Taxes and future plans

Posted on April 2, 2015 by liv2rv

In 2014, we were legal residents of two states, and worked in three states. This may sound like a potential nightmare for filing taxes, but in reality it was not too difficult this year. And, we opted to try out H & R Block’s software, given all the issues with Turbo Tax this year, having stripped out some of their forms from the Deluxe version. We found Block’s software to be just as user friendly as Turbo Tax, and it was substantially cheaper (we found ours at Target, on sale for $34.99, verse Turbo Tax Premier which was $79.99).

We “resided” in South Dakota and Florida last year, both states that have no income tax, or tax on investments. So we did not have any forms to complete for these states. We received W-2’s for our work in South Dakota at Crazy Horse, and multiple W-2’s from Amazon for working in Kentucky and Indiana. We needed to file Federal and non-resident state forms in Indiana and Kentucky. We decided to use our “free” state download form on Indiana, since Kentucky’s non-resident tax form is very easy to complete by hand. We made a wise choice, as we found Indiana’s form a bit confusing, so we were glad to have the software assist us.

While everyone’s tax situation is different, we always declare “0” dependents on the Federal W-4 withholding tax forms, and “2” dependents for the state tax forms. By declaring “2” dependents, we have the least amount of money withheld for state taxes, and that works out well for us. We do not want to receive a large refund from the states. That is just our preference. This year worked out pretty well, as we will be getting less than $250 combined back from both KY and IN.

We may have to rethink our deductions for the Federal form though, as we ended up with a pretty large refund. Last year we funded, for the first time, a Health Savings Account. We were not sure how that would impact our taxes, and discovered the HSA saved us money as it is a credit right off the top of your income. And the HSA is available for anyone who has a high deductible health plan. We are not experts at taxes, so please don’t rely on us for advice! I’m just trying to give you an overview on our taxes with work camping in several different states.

FUTURE PLANS

We will be leaving warm and sunny (and humid) Florida next Monday, April 6th. Originally we wanted to stay one more week, and head back over to the Gulf side of Florida. But our neighbor here at the campground noticed that one of our hydraulic leveling jacks was leaking fluid on the very hot and humid days. Since our 5th wheel is still under warranty, we contacted Heatland and they recommended a place in Elkhart, Indiana for warranty work. (we had told them we would be coming up that way). So we will be leaving a week earlier. After looking at Google Maps and discussing various routes with our neighbors, we decided to take a new route and go through South Carolina and North Carolina on our way home. We have not yet decided if we will continue up I-77 through Virginia and Ohio, or cross over I-40 into Kentucky. We have heard both positive and negative things about both routes.

We need to be in Indiana for our appointment on 4/13, and then back to WI for doctors appointments on the 20th. Then it will be back to work!!

Summer Work Camping Job

In May, we will be heading West, to work at the Homeroom @ Madison Crossing located in West Yellowstone, Montana. This gift shop specializes in cabin décor and is located just three blocks from the entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We will be working with our friends Tom and Ellen (from Amazon), that recommended the job to us. We are looking forward to having all summer to explore the area, and Dan is looking forward to fishing.

Fall Work Camping Job

In the fall, we will again work at Amazon, this time for a full season in Jeffersonville, IN. We enjoyed our time there last year, and look forward to spending more time in Louisville on our days off.

We are committed to Amazon through December 23rd. After that we have not decided which direction to go.

Quote for the day: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

A full social calendar

Posted on March 7, 2015 by liv2rv

We have settled in for 2 months at Crystal Lake RV park in Mims, Florida, where we stayed last year. It is a small, no frills park right off of I-95, conveniently located south of New Smyrna Beach (where Dan’s parents rent a condo for a few months), North of Cocoa Beach, and about 70 miles East of Orlando. The best part is the price, $400/month plus electric. And many of the folks from last year have returned, so we have been busy with activities.

The RV lifestyle can be as social as you want it to be. In talking with people who are not full-time RV’ers, many cite the fear they would miss their family and friends too much, or the fellowship they have at their church. For us, we are more active now, than when we had a regular sticks and bricks house. But we also make it a point to swing “back home” to Wisconsin in between our workcamping jobs to visit family and friends.

When we were listening to the February podcast from the RV Navigators (free on ITunes), we discovered they were ‘parked at a campground nearby’, so we sent Ken and Martha an e-mail to see if we could meet up with them, and they were happy to do so. They have an excellent monthly podcast about the RV lifestyle which we have listened to for several years, and we were excited to finally meet up with them. We had an excellent lunch, and then made plans to golf nine holes, at the RV resort they were staying at. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, and left the phones in the truck while we were golfing. On the first hole, we encountered a large bird, a large turtle and a small alligator, all sitting together by the cart path. You will just have to take my word for it! They were very interested in hearing about our workcamping jobs, and how we are making a living doing this. We agreed to do a short interview, which will be broadcast on a future episode of their show. We look forward to meeting up with them again.

