Another day, the last package!

We decided to stay in Seaside for another few days in hopes that the UPS package might arrive... but, I had also communicated with the sender of the UPS package and asked if they could have it sent to the UPS vendor ("The Shippin' Shack") a bit further down the road in Florence, OR (we plan to be there by Thursday next week). That was the vendor that would charge us $3 for receiving the package.

This morning, I checked the status on the UPS site again:

Oh, wow - it must have left Commerce City - it got to Portland, OR overnight, and to Warrenton, OR, just about 15 miles away. And - they had updated to status to indicate that they would not delivery it to a PO box (I guess that's the same message for "General Delivery"). They evidently had not yet gotten an updated shipping address from the sender, so I tried calling them - once I put my tracking number in, their automated system realized that they wanted to get in touch with me, so they collected my phone number for someone to call me back.

Within a few minutes, a nice lady from UPS called me back and I agreed to pick up the package at the UPS Customer Center that is at the Astoria airport (I guess it is in Warrenton, OR). No extra charges, just a little drive (15 miles) to get to the location... but then we were in Astoria and really enjoyed our day there - more on that later!

Just to complete the shipping part of the story - I checked with some other RVers on what they do - 

• There was a recommendation that, when using Amazon, you indicate "PO Box General Delivery" as the text "PO Box" causes Amazon to select USPS as the shipper. 
• Other folks indicated that they change the delivery location based on which shipper gets chosen; I am not certain how well that will work as UPS indicates that they will only allow me to change the address after an unsuccessful delivery attempt is made; if I knew that they would always have this "Your package cannot be delivered to a PO box" come up, I guess I could count on that as being the "unsuccessful delivery attempt". 
• I was also told that UPS and FedEx will deliver to your site in the campground, even when entrance is gated (as most Thousand Trails are); as if to prove that, yesterday a FedEx truck drove in past the front of Miss Doozie delivering to someone else here at the campground. 
• Trying to perform due diligence, I did call the next two campgrounds where we are scheduled to stay, and neither of them would accept packages for those staying at the campground (both are Thousand Trails). Some RVers recommended getting on the good side of the rangers with baked goods or just "chatting them up" to get them to accept a package for me.
• The campground in Florence, OR, recommended The Shippin' Shack so that was good confirmation that it would be a good option. 
• Also, other RVers recommended using "ship to store" at Walmart instead of using their free shipping to where I am... I think I will probably use that in the future even though I really don't like having to use the package service at Walmart - my experience is that that part of the store is really poorly run - they know your package is there but they have absolutely no idea where it might be... 
• Finally, there's always the "phone a friend" - have things shipped to a friend or relative's house who is a little ways further down the road.... my relatives claim they now know when I'm on my way to their area because packages start coming that are addressed to me! I love my family!!! And not just because they have fixed addresses!!!!

So, package delivery is completed for now. I was realizing that it has been a few weeks since we got mail, but I think I'm going to let it go for another week or more... I can't deal with more packages at this time!!!