How Our Exciting New Chapter Is Unfolding! (God is Good)
Once full-time travelers, we’re settling down in our new permanent site.
In July 2021, we left California in our rearview mirror and took to the RV life full-time. I’m amazed when I look back at how much our original plans have changed. Initially, we hoped to find some lakefront property to put down roots, possibly in Maine, and head to Florida for the winters in our motorhome.
Following the advice of many full-timers we met on the road, we sold almost everything we owned. The keepsakes, paperwork we couldn’t toss yet for tax purposes, and a couple of pieces of furniture we figured we could use in a sunroom one day went into the 20-foot box trailer we used to tow my car in.
We sold my Jeep because it wouldn’t flat-tow. I purchased my Compass three months before we upgraded from our fifth wheel to a motorhome. FYI, don’t purchase an all-wheel-drive automatic vehicle if you don’t want to pull a trailer. Not only is pulling your car in and out of the trailer to use it a pain, but many campgrounds don’t allow box trailers on their properties. Hindsight is always 20/20.
We rented a storage site near a friend’s house in Idaho Falls for the trailer, enjoyed a great visit, and headed east. We belong to the Escapees RV Club and have our domicile address through them in Box Elder, South Dakota. We have South Dakota driver’s licenses and vehicle registration through them. The Escapees program offers domiciling in Texas and Florida, too.
At the time, Texas required that you have your RV inspected before transferring your registration there. Florida had other restraints, which made South Dakota our best option. SD only requires proof that you stayed in the state for one night, and you only have to show up once every four years to renew your driver’s license. When switching from California, we saved over $1000.00 annually for our motorhome registration. We also vote through South Dakota.
We use the Escapees mail forwarding service and have our mail delivered to Livingston, Texas. We call them, and they look through our box for us before forwarding our mail. If we don’t have anything important in it, we wait until we do to get it forwarded. Only first-class mail is forwarded, so you avoid having junk mail delivered. Since we no longer have a business, we have very little mail that needs to get forwarded. We now do everything online.
I’m sharing these details in case someone is reading who is considering the full-time RV lifestyle and wonders about these basic needs. We have learned a lot in this process, and helping others through the procedure is vital to me. It’s one of the reasons I have my newsletter and website.
It didn’t take long for us to decide that owning and maintaining a large piece of property on a lake was not ideal. We’re retired, and property ownership has responsibilities we don’t want to deal with anymore. After spending the winter in Wildwood, Florida, at a Thousand Trails park, our new plan was to secure a couple of seasonal sites at Thousand Trails properties, which we enjoyed. We could have one on a lake to enjoy the summers and one in Florida for the winter.
This plan would also allow us to enjoy our Campers for Christ rallies held all over the United States for the four months in between. My husband found the Roving Volunteers in Christ’s Service through their organization. After bee-bopping around the country without a purpose for a year and a half, we wanted to be useful and give back in our retirement years. RVICS fulfilled that purpose perfectly.
We volunteer at Christian camps and spend three weeks doing whatever the camp needs. We’ve had quite a variety of jobs. It’s never dull, and the fellowship and camaraderie are awesome. Our first assignment was in Keystone Heights, Florida. It was a fantastic experience, and we looked forward to participating in another project. However, it would be eleven months before we participated in another one.
In 2023, we went to Mexico to get dental work, to California, Idaho, and Arizona to visit family and friends and attended a couple of Campers for Christ rallies in Arizona. We headed to Texas for an RVICS assignment, and one of the lovely ladies we worked with in Keystone Heights suggested we visit the Village. She’d seen one of my posts on Facebook and tagged me, saying, “Since you’re in Texas, you guys should visit RVICS Village. You’ll love it.”
We had no idea such a place existed. We called and made a reservation to stay in one of their visitor sites for two weeks. We had time to kill and could stay there for a donation as RVICS members. We are SO glad we made that visit. The community is made up of like-minded, mostly retired Christians who value God, family, and country. Many still do projects, but some are retired from them, too.
There is plenty to do, and I’ve never seen so many active 70 to 80-year-olds in my life. We have weekly devotions, bible studies, men’s coffee, ladies’ teas, sewing groups, chair exercises, men’s pool, games nights, lunches in Bastrop on Thursdays, and a weekly In-touch gathering to catch up on what’s happening in the Village. You are free to take part in them all, or none if that’s what you wish. From what we’ve experienced, everyone is involved in something.
We learned that to secure a spot here, you must have worked on three projects. We’d done one and were heading to another. We signed up for a third project in Texas and began talking about settling down here. When we returned after our third project, we discovered that one of the couples we worked with was moving from their beautiful site into one of the single-wide homes in the Village. They had a shed on the site that they were selling, and it had many shade trees. It was a no-brainer. We purchased a lifetime lease for a very reasonable price and paid our first year’s HOAs.
We would leave for six months before returning to our new home for good. I’m including some of the stories I wrote about our trip below for those interested. We weren’t supposed to return until next month, but we are so glad we changed our plans. The Lord works in mysterious ways. When you pray about your intentions and listen for His promptings, you never know where He will lead you. Being flexible is a big part of the journey.
We have an assignment at a camp in Texas, only 50 miles from here, next month. When we return, we will spend six months here, working on sprucing up our slice of heaven site before heading to Montana for another project in July. From there, we’ll go to Idaho and pick up our trailer to bring it home. I’m trying not to dread following Tommy in the car from Idaho to Texas. I very seldom drive anymore, and I don’t miss it.
Here’s the story I wrote about our first project in Keystone Heights.
Here’s one of my posts from our third assignment in Palacios, Texas.
I wrote this post for a 2023 photo challenge on Medium. It covers how we went from a 40-foot motorhome to a 45-foot one. Yahoo!! I got my bathroom. 👏
Charisse Tyson is a retired biker bar owner, author, blogger, and full-time RVer. You can follow her on Medium, Facebook, Linkedin, X(Twitter)
Great read... As a fellow Christian, I will simply say that God is Faithful. All the time. This truth is becoming more closer and dearer to my heart as I get older. He is always on time, never a second too early, never a second too late. Enjoy your Sunday!
I love the idea of the RV life style. I joined here to get more first hand accounts of it. Thank you for sharing.