There is an excellent farmers/flea market in Deland on Wednesdays, and we picked up Dan’s mom and headed over for a few hours a couple of weeks ago. While we were there, we heard a woman’s voice yell “Wisconsin”. We turned around and I yelled “Seattle” back! It was Marilyn and David, whom we worked with at Amazon in 2013 in Kentucky. Marilyn was a “stower” at Amazon, so we saw her on a regular basis. She would always great us with “Hello Wisconsin”, and we would always say “Goodnight Seattle” when she left for the day. Depending on your age, you may or may not get those two television references! As it turns out, they have a house in Titusville, about 12 miles south of our campground, and they invited us over for a wonderful shrimp pasta dinner. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I like to emphasize the “family” atmosphere of the workcampers. Thanks again “Seattle” for your hospitality!

beautiful table setting

David, Dan, Marilyn

We also got together with Dick and Cheryl, whom we worked with at Crazy Horse Memorial this past summer. They have a home in Cocoa Beach. Cheryl had been having some problems with her back, and went in for surgery last fall when they arrived back in Florida for the winter. After surgery, Cheryl had no feeling her extremities. It was a very life changing experience for her and Dick. After very intense physical therapy, she is slowing gaining movement, but still faces a long road ahead. When we first met up for lunch, she was able to walk without her walker, but needed some assistance. A few weeks later, when we met up to golf with Dick (Cheryl road along in the cart), she was able to walk gingerly, without assistance, for short distances. She continues physical therapy, and is just taking one day at a time. You just never know what life will bring you, so be grateful for every day you have!

Dick, Cheryl & I

This time I remembered to bring my camera while golfing. We did not see any alligators, but did see this unique soft shell turtle, with sort of a pig stout for a nose.

Soft shell turtle

unique nose

This week we made another trip back to Epcot, to visit with a former co-worker of mine, who was escaping the cold of Wisconsin! It was also the start of the annual Epcot International Flower and Garden, which is held every spring. We were amazed at how “alive” the park seemed to be, since our last visit, with all the beautiful flowers and topiaries. It was a perfect day, and we had a lot of fun with Katie and her husband Sam. Thanks for letting us crash a day of your vacation!

Katie, Sam and I

Katie is an avid pin collector (I need to hook her up with Karen!), and I have learned that the Disney Cast Members are required to trade pins when anyone asks. Katie scored a nice Buzz Lightyear pin from one of the employees.

I’ll take that one!

And here are just a few of the topiaries located throughout Epcot.

Flower Festival

Butterflies

Monsters Inc

Woody

Captain Jack

colorful animals

Lion King

Quote for the day: “A friend is like a good bra….hard to find…supportive…comfortable…always lifts you up…makes you look better…and always close to your heart.” – Maxine

Day 2 – Hollywood Studios and IllumiNations Fireworks

Posted on February 15, 2015 by liv2rv

Hollywood Studios

After an excellent buffet breakfast with our lucky crew of 13 at the Wave resort, we headed over for our first experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. There are 8 different sections to this park, and even with our best efforts, we were not able to see everything in this park. This park offers several attractions that are 20 – 40 minutes in length, making it difficult to see everything. But the shows we did attend, were excellent.

Each Disney park has a ‘signature’ building/attraction, such as Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom, or the sphere at Epcot. The Studios used to be the Sorcerer’s hat, but this is all that remains of the hat.

a disappearing hat

I have no idea what will go up in its place, or why it is being removed. If anyone knows, please feel free to add a comment. The map of the park does not even mention this display, and simply has a blank spot on the map in its place. There is a topiary design outside of the park that shows Mickey with his hat. Since I never saw the movie, I am not really sure what the broom thing is next to him.

Mickey the Sorcerer

The first section of the park is a recreation of the shops along Hollywood Boulevard.

Hollywood Boulevard

We ventured over to see the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which is a 30 minute live action show to demonstrate how movies are made and stunts are performed. You can do a FastPass for this attraction, but the show seats several thousand people, so it is not always necessary.

stage set

The show begins with Indiana Jones rappelling down a rope, and running across while dodging stakes jutting up from the stage.

ouch!

After this scene is complete, we can see how they clear out the set, with the next stage set brought in by tractors for the next shoot.

removing the walls

The next scene is put in place and there is a fighting scene that goes across the top of the buildings.

scene # 2

The final scene has a lot of pyrotechnics. It was a very enjoyable show.

