Paying for RVing or traveling

Here's the problem. You (and 99% of us) put a lot of faith in the banking system. We make and save money and out in a bank or fund to keep safe. Most of the time it is safe. But let me throw a little scenario at you. We had over $15k in our checking account. We went to a music store to purchase a flute for our daughter for school. Price was just over $500. Pulled out my debit card to make the purchase. Denied. What? Try it again. Denied again. Figured there was something physically wrong with my card. Had my wife use hers (same account), denied. Tried again. Denied. WTF? Ended up using a credit card. Called the bank immediately. Was on hold for an operator for 20 minutes. She came on. I gave her my debit card number and she could not find the account. My heart sunk right then. Poverty $15k gone. She then goes on to tell me that there was probably a glitch in the system as they did some upgrading and to go into a bank. This was after 6pm. My bank (Wells Fargo) was already closed. And it was Friday night. We had plans for dinner and some other shopping. All that came to a sudden stop. I drove across a busy street to a WF ATM to try there. It worked. I took out as much cash as I could then.

That was a scary feeling. To know that you had a good bit of money in a place for safe keeping, but couldn't get access to it. We normally don't carry cash with us, but we started that day.