to determine if I can found another nearby area to live until May, I said.

I found Big Sioux State Recreation Area Campgrounds in Brandon South Dakota which is 12.9 miles from my location. Upon speaking to a reservation specialist, who told me Big Sioux had spaces available to accommodate a 30-foot motorhome as well as amenities and the fee was  $305.00 for a fourteen day stay. I had no place else to live at this time, so I paid the required amount. Then drove the 17-minutes to Brandon,  found the Big Sioux Campground, located my space which had a small frozen snow pile. I unhooked my tow jeep from the rear of my motorhome and backed my motorhome over this pile into my space.

Once settled into my space, I drove around the campground in my jeep and discovered the dump-station was closed, the fresh water spicket was shut off, and the only available amenity was electricity which I could have lived without. I was beyond pissed!

My motorhome is self-contained. I have a generator and solar panel. The only thing I need is a dump station to dump my tanks, and a fresh water spicket to fill the side-water tank on my motorhome to flush my toilet, take showers, and prepare food. I have a large water jug which I refill as needed from fresh water spickets or stations to have drinking water. As well as fresh water to wash and prepare food when I am boondocking in the forest, deserts, canyons and on BLM or U.S. Army Corps of Engineer managed properties. Since I had ‘not stayed at either of the above-mentioned locations prior to arriving South Dakota I had no reason to refill this water jug.

After a week of not being able to dump my tanks, found a pay to dump station, and made regular trips to a nearby grocery store to buy jugs of water for cooking and drinking in Brandon, South Dakota. I wrote a review sharing my experiences and amount paid to stay at a campground without the services I needed based on false claims. I made a returned phone call to the booking office and discovered the male scheduling appointments for Brandon Campground was located in Florida. As a result, I wrote a review to call attention to this issue, so other motorhome dwellers won’t be defrauded. I forfeited my paid fee and returned to Sioux Falls; where I secured a full-hookup site containing a water spicket, sewage dump hookup, and electricity with additional amenities I did not need or use at Tower Campground which was okay.

While staying at both of the above-mentioned campgrounds my thoughts of finding a place to call home never ceased. Therefore, two weeks after settling at Towers I gave in to the constant prompts of finding an apartment and began a serious search for a two-bedroom, as well as a private garages. Because I can’t tow my pickup truck behind my motorhome without dropping its drive shaft, I usually store this vehicle in a public self-storage garage. When I returned home, I took the truck out and put the jeep in. Therefore, having a private storage garage at my apartment will alleviate the use and payment for a public garage.

Upon creating an apartment.com account and listing the type of apartment I was looking for. My cellphone was swamped by messages and videos of available apartments. I cancelled my account and briefly visited places I wouldn’t mind living for a brief period. Because this process was overwhelming, I had to remove a lot of personnel effects from the motorhome prior to dropping it at Camping World. A resident at the campground told me she had stayed at Penbrooke Apartments while having a lot of work done on her motorhome. It was okay, but I wouldn’t want to be a permanent resident there. Also, they do have private garages for residents which I needed to store stuff from my motorhome, the complex is not far from here, she replied. I need a garage and a two-bedroom apartment for office equipment. I’ll check them out. Thanks, I replied.

I drove to Penbrooke Apartments which was not far from Tower Campground. I really hated the crowded appearance of this complex. It as well as a similar associate complex  took up an entire block on both sides of the street. Vehicles were parked everywhere. Well, you need a garage, and they appear to have many on both sides of the street. It might not be as bad as it looks, also you are flexible. Further, this is only a temporary solution for you. It will also give you the opportunity to check your household effects up close and personal, I told myself.

I walked thru the apartment and decided it was okay, not like my motorhome or my previous home; but it might be okay for a brief time. I also looked at the private garage and decided to sign a lease agreement. This is when I saw all the crap they had as an addendum lease add-ons. However, I don’t call seeing the list of utilities which include owner fees being paid by residents. The greatest shocker for me was the requirement that all residents were required to  either via the complex or an outside provider a rental insurance policy in the amount of  $300.000 dollars on his/her apartment unit. Geez, I have owned three homes, and never had that much coverage on either. Why so much, do the owners expect residents to rebuild the entire complex if there’s a fire, I asked?

My agent laughed. No, they just want to make sure their property is covered if residents are callous and cause harm to their property, as well as that of other residents, she replied.

Two days later, I moved into this apartment. This is when I discovered some of my belongings and household effects were missing, damaged, chipped, as well as items in my 8-piece Vintage Tiara Glass and Dinnerware Set is missing, broken, and crushed which had to have occurred in 2021, when a customer at my storage unit had a fire in his unit.

During this time, the day after the fire, I was on my way back to Sioux Falls when I got a text regarding this matter from the facility owner. I pulled off the highway to respond to his text and shared my in-route location. He was at the facility and went with me to check my storage unit upon my arrival. When I opened the door to my unit, there was no soot, no smoke smell and no water indicating a fire had ever occurred or was fought anywhere near or on my side of the facility. My unit was located near the exit door on the opposite side of the firewall and storage facility.

Everything at that time was still in its original heavy-duty long-distance transport boxes. Well labeled and tagged; identifying what was inside every box. Furniture was still saran wrapped, and my unit was arranged so I could walk around to access all items, even those needed occasionally from my file cabinet, supply cabinet, and safe. At this time, I could send a stranger into my unit and tell them where to find all items, including those in boxes.