After Indiana Jones, we headed over to the Pixar Studios area, to ride the Toy Story Midway Mania. We had FastPass reservations for this ride, and I would highly recommend using one of your three choices on this attraction. It was a blast! You go through a 4D arcade game, shooting at toy story characters. This is a great ride for all ages and abilities. Here is Karen and her friend Patty, all set for the game.

ready, set, shoot!

Waiting in line for the ride is fun as well, just looking at how they have decorated the walls, with our favorite board games growing up! Candyland on the wall, and a checkerboard on the ceiling.

remember these games?

And the giant Etch-a-Sketch was doodling out puzzles.

I had one of these

Outside, the Pixar area continued the theme of the popular games we played as kids.

And who can forget the plastic green army men? They even have the melted shoes on this guy. (if you played with these army toys, you will understand that!) Karen and I had to stop for a photo.

Next up, we headed over to The Great Movie Ride, which is an easy 22 minute tram that takes you through the sets of various movies. It was very enjoyable, but I’m still trying to figure out why they have a disclaimer that it may be frightening to children.

And speaking of frightening rides, we headed over to the very popular (use your fastpass) Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, where you go up in an elevator, and it randomly drops you down, then shoots you back up, and drops you down again. The ride is always a different experience, because you never know how many floors you will drop or shoot back up (it is all in the dark). And when it shoots you back up, the doors open, and you are just staring out into the park. That is the part I had a problem with! I would go on this again, now that I know it’s is not “that bad”!

a fun ride

They also have the Rock N Roller Coaster at this park, but you can’t do both with the FastPass. That coaster apparently goes upside down, and bangs you around a lot, according to Al and his cousins. If you like roller coasters, then you would probably like that one instead of the Tower ride.

We headed back across the park to get in line for the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, which is currently performed twice a day. You get a behind the scenes look at how they perform and film car and motorcycle chase scenes. The outdoor stage for this attraction seats 5,000 people, so you probably won’t need to use your FastPass for this. The show is about 40 minutes long, and was very interesting to watch the great stunts.

After the stunt show, we wandered through a street set of New York City, and a painted wall of San Francisco.

New York City set

San Francisco

Our final FastPass reservation of the day was on Star Tours – The Adventure Continues which is a fun 3-D motion-simulated space flight with characters from Star Wars. Disney also has this ride set so that each ride is a different experience, so you never know what to expect. This way you can go on this ride multiple times, and still have a different experience each time. It was certainly a fun for all ages ride.

After a full day where we still did not get to see or do half the things in the park, we headed back to the campground to feed and play with the dogs. Al and Karen then took us to Disney’s Boardwalk by Epcot where we ate dinner, and walked over to Epcot to view the nightly IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth show. This is a laser light show, along with fireworks that you can view anywhere along the World Showcase. Here are a few photos that turned out from the show.

glowing globe of Earth

Quote for the day: “Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.” – Roman Polanski

Disney after Dark!

Posted on February 10, 2015 by liv2rv

After a busy first day at Epcot, Dan and I took the complimentary shuttle boat ride from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. Karen and Al, along with his cousin Bill, would be taking a later boat over and joining us for the parade and fireworks. This would be our first visit to the Magic Kingdom. And needless to say, we were immediately lost without our tour guides!

boat ride from campground

Upon arriving on the grounds, we had no idea what to see or do, and actually had to get a map! We promptly texted our ‘tour guides’ to see when they would be arriving, and they were on the next boat over…whew! Even though it was only 6:30, people were already lined up for the 8:00pm Main Street Electrical parade, making it difficult to wander through the crowds to see anything.

We quickly became overwhelmed as we had no idea what to see or do, so we found refuge in a gift store and waited for the rest of our party. When you live in an RV, it’s easy to avoid buying souvenirs, as we have very limited space. But it’s always fun to look, and Disney seems to excel in merchandising. You will see I am wearing neon mouse ears in the photo below. These were a gift from a former co-worker, Katie, from her honeymoon in Disney! She was happy to know they made “the cut” when it came to deciding what to pack in the RV! Thanks again Katie!

Disney after Dark

Karen, Al and Bill quickly found us in the gift shop, and then we headed out into the park and they gave us a quick explanation of the six different themed areas of the park. Since we would be returning to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, this gave us a brief overview of the areas we needed to see during the day.

Cinderella’s Castle

We wandered around the Main Street, USA area for a while, taking in all the sights and sounds before heading over for coffee and dole whips (a fresh pineapple dessert). Then we headed to Adventureland to stake out our parade route. There was nobody there before parade. We thanked our excellent tour guides for again leading us in the right direction…away from the crowds. No sense standing 10 deep in line at the Main Street area, when we can have our own personal space in another area. Once it was close to the 8 pm start time, the area quickly filled up, but we had our front row spots.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is a 20 minute parade of floats and characters covered in LED lights, with music playing across the parks loudspeakers. I love parades, and this was very enjoyable, and a must see item at the park. Tinkerbell leads off the parade.

