Had enough of the snow and cold?  Tired of winter driving?  Maybe it's time to pack up the RV and head due South.  You could be in warmer temperatures in no time.

I’ve lived most of my life in northern Minnesota.  To say I know all about long cold winters is an obvious understatement. 

A number of years ago, my wife and I reached the point of “Enough Already". So we packed up the RV, hit the road, and headed South. 

We learned a few things along the way that may be helpful if you're brand new to the idea of getting out of the snowbelt during the winter months.

Full time RVers have many advantages over the house-bound population.  Not only do they get to travel and enjoy new vistas, meet interesting people, and relish new experiences, they can also choose exactly where they want to declare home!

However, our country’s legal system was established around the premise that people are stationary in their places of residence. 

Next to your social security number and drivers license, the most required piece of information that all levels of authority and government officials want is your physical address.

Enter the full time RVer.  All you want is the freedom to go your own way, as financially prudent as possible. Of course, stretching your income is also important.  With today’s hard economic times, getting the biggest bang for your buck is mandatory. 

To that end, it’s only common sense that you would try to find a state that has its taxation system set up to your advantage.

My wife and I made the decision to hit the road as full time RVers with little more preparation than a few years worth of subscriptions to Trailer Life magazine.

We sold the house, the car, and a lot of junk. Then, we packed the rest into a small motorhome and thought we were ready. 

Well, we made some mistakes along the way. Hopefully the following tips will help you avoid some of the pitfalls that we fell victim to during our first year of fulltime RVing -- some of which can break the bank!

On Wednesday we were on the road early, leaving Dalhart, Texas around 8:30 a.m.

On the western edge of town, we passed by what must have the biggest cow pen in the world, at least it was the biggest one I have ever seen.

There were cows as far as we could see -- thousands of them. I have since found out that this was a feed lot, where the cows are held to be fed. I have never seen anything like this before. It was too foggy to get a good picture.

We saw lots more interesting things along the way from Texas to New Mexico...

We left Wichita, Kansas yesterday morning headed for our summer job at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We headed out US 54 West, and stayed on that road all day. 

I don’t know what exactly I expected Kansas to be like, I found that there was quite a bit about this state that I didn’t know.

 

Austin, Texas is one of my favorite places.

We went there a couple years ago to attend a Hot Tuna concert at the University of Texas Austin campus. The venue was small, but we thoroughly enjoyed the 2 shows.

The list of fun things to do in Austin is practically endless. Here are some ideas...

Before we sold our house and hit the road in our RV, we liked to have dinner parties. You know, where you invite several couples over, cook a delicious meal, maybe serve hors d'oeuvres, then linger over a cup of coffee and dessert laughing and talking.

After we moved into our small space, I wondered to myself how I could ever do that sort of thing again.

Sure, there are potluck dinners at just about every seasonal campground you go to, but I wanted something a little more intimate. I wanted to be able to cook some of my favorite "big" dishes, the ones that are good and yummy but you can't cook just a little bit of it. And I wanted to invite some of the interesting people we had met.

So, one day when we were working at a large resort in south Texas, I decided I was just going to do it and figure out how as I went along.

The question is... if you're a fulltime RVer, where do you vote?

In the state where I live (Tennessee), this is a very hot topic right now.

As you know, you have to claim a permanent place of residence in order to obtain a valid drivers license to drive an RV. However, despite the fact that many hold a driver's license and register their vehicles in a particular state, they otherwise have no permanent presence in that state.

Therein lies the controversy.