These interim posts are turning out to be a way to answer Frequently Asked Questions (better than my Not-yet asked Questions section). Here’s one: A friend recently asked how we’re going to deal with administrative stuff, like mail and voting.
Notice how the Airstream doesn’t have a house number or a mail slot? So we had to establish a permanent residency, both for our mail and to register the truck and Airstream, plus to vote, be counted in the census, pay taxes, and on and on down the rabbit hole of the Matrix.
Key to helping us manage all this is the most-excellent organization, The Escapees. It’s a club of RV folks, kind of like AAA but with a social aspect. (I’m still learning about this, so pardon my minimal or kinda wrong explanation here.) They do offer roadside service and discounts, like AAA, but they also offer a mail-forwarding service, education about living on the road, plus lots of ways to meet other RVers.
Our Permanent Address
Escapees is based in Livingston, Texas—Texas being one of the few states without a state sales tax and one that makes it easy to establish residency when you don’t actually live there. Plus it’s a state with year-round access for RVs sensitive to the weather (like we’ll be in our not-incredibly-well-insulated Airstream). Their mail-forwarding service is based there as well, so we now have a Texas address.
The way that works (I believe) is that we can get our mail scanned and then review what came in, asking them to forward anything important to wherever we might be near (friends? family? Amazon boxes?).
And as soon as we can get away from the house renovations, we’ll drive the Airstream to the Escapees’ campground and let them guide us through DMV protocol for what we’ll need to do to register all our moving possessions and ourselves.
Doctors, Dentists, Vets
Healthcare on the road may be tricky, but people do it. It’ll definitely be cheaper when we can get some services done in Mexico. And if we find we can’t substitute a favorite healthcare provider from Maryland, then we’ll just come back here for that service. It’s not like we won’t be living in a house on wheels ….
2 thoughts to “Keeping a Connection to the Matrix”