Tinkerbell

beautiful floats

let the Magic begin

Alice in Wonderland…not sure why she is on a mushroom. Someday I will see that movie!

Alice in Wonderland

magic mushrooms?

ladybugs and butterfly

Lot’s of Disney characters were in the parade, so it was fun for me to try to figure who they were. Some were obvious.

Pinocchio

I thought this was Puff, but Karen told me this is Pete the Dragon!

Pete the Dragon

Captain Hook & Peter Pan

Cinderella

Fairy Godmother

Behind Cinderella’s pumpkin coach, was a float with Prince Charming, hanging out with her step-sisters, who were having a lot of fun.

Prince & step-sisters

They were followed by his majesty’s court, and the clock turning midnight.

midnight?!

Snow White was roaming around the crowd.

Snow White

Followed by the dwarfs.

can you name them?

The last float in the parade was a patriotic tribute to the United States, complete with bursting “fireworks” and a bald Eagle.

final float

a very long float

After the parade, we headed over to the main street area to watch the fireworks, formally known as Wishes nighttime spectacular. I was expecting a basic fireworks show, but this was an excellent light show displayed on Cinderella’s Castle, with an appearance by a flying Tinkerbell followed by fireworks. No matter how tired you may be after a day at Disney, this is well worth staying for. The castle is constantly changing colors during the show. It’s hard to take photos of fireworks, so these are the best I could get from the show.

Wish Upon a Star

It was a great way to end a long, busy day seeing two of the four parks. And it was just day one!! Stay tuned for more of our busy Disney week.

Quote for the day: “There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Winnie the Pooh

Florida RV Supershow

Posted on January 23, 2015 by liv2rv

Every January, the biggest RV show in the country takes place at the Florida state fairgrounds in Tampa. We have heard a lot of good things about the Florida RV Supershow, and decided to check it out last week. Everyone we talked to said it is too big to see everything in one day, and they were correct. We spent 2 days at the show, and still did not see everything that was there. They had RV’s of every shape and size, from $4,000 trailers to a $3 million dollar custom coach.

We also ran into Kristen and Jason (Snowmads), whom we first met last January in Cedar Key, FL. They have sold their Airstream trailer and will be venturing out in a new Trek motorhome, which was on display at the show. They travel with three dogs that were happy to great all visitors at the show!

Kristen and Jason

Trek motorhome

We also ran into a number of co-workers from Amazon, and had a nice lunch with everyone. Then all of us went over to one of the exhibitor buildings, to say ‘hi’ to the human resource personnel for Amazon that handle the Camperforce program. Kelly, in the purple shirt below, was our HR rep that came with us up to Jeffersonville, IN last December.

Kelly and gang

Across from the Amazon booth, was a booth selling these “exercise” machines, that you stand on and “lose weight” due to the vibrating movement! Donna was checking them out. I think Amazon is a more effective weight loss program.

Donna working off lunch!

After lunch we ventured over to the Heartland display, and checked out the brand new Charleston 5th wheel model. It received the ‘Best in Show’ ribbon. It was a beautiful 5th wheel, and had a very residential feel to it. We noticed many of the 5th wheels are now including residential refrigerators, induction stove-tops and dishwashers, as options. Dan was able to spend some time talking with a technician from Heartland about some routine maintenance questions that he had. That is one nice part about a big show like this, as they usually have the representatives from the manufacturer’s to talk with, and not just sales representatives.

Heartland Charleston

Of course if money was no object, I found a coach that I could live in, the Monaco Dynasty 45P! It was one of a few motorhomes that had a lot of storage space in the kitchen, a comfortable layout in the living area, a shower that you can move around in, and a curbside dinette.

Monaco Dynasty

They had a few antique trailers on display, including this 57 foot long, long trailer.

a long, long trailer

And we found a little trailer that would be perfect for Makena.

doggie trailers

You can spend a lot of time walking at this show, as there is row after row of vehicles to look at. And we saw many RV’s with ‘sold’ signs on them, including some in the seven-figure price range.

lots of RV’s

On the second day we attended the show, we were finally able to meet up with two more couples whose blogs we have followed for a while. John and Kathy, have an excellent podcast (available on ITunes) that we have listened to for several years, as well as a blog and website, Living the RV Dream. Nick and Terry of the Gypsy Journal were also at the show. In the photo below, Dan is talking with John (in the white shirt), with Kathy behind him. Terry is a bit hidden behind Kathy, and Nick is sitting on the end of the bench. We had a nice conversation about full-timing with both of them, and look forward to meeting up with them again somewhere down the road.

