By the way, did you know in the RV world, that a "tow" vehicle pulls things, like trailers and boats, and a "toad" vehicle is something being towed, like the car that is towed behind our RV. Yeah, I know you can get by just fine not knowing that, but it's interesting to us.
In addition to all the seminars, they also had a circus tent full of people selling everything that an RVer might need. We managed to find $500.00 worth of stuff that we couldn't live without.
While we were here we were hoping to see the famous Lancaster California poppy fields in bloom but they were two weeks late this year and we couldn't hang around. But never the less, a good time was had by all.
We leave Southern California with a happy heart. Cindi and I made a lot of friends that we will miss, but through the magic of the internet will be able to stay in contact with. The thing I will miss the most is being around the fine people that I had the pleasure of working with for almost 25 years. I can honestly say that I looked forward to going to work every single day because of the quality of the people that I worked with and their shared vision of public service.
Our immediate plan is to meander up the coast visiting Family and friends as we go. We will meet some RVing friends in Washington on June 1st and head for Alaska for a few months. We will be part of a four RV caravan. Not sure where we're going, but since we are not the lead RV it doesn't much matter. Where we go, we go.
I plan to do an occasional newsletter of our adventures. Probably about once a month.
Family and friends...
Well here we are, staged just below the Canadian border. The trip up the west coast was glorious. We left Vista, California on May 1st and arrived in Seattle, Washington last week. Most of the trip we were on U.S. 101 and I-5. But we were on other highways enough to see some of small-town America. It's a great place and we plan to spend a lot more time seeing it. We have averaged a whopping 45 miles a day on our trip so far. We stopped many times and spent many days visiting with friends and relatives that we have not seen in a long time. It was a fantastic month getting reconnected with Family and friends that we really like, but seldom see. We stayed in RV Parks, State Parks, and an occasional driveway. But the most interesting place we stayed was in the gravel pit of a working concrete and asphalt plant on the Trinity River near Weaverville, California that a friend of ours owns. We were there 3 days, parked next to the scale that all the trucks got weighed on when they were coming and going. The scenery in that part of California is spectacular, and we saw much of it up close and personal. Many of the roads our friend Dale took us on in the surrounding hills were the width of a bulldozer blade. And forget about being paved. I still don’t know how he knew where the roads were, or where we were going for that matter.
I've played golf three times this month. Had a career day in Oregon when I shot a 77 on a par 72 course. My best round ever. Never hit a bad shot all day. My playing partner was an Oregon rancher who spends three months in Alaska every summer and three months every winter in Arizona. Spring and fall he works the ranch. I meet all kinds of interesting people playing golf.
The weather cooperated right up until we crossed the Washington State line. Since then it has been raining steadily for 6 days. It's the first time we have been in rain and we were really surprised at how noisy a heavy rain can be when it is banging on the top of an RV. Sounds like a bunch of midgets up there with little hammers.
We arrived in Seattle a few days earlier than the rest of our group so we would have time to dump our California residency. We took a day trip to Dallas to establish Texas residency and get our Texas driver's licenses. We flew from Seattle to Dallas, then took a cab to the nearest Department of Motor Vehicles and traded in our California drivers licenses for Texas drivers licenses. Then it was back to the airport for the return flight to Seattle. When we got back to the RV we took the California license plates off the car and RV then put on the Texas plates. We tore up the old registrations and put the new registrations in the vehicles. After that we called the insurance company with the happy news, and said goodbye to California forever. We are now proud Texans. We expect the change in state residency to save us at least $8,000.00 a year in taxes and fees.
Like all full-time RVers, we had to choose a state to be a resident of. Since Texas and South Dakota are clearly the best choices for people like us, businesses in both states exist that provide logistic support to full-time RVers. We had originally intended to be South Dakota residents because we thought it would be cool, but it turns out that the economics of the decision narrowly favored Texas in our particular case. We chose a company called Escapees.
They helped us register to vote, register the vehicles, and get license plates, as well as providing us with a legal address, mail forwarding service, and email address. We did all that a month or two ago by mail and it was simple. The federal, state, and local governments in this county 100 miles north of Houston are very used to dealing with nomads like us and don’t blink an eye at dealing with absentee residents. We live on Rainbow Drive in Livingston, Texas, along with 25,000 other people on the same street.
As we go along we are getting used to the RV Park lifestyle. We are learning that there are basically three types of RV Parks,... RV Campgrounds, RV Resorts, and RV Parks that are neither campgrounds nor resorts. I call these plain old RV Parks for lack of a better term. At RV Campgrounds you park on dirt, under trees, with the smell of campfires in the air, surrounded by families with kids and/or grandkids. These are “destination” parks. At RV Resorts you park on a hard surface, typically concrete, next to retired people, trees are around for decoration and shade but do not cover where you park. RV Resorts all have grass lawns at every site, Jacuzzis, swimming pools, club houses, tennis courts, almost no kids, and occasionally a golf course. These are also “destination” parks. Plain old RV Parks are typically not destination parks. They are in the “we’re-just-passing-through-and-need-a-place-to-stay-for-a-night-or-two” category. They also have a significant number of “resident” RV’s who stay there for months or years. Destination parks tend to be really nice places to stay. Plain old RV Parks are more difficult to qualify, some are really nice and some are rundown. All three types of RV Parks are safe, friendly places that have a community atmosphere.
We have stayed at all three types so far. Some have been first rate and some have been pretty plain, but the rhythm of the parks is pretty much the same. There is an easygoing neighborhood friendliness about them. People are always walking the park for exercise and with the slightest bit of encouragement, and sometimes with none, they will stop and chat about where they have been, where they are headed, and share their RV experiences. We learn something new every day from talking to people. One thing we learned early on is that we hate parking under trees. They drop vegetation on the roof, which eventually rots, and then causes steaks down the sides of the RV when it rains. YUK! As you might imagine, we avoid campgrounds with trees as much as possible.
I mentioned last month that we are going to Alaska as part of a four RV caravan. That’s because we have a friend who is long-time RVer, who has been to Alaska many times. He invited us, along with a couple of other friends, to follow him around Alaska, caravan style. He also has a friend who owns a gold mine in the Yukon and he has agreed to give us a tour when we get there. That’s pretty much unheard of because miners don’t like people poking