What am I doing in South Dakota?
Some of you will know, but for those of you who are not into the full time RV lifestyle I will illiterate. Most states are not full time friendly. You have to provide things like proof of utilities in your name to get a drivers license or vote.
There are 3 states that are generally considered full time friendly. Florida, Texas and South Dakota. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and I recommend you research this before you make the decision to go full time. You need to familiarize yourself with terms like residency vs domicile. There’s plenty of information on this out there on the internets, as a friend of mine call it.
You have to figure out which state works best for you and your situation. Florida would have been my first choice and I’m not opposed to buying property to park the RV as a home base there, buttttt….. My company doesn’t have the proper relationship for me to be remote and work from Florida. Bummer.
So that basically left me with Texas and South Dakota. Texas requires that you retake your written and driving tests, possibly including a driving test with your rig, to get a drivers license. Texas also requires a yearly vehicle inspection. Meaning a trip to Texas every year. I may not want to make detour or hundreds of miles every year. Now the advantages are they let you use a personal mailbox for you address and you can vote and there is no state income tax.
South Dakota is by far the most full time traveler friendly state. There state websites all have full time sections explaining the rules that apply. Everyone I met in South Dakota were familiar with people doing what I’m doing and actually helped me avoid issues in a case or too. South Dakota has no state or inheritance tax, You only need to spend one night every five years within 12 months of renewing your drivers license. You show a receipt from an hotel or rv park and you get you license renewed. Tags can be renewed by mail. They did pass a law making voting more difficult last year but it was challenged in court and they lost. So my understanding is that I will be able to vote.
I was able to get my drivers license, tags and a new insurance agent in a single morning. I had arranged my PMB (Personal Mailbox) through my existing mail forwarding service weeks ago. One of the important things about establishing domicile is also establishing roots. So I will also establish a local attorney, bank branch and maybe even primary care doctor but I didn’t have time to do that on this trip and I can probably do all of that remotely.
I managed to visit the Falls, Downtown, and a few breweries.
What was required?
I only needed a PMB, copy of the receipt where I purchased the PMB, my existing drivers license, receipt proving I spent the night in South Dakota in the last 12 months and my social security card. That’s it. You will have to sign an affidavit that you’re a full time traveler. The web site states that it has to be notarized. Don’t worry about this. They will give you the affidavit at the DMV and allow you to sign it in front of the DMV agent.
Note, it has to be a PMB and not a virtual mailbox. I use MyTraveling Mailbox. It is by far the most affordable PMB with the most scans and features. They have a physical location in Sioux Falls that offers PMB’s and you still have all the online, mail scanning, fax and mail forwarding features. One other note, be sure to use your South Dakota address when booking your hotel. According the the nice lady behind the counter who printed my receipt, the DMV will hassle you if your hotel/campground receipt doesn’t show your home address as one for South Dakota.
To get my tags all I needed was my titles to the truck and camper, my South Dakota drivers license, and a filled out application. Now there is a note on this also. If your vehicle is financed you need to get the fax number to the title transfer department at your bank and call the county treasurer with the number several weeks prior to visiting the treasurers office. They will request your current title from the bank and replace it with one from South Dakota.
That was it! Super easy! If you plan ahead you can have a drivers license and tags in a single morning or afternoon. So with that being said. You are going to see tons of services that offer services, for a fee, to do this for you. Don’t do it! It’s so easy it will just be a waste of money.
One side note. I left Pensacola and it was 76 degrees and sunny, The high in Sioux Falls…. 29 degrees. Be sure you prepare appropriately.
Why was it Hell?
If this was so easy why was it hell? Pretty simple. One bad decision can set off a series of events that build on each other. For me it was getting to the airport too late on Sunday. I was in Pensacola, an hour from Foley, 3 hours before my flight and decided that was too early and I needed to kill an hour at least. I got to the airport an hour and a half before my flight. Security was struggling.
I made it to the gate 2 minutes after they closed the plane door. No they don’t open them back up and the adventure began. Rebooking time. Now I had two options, go to Dallas later that night or fly out at 7am the next morning. Both had the same flight from Dallas to South Dakota and would get me there by noon Monday instead of Sunday night.
I choose to stay at the airport for several hours and fly to Dallas that night so each flight would be a couple of hours with a night of sleep in between. Until…..