Living the Dream/Gypsy Journal

Quote for the day: “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” – Linda Grayson

Final thoughts on Amazon

Posted on January 10, 2015 by liv2rv

Now that the dust has settled, and our final checks have been received, including the retention bonus, I will have one last post on our fall work camping jobs with Amazon. If you want to read more posts on our time at Amazon, you can go to our home page and click on tabs for Amazon.

This was an unusual year for us, as we began our 12 weeks at the center in Campbellsville, KY, where we worked in 2013 as well. Our second year was going well, and we renewed old friendships, and made new ones as well. Our final 4 weeks were spent at the center in Jeffersonville, IN (SDF-8). I have previously blogged about how we ended up there.

Overall, we had a good time up in Jeffersonville, IN. It was very crazy when we started, as they had just hired on 1400 temporary employees over the last 10 days before we started. Clearly, management had too many people to watch over, and it was a bit entertaining, and frustrating, watching so many people stand around and not work. But over the next 10 days, management seemed to catch up, and many of the temps were no longer employed. Amazon does not tolerate people who have no desire to work.

As far as the work, we enjoyed picking apparel, jewelry and watches compared to some of the heavier items we picked in Campbellsville. SDF-8 is clean, climate-controlled, and well-organized for picking. Our managers were very pleased with the performance on the Camperforce team. Several of them commented that our “numbers” (production) were equal to or even better than their veteran full-timers were doing. They were hoping that our work ethic would rub off on the “younger” employees! Over and over we heard how they want to have a full Camperforce team next year, because they would not have to hire so many temporary employees.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU MAKE IN A SEASON?

The center in Kentucky (SDF-1) pays $10.00/hour and includes your campground. If you work 2nd shift, or the weekend day shift, you will receive an additional $0.60/hour as a shift differential. If you complete your season, you will receive an additional $1.00/hour for every hour that you work. In addition, you receive time and a half for all hours worked over 40 in a week. SDF-1 hires about 500 Camperforce, starting at the end of August, going through the middle of November. We like working 12 weeks, so we start at the end of September. The pay rate in Indiana was $10.75/hour. We have not heard what the pay rate will be for this fall.

Our total gross pay for the 12 weeks at KY/IN was $12,983.61. This amount does not include the additional bonus money that we received for going to Indiana. Amazon paid us $1,000.00 each (net) for going up to IN. This was a one-time deal. We also each made additional money in gift cards for working there. Indiana was very generous with gift cards.

For working 59 1/2 hours, we each received a $100.00 VISA gift card (we did this for 2 weeks), and we received another $100.00 in gift cards from Target, Subway, Panera Bread, Applebee’s, and Texas Roadhouse for various contests they held for picking. Another workcamper won over $400.00 in gift cards for these contests. From talking with other Camperforce, the IN facility was the most generous facility in perks. We also had three free pizza lunches, cupcakes, fruit, Panera treats, and several Krispy Crème donut days in Indiana.

WILL WE GO BACK?

Yes, we will go back for our 3rd peak season! Amazon is not an easy job, but it pays well for a workcamping job, provides a free campsite, has some nice perks (gift cards), and gets us in good shape! But the best part of the job, is all the wonderful people that we meet. There is something about making it through a season that brings people together. Your co-workers become an extended family, and you can make some wonderful friendships if you want.

Amazon is also a great place to work if you are a single, or have a spouse that does not want or need to work at Amazon. They just want people who are willing to show up and work for the season. As long as you realize you are just there to work, and not change the culture of how Amazon does things, you will do just fine.

Also, Amazon is a great way to network about other work camping jobs. All of our other jobs have come from talking with co-workers about jobs. In addition, the KY location has an annual job fair in December that is well attended by employers.

WHAT LOCATIONS ARE AVAILABLE?

The program will be changing this year, as the centers in Coffeysville, Kansas and Fernley, Nevada have closed (Amazon has opened newer centers near those locations). According to Amazon’s Camperforce website, they will have programs in place in KY, TN, IN and Haslet, TX (which is a new site). The site does state to check after January 15, 2015 for more details.

We have not heard any details on what the pay or campgrounds will be for IN. We would consider going back to KY or IN, depending on the terms. We will wait to decide on the location until we have more details.

THE BIGGEST LOSER!

And a drum roll please…..the one thing our families have been waiting for! The final weight loss numbers from our 12 week fitness program. For the first time since the 1980’s Dan weighs under 200 lbs. He lost 14 1/2 pounds this year after losing 27 last year, as well as 5% body fat. I lost 6 pounds (too many dinners out!) but 6% body fat!

