Dang RV

Time to settle down for a few weeks and recover from the cold I got in Big Cypress. I headed for the Wauchula SKP Resort owned by my Escapees camping club. The rates are cheap, amenities great, and people are always very friendly in Escapee parks. I love staying in them. It is also in the heart of Florida’s orange grove country.

The sites are level and provide cement patios as well as full utilities and wide paved roads. The entrance is easy to spot, very wide, and the 2 lane 60 MPH road opens up with a very long left turn lane to make it easy to slow down with a large RV to turn. The pool is heated and well used as is the clubhouse and the bike racks. The laundry room is very clean and inexpensive. WIFI is excellent all  through the park! They have local brochures available.  Super Walmart is nearby as well as plenty of restaurants. It was great to get back to a clubhouse with puzzles again. I have gotten my jollies with several puzzles since arriving.

Since I planned to be staying a while, I had some fun putting out some of my trailer decorations. I even had time to wash the Maine mud off the front and I washed the windows with my new collapsible bucket. The collapsible buckets are great! They do work and store neatly out of the way in their own pouch. Did some other annual maintenance too.

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Had to head farther south to get warm so I went to Bushnell, Florida off I75 to the Sumter Oaks RV Park which is an Escapees owned rv park. Escapees is a camping group I belong to out of Texas for those who don’t know. They own some of their own parks where they offer inexpensive camping and they are partnered with numerous other RV parks to save 15% on their regular nightly camping fees.

First thing you notice here is there are no reservations accepted. You have to go for it and hope there is an open spot when you get here. Smart Escapees call before they head out to see if they have any chance at all of getting in as they are always pretty close to capacity. If they don’t have an opening, not to worry as they do have very cheap overnight dry-camping available and there are bunches of campgrounds in the area including one just down the road.

After signing in, you don’t pay up front like other parks. You pay when you leave or the end of the month, whichever comes first. There is an extra charge for electricity which keeps everyone conservation conscious. Before you leave the office, they may offer a hug. Hugging is an old tradition among Escapees.

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After a month in Osburn, Idaho, it was time to hit the road again. Pulled out Saturday, June 9th.

New backup camera worked very very well to hitch up. Definitely would be easier if the front of the trailer hitch wasn’t black so I will be painting or taping it yellow. Lining up dead on center sure was easy though.

New cat travel area in my GMC Yukon worked quite well with hanging see-through security curtain to keep her out of the front area. She was free to roam and had water, food, and a litter box which she did use. That area also has it’s own air conditioning zone and controls. She enjoyed looking out the windows. Of course, she still chose to whine quite a bit but I noticed she took naps during the long drive as well this time which was nice for me. She did not try to breech the curtain so I think this is going to work for the long haul.

We hit tons of contruction going on just over the Idaho-Montana border. Several different zones of it for miles which kept narrowing down the road and shoving us over onto the other side of the highway while they worked on ours. Still the drive through Montana was quite lovely. The curves near the border were a little rough with the trailer not quite tracking behind the car but once we got out on the flat straights, maintaining 65mph was easy with no sway and cruise control.

I crossed the Continental Divide a huge sign on top of a mountain announced. Woohoo! That made me glow. My Yukon seemed to be pretty proud of itself too.

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If you are going to be a full-time RVer, this is a question you will have to answer sooner or later. As much as we would like to be gypsies and say our home is where our rig is, the realities of life, laws, insurance, taxes, etc. demand that we declare a particular address as our home. How you choose what state and address depends on a lot of different things and does involve state laws so what anyone tells you to do should be well investigated and should take your own specific situation into account. Seeing a lawyer wouldn’t hurt either.

If you are getting a pension from a job, be aware that changing your state of residence may have no affect on paying taxes on it. Also, if you plan to spend the bulk of your time in one state, you should check their residency and vehicle laws. They may be able to claim you as a resident and that may very well be OK by you if you don’t travel a lot. Each state has their own definition of what makes you a resident so be careful and know the law. Every state has their laws posted on their site on the Internet so Google away.

Most full-timers choose from 3 particular states to reside in; Texas, Florida, and South Dakota. Why those states out of so many others? Because those 3 have no state income tax. Why not Washington state which has no income tax? Because the other 3 have no income tax, no state inheritance tax, no personal property tax, reasonable sales taxes, low insurance rates, low vehicle registration fees, you can become a resident by mail (car tags, mailing services, *voting) and slight differences between them that will make at least one of them right for you.

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