After an hour and a half they announced the plane was having mechanical issues and would have to be assessed once on the ground. They would rebook us if needed once they knew. So I decided to be proactive and rebook right away to the 7am Monday flight out of Pensacola. I go to the desk, rebook and the guy prints me a new boarding pass. I go to find food, a brewery and hotel.
Next morning my app prompts me to check-in to my flight. My Dallas to Sioux Falls flight. Nothing for my Pensacola to Dallas flight. So 5 am I’m off to the airport, breeze through security and go straight to the gate counter and ask about the missing check-in. The girl behind the counter says, that’s because you are not on this flight. They look and the guy changed my itinerary but didn’t change my flights. Great, can you get me on the flight? I ask. No, it’s full.
A few curse words later, not directed at the nice ladies behind the counter, but at the imbecile from the night before. So what are my options? I ask. It was a flight that left in the afternoon, hours from now and went to Charlotte, Chicago and then Sioux Falls. 11 hours of travel arriving at almost midnight. My return flight home was scheduled to be at 4:30 am the next morning. Not exactly conducive to visiting government offices.
Luckily, after exploring my options to change my return trip I went back and the other nice lady held the trip from hell for me while putting me on standby for the flight I was supposed to be on. Seven minutes later she brought me a boarding pass and I was off to South Dakota in a few more.
So what else could possibly go wrong. Dallas had a bad storm and they directed us out over the gulf a 20 minute delay, Then we had to circle a few times. So we are late landing and it’s a sprint to the next gate. The plane started boarding while I was walking off the current plane. I made it as they called my group. Whew!
Sitting on the plane, just a few hours from my destination, the lights go out. I hear impact wrenches. More wrenches. Then they announce that there’s a problem and they have to restart the engines. I’m starting to worry if I should be flying the way things are going. We do take off eventually and the pilot made up the time in flight. This was my first snow landing.
I made one other bad decision which cost me an extra night. But the time in Sioux Falls was great with no mishaps. Enter the return trip. I started to not get a hotel room because I had to be at the airport so early. But thankfully I did. I woke at 1:45 am. I was at the airport by 2:30 am for my flight that boarded at 4:34 am. The airport was closed. Luckily I didn’t forgo the hotel room and there were heated entry foyers with seats where I waited. At 3 am the doors opened but security was closed. Security opened at 3:40 ish. Made the flight with no problem. We did have to de-ice the wings, another first for me.
Flying into Atlanta this time. Of course we end up circling and we are about 40 minutes late landing and disembarking. About a third of the people on my plane’s next flight was already boarding and I’m sure they missed the flight. Mine was only one concourse away and I made it in time. The next flight was 20 minutes late boarding because the flight crew had not shown up. Then we sat on the plane for 45 minutes before we started moving. We took off at about the time I was supposed to be landing in Pensacola. Fun, Fun!
Finally make it back to Pensacola, just an hour drive back to my home on wheels. I grab an nice lunch outdoors in the sun and drive back to Foley. Tired and exhausted to find the folks I left my camper keys with were gone on a boat ride. Again my fault because in my tiredness and rushing to gates I forgot to text and ask them to leave my key somewhere if they left.
Well, I spent a nice 3.5 hours sleeping in a lounger around the pool. No ideal but not bad either. So there’s my travel hell story but in the end. The mission was accomplished.
What’s next?
I did a small brewery tour in Sioux Falls so that post is coming soon. I’m setting up and testing Starlink in prep for my trip west and installing my tire pressure monitor. Im only days from leaving to go west so I’ll have new adventures, breweries and more weekly. So stay tuned.
- Campgrounds, Curveballs, and Cold Beers
This summer was supposed to be spent in the great state of Wyoming, checking off some more national parks. The President and Mr. Musk had different plans. Due to the federal cuts, the national park scene has a lot of uncertainty. - Chateau Le Coeur
Just a short ways off of I-10 you will find a winery named Chateau Le Coeur. The owners moved to northern Florida from the Great Northwest. They have wineries and vineyards in Washington and Oregon. They have an interesting story they tell about starting the winery. - Sunday Morning Musings Ep. #6
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot - WildEdge Brewing Collective
The food was delicious, at least the chicken salad sandwich, was very, very good. The locals were friendly and as I often do I spent a few beers in bar side communion with them. I am a little bummed that I did not pick up any packaged beer or swag from here.