If you have any questions regarding Amazon, please let us know.

Quote for the day: “I used to work at a movie theater and sold hams at Honey Baked Hams during the holidays. I sold a ton of hams and they offered me a regular job there, which I turned down. I feel like anything you do, just do it 100% because then that work ethic will bleed through when it’s time to work on your dreams.” – Tika Sumpter

Changing our Domicile to Florida – Part Two

Posted on December 31, 2014 by liv2rv

Welcome to part two of our “moving” blog. You can view part one here.

To get a driver’s license in Florida, you need several forms of identification. We used our South Dakota drivers license, Passports and social security cards. Florida does recognize SD licenses as a primary form of ID, but for some reason, they do not recognize licenses from 20 other states as a primary form. It is best to be safe and have more ID then needed. You can read more about the requirements at the DMVFlorida.org website.

In addition, you must have two pieces of mail from your new address to get your license. (and the mail must have all names of those registering on it, and be from a bank, utility, insurance company, etc.) So it is very important to set up your mailing address about a month before you officially change your domicile, to insure you have the proper mail to complete the process.

Also, you must have proof of automobile insurance issued by a Florida agent before you can apply for your driver’s license.

When we signed up with St Brendan’s Isle as our mail forwarding service, we stated we would come in person to complete the forms in person, and pick up our first batch of mail. They were very helpful and went over the forms we needed, and gave us a map of the area so we knew which buildings to go to, and what order. Our only “glitch” at the time, was getting our VIN number verified for our 5th wheel.

Florida does require a VIN verification of any vehicle getting registered in Florida. When we left Amazon in Indiana, we drove down through Atlanta (on a Sunday with minimal traffic) and stayed overnight just south of the city. It was a long travel day, but we needed to get to Florida before everyone closed up for Christmas. The next day we stopped in Lake City, Florida which is near the intersection of I-10 and I-75. We decided to stay here, even though it was another 65 miles to Green Cove Springs. We figured we could just contact the police, have them verify the VIN on the 5th wheel, and then drive in to Green Cove Springs and complete the rest of the registration process.

However, the police in Lake City require you to go to their courthouse in town, pay a $4.00 fee, then call them back and they will have an officer come out when they have time. Since we only had the afternoon to complete our registration without staying another day, we decided to just skip this step, and register the 5th wheel another time via mail. We were not aware there would be a fee to have the VIN verified. (more on that later)

After picking up our mail, we drove over to the Clay County Courthouse and filed our Declaration of Domicile. This form is needed to register to vote in Florida. We used our SD Drivers license as our proof of identification. The cost for this form is $15.00 per person, which includes a $10 filing fee and $5.00 notary fee. We had two young couples ahead of us in line applying for marriage licenses, so our wait was about 15 minutes to complete this process.

Clay County Courthouse

After the courthouse, we went to the Clay County Administration Building to apply for our drivers license and vehicle registration. After making sure we had all of our paperwork, they gave us a number and told us to have a seat in the waiting area. But before our butts hit the chairs, our number was called. We encountered the most pleasant employee, Christie, who made for a very smooth process. (that’s right….a pleasant DMV employee!!) She also stated they are now able to complete our voter registration, so we did not need to go to another building to complete that.

Clay County Administrative Building

We explained that we were not able to verify the VIN on our 5th wheel, and mentioned the fee that the Lake City police were going to charge. She said she has never heard of any law enforcement department charging for that service, and several of the other employees who heard us talking mentioned that as well. So apparently the charge is just unique to that city. She also stated since our fifth wheel did not have an odometer, it did not need the VIN inspection, and she could register it because we had the original, clear title, which had the VIN on it. We were very happy about that!! She did go out with Dan and verified the VIN and odometer on the truck.

She scanned all of our documentation in for the drivers licenses, and we did a very simple eye test, and took our photos. Christie even re-took Dan’s photo, because she didn’t like the way the first one came out. The driver’s license (good until our birthdays in 2023) cost $48.00 plus a $6.25 service fee. In Florida, you can renew your license up to 18 months prior to expiration, and you can renew on-line or by mail one time, before you have to appear again at the DMV.

The application for our titles were $87.75 for each vehicle, and the license plates were $52.10 for the 5th wheel (5 months, expires in May) and $127.35 for the truck (12 months). Since our pickup truck is over 5500 pounds, it falls into a class that gets renewed every December. Otherwise, the renewal is based on the month of birth of the first person listed on the title. That is how we ended up with 2 different renewal dates.

So our total costs with the DMV was $463.45, and if you include the $30 for our domicile declaration, our total cost to become members of the Sunshine State was $493.45. It took us about 30 minutes to complete everything, and then we were on our way!! It was a very simple process, and a lot cheaper than we expected.