A few months later, I went to get something from my storage unit and discovered my unit empty. Everything was gone! In a panic I called the owner, who was swamped by calls from other storage customers discovering the same. During my conversation with the owner, I found out he was blind-sided by his insurance carry, who hired Intek Cleaning & Restoration without his knowledge. As a result, it is these people who are removing customers belongings from their units and transporting them to their warehouse for service so roofers can begin repairing the facilities damaged roof, he replied.

How can they do this without talking to me or having me sign a contract, I asked.

Edith, they are doing this to everyone. I can give you their telephone number and the name of the contact person, which he did. This turned out to be the biggest mess I have ever encountered in my life. I found the contact person to be evasive and a liar. I couldn’t get a response to the simplest questions: (1) When did you remove my belongings from my unit? (2) How could your company do this without authorization from me? and (3) When do you plan to return my belongings to my storage unit?

I was so irritated with these people; I didn’t return to check my unit until mid-October after total right knee surgery. Upon opening the door to my unit, I was pissed to find my cloth furniture (chairs and couch) were  unwrapped and sitting in front of the entrance door, and majority of stuff appeared to be shoveled into my unit with a bulldozer. I grabbed my cellphone, gave the contact person my name and said, I am at my storage unit now and just discovered the appearance of my unit; if you don’t send somebody to cleanup my unit, I will call the police and file a claim against you and your company!

Yes, four people arrived to clean up their original mess. They moved every easy to move item from my unit into the hallway of the facility. I had them open every box to identify every item inside, write it on labels and display it on the outside of every box. Then, rearrange these boxes against the left wall, boxes with mattress sets against back wall with bedroom and dresser and mirror in front of mattresses. Office desk, file cabinet, supply cabinet, and medium size book case against the right wall, etc.

I admit, I was so angry and in severe pain as I dealt with these people. Therefore, I don’t recall seeing my matching chest of dresses at that time. So, I was never sure if all of my belongings were ever returned to my unit. So, this move would give me the opportunity to check. Meanwhile there were things in my unit that did not belong to me. Once I called the leader of the group’s attention to these items, she had her workers remove and load them on their truck. 

A few weeks later I returned to my unit to retrieve my box of shoes and the portable ice machine for my swollen knee. My box of shoes were not in my unit. Upon making a phone call to the office, I was told to stop pass the Intek warehouse the following day. Upon arriving at the warehouse and banging on the door for a while. The door was opened, and I was escorted to a large laundry and work room. Where my box of shoes and a few other belongings were stacked. I retrieved my belongings and left.

Currently, I am overwhelmed by anger for Intek and its employees. These people turned my easy-going, laid-back lifestyle into a serious nightmare which didn’t have to occur, since there was no damage to my belongings because of the fire occurrence at my storage facility. All these people had to do was leave my belongings in their original boxes and saran wrappings and return them to my storage unit after the roof was repaired. The unauthorized removable of my and other storage unit customers was all about the $5,000.00 charge Intek planned to get from each customer, which I refused to pay.

A year later, after constant letters and phone calls from Intek which I ignored. Because, I knew I didn’t have to pay them anything, especially not $5,000.00, because they had nothing with my signature on it. Finally, they left a message on my cellphone, requesting that I can them from my desert location to discuss a happy medium settlement in order to close this account. I talked to them and offered $3,000 which was accepted. I sent a check for $3,000.00, end of story.

Meanwhile here it is three years later, I’ am still having to deal with Intek’s callus handling of my household effects, resulting in damage, broken and missing items. Now, I need to decide if I should take these folks to court before my time runs out. My spirit tells me to let it go. But my flesh tells me to kick their ass because they loss my daily 4-pc dinnerware set, cookware and utensils, chest of drawers that matches my bedroom suit, etc. And damaged expensive belongings such as my 8-pc Vintage Tiara Dinnerware Set (Edges Chipped on  5-plates), and my “100 Greatest Books Ever Written” Collectible Leather-Bound Books Accent by 22-Karat Gold Trim Pages. Some books were turned on their front edge rather than back spine or bottom edge. Front edge of a few books were damaged.

Currently, I am exhausted. I have functioned in overdrive ever since my belongings were delivered from my storage unit to my apartment. Again, I visited Intek warehouse looking for missing items. I found my black Tiara Vintage Wall Clock broken in half in a book with my name on it. The worker asked, “Do you want it?” What do you propose I do with a broken wall clock, I replied. I took a picture of the clock in the box, looked around for other belongings which I did not found. I finally said to the worker who was shadowing me as I looked around their warehouse for additional belongings. “Well, I hope the storage facility customer who got my belongings enjoy them and left the warehouse.”

Upon contacting my insurance company to discuss not finding missing items at the warehouse, as well as broken items found while unboxing glassware, I was told: “We can’t paid you for missing items. But you can hire a lawyer and sue Intek for all items not returned to you. However, you only have six years to do it. Starting from the time Intek took your belongings from your storage unit to when they were returned. Meanwhile, I will send you a damaged and broken items claim package. You will have to complete this package, provide as much information as possible regarding each item, and submit photos of all items you are claiming,” she said. I spent days setting up broken items to take photos for submission with claim forms and carrying empty moving boxes down 32-Steps to dumpsters every day. My entire body hurts. I am so over this!