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Reality Bites, South Dakota Edition
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?
So Texas here we come. Yeeeeeee-Haaaaaaawwwwww!
Our Rig
After a day in Hersey, PA, at a large RV show, we now know what rig we are going to get. It’s the one everyone else at the show was hanging out in, and the one we went back to three times to check out. Spec-wise, it was one of our leading contenders going in, but seeing it sealed the deal. The floor plan is brand new this year and it blows everything else we’ve seen away. It doesn’t feel like a “camper” on the inside at all. It feels like a mini-apartment. Which is perfect, because that is exactly what it will be for us.
Reality Bites, Part II
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:
- Contract with mail forwarding service and get new address
- Fly to Sioux Falls, SD to get driver’s licenses
- Register to vote (must be done in person)
- Register vehicles in SD
- Get new auto insurance
- Get health insurance
- Find a storage facility were we can park the RV until we’re ready to go
- Buy an RV
- Get RV insurance
- Sell our car and buy one that can be towed
- 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?)
- Find a property management company to handle our condo while we’re on the road
- Find a tenant for said condo
- Find a storage facility for the furniture we’re keeping
- Sell or give away the junk we’re not
- Plan our trip
So who still thinks this is a good idea?
Reality Bites
The euphoria lasted a couple of weeks. Now the reality is setting in. We don’t have a clue what were doing. We’ve never owned an RV, we’ve never driven one, hell, we’ve never spent the night in one. And somehow we thought it would be a good idea to go live in one.
When we decided to do this, we didn’t know a motor home from a fifth-wheel from a travel trailer. Looking at the choices, makes, and models is all a little bit staggering. Having never done this before, how do we decide between what we need and what is just excess? If we make the wrong choice, it will be very expensive to fix, so we’re kind of stuck with it. It’s hard not feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.
But our challenges run even deeper than just picking out a rig. As it turns out, the fantasy of walking away from our life and actually walking away from our life are two completely different things. In the fantasy, we simply fill an RV with groceries and our cat and set off on merry adventures. In the real world, things are much more complicated. Until now I never thought about the concept of “residence,” probably because I never had to. My residence was wherever I lived. But what happens if you live nowhere? Or everywhere?
This may sound like semantics, but its not. It’s important. You need a driver’s license, you need insurance, you need a county in which to vote, you need someplace to get your mail, and if you enjoy your freedom, you need to pay taxes to someone. All of that requires a physical address . . . and we plan not to have one.
Luckily we’re not the first people to do this and a lot has changed since Steinbeck set off with Charley. Apparently you can get the equivalent of a P.O. box with a mail forwarding company that serves as your permanent fixed address. Not all states allow this so we’ll have to do some research to figure out the particulars. This is all going to be harder than we thought.
May fortune favor the foolish.
The Big Bang: Shannon’s Fault
Yes, it’s my fault. I’m the reason we’re now going to be living a nomadic lifestyle in a 300 sq. ft. home-on-wheels.
Over the years Brian has inspired his share of adventures—like the pre-dawn hot air balloon ride in the Napa Valley. I was scared and ended up loving it. He was psyched but ended up being bored, despite a near-crash with another balloon that took our landing spot and an extra hour in the air as the chase vehicle raced below us trying to find a place for the pilot to set us down.
Then there was our week-long excursion down the Colorado River, camping out each night and navigating some of the biggest whitewater in North America. Of the 28 people in our group, we were the only ones who had never been camping or rafting. I was more terrified of this “vacation” than I was of the hot air balloon ride. This time, we both loved it. It was quite possibly our best trip ever.
So there I was, perusing a message board on a freelance website last week. I read a member’s post about how she, her husband, and their young daughter are sailing around the world. I clicked over to her blog and saw a picture of her cat on the boat. And I had a true “light bulb moment.” (It was like a cartoon, and I could actually see the light bulb going on above my head.)
For years, Brian and I had talked about doing extended traveling, gallivanting around the world, but it had never occurred to me that we could take our cats with us. It was always a sticking point in our plans.
Sailing is well beyond our skill set, but what about…an RV? I brought it up to Brian that afternoon (he claims to have mentioned RVing a long time ago and that I dismissed the idea…hmmm), and by the time we polished off dinner and a bottle of wine it was decided. We’re hitting the road, with the felines coming along for the ride.
Having been negligent in the adventure-inspiring, it was time for me to up the ante.
Everywhere Once 