And now that we are Floridians, we are eligible for the reduced rates at Disneyworld!!!

And for the Quote of the Day……

Changing our domicile to Florida – Part One

Posted on December 29, 2014 by liv2rv

Since June of 2013, when we became “full-time” RV’ers, we have been legal residents of South Dakota, which has a reputation as a very RV friendly state. No state income taxes, low auto/RV insurance rates, and affordable health insurance were the main factors in our decision to join the “Great Faces, Great Places” state. But for those of us who do not have employer sponsored health insurance, or are too young for Medicare, that is changing in 2015. If we remained SD residents, we would not be able to have in-network nationwide coverage (except for emergencies). For a more detailed assessment of the changes, you can read this article HERE. The article is from the excellent healthcare website, dedicated to RV’ers, RVerHI.com. South Dakota remains an excellent choice for those on Medicare, or for those who do not need to purchase their own health insurance.

The other two main RV friendly states are Texas and Florida. We had no real preference, and decided to look into the costs for both. I have decided to put this post in 2 sections, this first part will just cover mailing services and insurance companies The second part will cover our actual process of changing to Florida.

PICKING A ZIP CODE/MAILING SERVICE

Currently, we use MyDakotaAddress.com as our mailing service in South Dakota. We have been extremely pleased with the excellent service that Terri Lund and her staff provide. If you are going to change residency to South Dakota, we would highly recommend them.

Texas has the very popular mail service provided by Escapee’s, of which we are members. Escapee’s is now offering mail service in Florida. We started looking into health insurance rates in Texas, based upon the zip code for the Escapee’s organization. Rates for the two of us, on the healthcare exchange, were $273/month for the bronze plan with BCBS of Texas, offering an excellent nationwide plan. (we had been paying $198.00/month in SD for a silver plan through Avera. That plan was going to increase to $269.00/month, without nationwide coverage).

Once we started looking into Florida zip codes, we quickly realized Florida would be a better deal for us, so we eliminated Texas. Another concern for us is that Texas also requires a vehicle inspection when renewing your tags. Currently, you can request a waiver if you are not in the state at the time of renewal. But as we have seen with SD, things can change.

Florida has four main mailing services that we are aware of: Escapee’s, American Home Base, MyRVmail, and St. Brendan’s Isle. We had no preference, and started checking health insurance rates based on the four different zip codes/counties. Our best option was to become residents of Green Cove Springs, in Clay County, Florida, and use St. Brendan’s Isle as our mailing service. We will be paying $11.99/month plus postage for their mailing service. They were the most expensive of the four in terms of monthly costs, but that zip code provided us with the cheapest health insurance rates. We have a bronze policy with Assurant for $198.00/month for the two of us, with a $6,000.00 deductible. Preventive healthcare is covered at 100%, no deductibles, as required under the Affordable Care Act. Since we are both healthy, we decided this was the best option for us. If we had chronic conditions, then we would have gone with a silver policy, which has a higher monthly premium, but lower deductibles. The policy has an option for a health savings account, which we were able to fully fund last year.

Again, this is just what works for us. If you are considering changing your residency, take the time to check out all the zip codes/counties/states to decide what works best for your situation. Another thing that we considered in our decision, is that our current doctors in Wisconsin are covered in-network by our Florida plan. So we can keep our same doctors/clinics/hospitals.

I spent several hours going through all the websites of the mailing services, comparing monthly costs and fees, and then getting health insurance quotes on the exchange using all the different zip codes. Not the best way to spend a day off, but the more time you spend doing your homework, the better prepared you will be to make such an important decision on where to “live”.

Auto/RV Insurance

South Dakota has very reasonable auto and RV insurance rates, so we were prepared to pay more for coverage in Florida. It is important that you get proper insurance coverage, if you plan on living full-time in your RV. Howard Payne of RV-Dreams.com has written several articles on their website regarding RV insurance coverage (click HERE)

We contacted American Adventure Insurance, Miller Insurance Agency, and Epic Insurance Company for quotes. Given the wide variation in pricing that we received, it certainly pays to shop around. Just make sure the quotes you receive contain the same information, so you are truly comparing apples to apples.

In South Dakota, we had coverage through Blue Sky Insurance, and we paid $639/year for our truck insurance, and $813.00/year for a full-timers policy on our 5th wheel. (total $1452). In Florida, the best rates we received came from Epic Insurance, with coverage provided by Progressive. Truck insurance $1064 and 5th wheel insurance $796 (total $1860). We are paying $408/year more for the same coverage we had in South Dakota. A bit of an “ouch”, but we have piece of mind knowing we have better health insurance coverage.

