The good news is that we’re going to be Longhorns after all.  The bad news is that we already bought non-refundable tickets to Omaha in November; planning to do the short-ish drive to Sioux Falls so we can get shiny new drivers licenses.

Why are we deep sixing SD (aside from my penchant for leather chaps)?  Health insurance.  We’re changing plans because of our bloody-awful health insurance system.  On a hunch I started calling some insurance brokers in SD to ask about using the mail forwarding address as the basis for insurance in the state.  All of them told me the exact same thing, that I need proof of physical residence to qualify for health insurance.  Are you freaking kidding me?  We’re a couple of healthy 38 year olds and we can’t buy health insurance unless we also buy or rent a house in the state?  Go kill yourself!

So Texas here we come.  Yeeeeeee-Haaaaaaawwwwww!

After countless hours of research, we’ve settled on South Dakota as our future state of domicile.  We narrowed the list of potential contenders down to Texas and S.D.  South Dakota won out because it is a bit easier to set up and maintain and looks like it will cost us a bit less for things like insurance.  I have to say the S.D. choice is a little bit of a disappointment.  Being a Longhorn just seems so much cooler.  I already had a Stetson and leather chaps picked out, but seeing as how this is a family oriented blog, we’ll just leave it at that.

So now the fun starts.  To get an idea of what we’re up against, here is an abbreviated version of our to-do list:

1. Contract with mail forwarding service and get new address
2. Fly to Sioux Falls, SD to get driver’s licenses
3. Register to vote (must be done in person)
4. Register vehicles in SD
5. Get new auto insurance
6. Get health insurance
7. Find a storage facility were we can park the RV until we’re ready to go
8. Buy an RV
9. Get RV insurance
10. Sell our car and buy one that can be towed
11. Outfit the car and RV for towing (towbar, base plates, wiring, auxiliary braking system . . .  do you see that everything is more complicated than it seems?)
12. Find a property management company to handle our condo while we’re on the road
13. Find a tenant for said condo
14. Find a storage facility for the furniture we’re keeping
15. Sell or give away the junk we’re not
16. Plan our trip

So who still thinks this is a good idea?