In my next post, I will go over the steps needed to complete changing our domicile.

Quote for the day: “The more that you read, the more things that you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

The “RV” train has left Clarksville

Posted on December 22, 2014 by liv2rv

Just a quick update on the blog. Saturday 12/20 was our final day at Amazon in Jeffersonville, Indiana. We packed up and left Clarksville, Indiana very early on Sunday. Our goal was to get to Florida ASAP, as we are in the process of changing our residency from South Dakota to Florida. I plan on separate blog posts to give our final thoughts on Amazon as well as the steps we took to change over to the Sunshine State. And yes, we will have our final weight loss numbers as well from Amazon. I know our family looks forward to that number!

These last four weeks have been very busy, working 59 1/2 hour weeks at Amazon, and using our day off to research mailing services, auto/RV insurance rates and health insurance rates. We are really looking forward to a few days of doing absolutely nothing after the first of January!

WELCOME NEW BLOG FOLLOWERS

Dan and I (and our dog Makena) want to welcome our new blog followers. Last January, we met up with Chris and Cherie of Technomadia in Cedar Key, Florida (along with a great group of other RV’ers!) They have an awesome video series, called Ramblings – Tales from Nomads on their website, where they interview fellow RV’ers. We have enjoyed watching and learning from these videos, and agreed to be interviewed by them. It was our hope that we could offer a little advice about our lifestyle and the reasons we decided to full-time before “retiring”.

A few days ago they posted that interview on their blog, and we have seen a surge in new followers as a result. We are very humbled that you have chosen to follow along on our journey. The RV community is a wonderful extended family to us. We have no regrets whatsoever!

For those that have not seen the video (about 8 minutes), click here for the link.

We always welcome comments and questions. And again, thank you so much for following along!

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Quote for the day: “This is all you have. This is not a dry run. This is your life. If you want to fritter it away with your fears, then you will fritter it away, but you won’t get it back later.” – Laura Schlessinger

My parents lied….

Posted on December 13, 2014 by liv2rv

Hello everyone, I am back to give the “dog’s perspective”.

Keeping my peeps informed!

Two weeks ago, I noticed my parents packing up our stuff in the 5th wheel. I became very excited, and promptly did my part by sitting all day by the door, so they would not forget me. When they told me to “kennel up” I happily sprinted into the back seat of the truck, and settled down in my kennel, dreaming of warm and sunny Florida. They promised me we would be going there after Amazon. When they stopped and opened up my crate, I figured we were stopping at one of those doggie rest stops, where I get to pee everywhere.

And then I realized, we were in another campground. Hmmmm. I thought we were going South to Florida, but somehow ended up going North. To Indiana. In December?? Yikes!

Now my parents tell me they did this because of a big bonus that Amazon offered. I better be getting some new toys and treats out of that bonus. Especially since they did not consult me in this decision. And now they are working 11 hour days too? They leave when it is dark, and return after dark, so my play time has been very limited.

The only good part of this, is my new dog walker. She takes me for 30 minute walks every day in the park across the street! And she likes to jog, so I finally have someone to jog with. My mom said she will only run if her life depends on it.

My dog walker leaves a daily “report card” for my parents, so I have to be on my best behavior. The first thing they do when they get home, besides petting me, is read that note. Puts lots of pressure on me to behave, but I try my best!

I have been trying to make some new friends, on those rare days off that my parents have. Here is me with my new friend, Snowflake. Yes, she is a cat, but I find that cats don’t like to sniff my butt like dogs do. I am starting to not be afraid around her.

making new friends

THE END IS IN SIGHT

My parents just finished up a 59 1/2 hour work week. Seems Amazon offered all their employees a $100.00 VISA gift card, for anyone volunteering to do that. They have been pretty exhausted at night. They told me today that next Saturday, December 20, will be their “release” day from Amazon. All the Camperforce will be heading out on Sunday….yay….off to Florida!!!!

But then they informed me they signed up for another 59 1/2 hour work week. Seems people are buying lots of slippers, socks, bathrobes, watches and jewelry, so they are very busy at their fulfillment center. And they need another big push this week, so they again offered $100.00 VISA gift cards to all employees that work the crazy amount of hours. My parents tell me the 1/2 day is a piece of cake, but since I am not allowed to eat cake, I have no idea what that means.

According to my math, with the $400 in gift cards plus extra overtime money, my parents should be able to buy a lot of treats and toys for me. After all these long days of staring out the window waiting for them, I am exhausted and deserve a reward!!

Quote for the day: “No matter what you are going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it may seem hard to get to it but you can do it and just keep working towards it and you’ll find the positive side of things.” – Demi Lovato

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Category Archives: Full time RVing