Firing Up The Blog - Heading West

Summerdale, AL (45 degrees, chilly, blue skies)

Oxbow Bend looking over Mount Moran

I haven't posted a blog in some time but I'm excited about our upcoming plans and wanted to be sure to document them.  To catch you up we spent the summer and fall working for Grand Teton Association in the Grand Teton National Park. It was our third time working for the non-profit bookstores in the park.This time I was the Administrative Assistant in the office and John had the best job driving out to all the trail heads and stocking them with maps and guides. He collected the money, counted it, and then took deposits to the bank three days a week.  It was a great way to spend the summer in such a beautiful place. 

Chris and Chet

Gary, Jill, Kenzie, and Jackie

New solar panels

We had lots of friends who came out to visit us and we had a great time showing them all around. After this gig was completed we headed to Colorado to have some solar panels installed and then attended  the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We camped with the Boomers with the Escapee RV Club. It was such a great time. We have been before and really love this event  Our daughter Jen came for a visit and some of our friends were here too.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We then headed east to the Smoky Mountain area for a renovation to the inside of our motorhome with Smoky Mountain Coach Works. We met the owner of this company at a rally with FMCA last year and really liked his presentation. We spent three weeks at his place and are really happy with the results. The noggin loggin TV above the front windshield was removed and recessed back. A new cabinet was built to hold a TV which goes up and and down on a special lift. We added fireplace to the front and a great computer desk along the side. We also modified a kitchen cabinet and removed all the dusty shades and replaced them with MCD's. We stayed in the coach throughout and really were impressed with his staff and attention to detail.  Oh, and we bought a new Jeep Wrangler!  Our bank account certainly took a hit but we have been saving up for these expenses for awhile. What made it really special was having a reunion with our volunteer friends from Ding Darling NWR. Bob & Patsy and Al & Linda came up for a few days and stayed in nearby hotels.  We had a great time exploring the park while the renovation was being completed.

New TV/Computer cabinet

Linda, Alan, me, John, Bob and Patsy

Meet Teddy Bear

From there we headed south to Florida. It was great to spend the holidays with John's daughter Jen. We had some great times together and even got to see her scuba dive with some friends. We stayed mostly at MacDill AFB. The weather was certainly not as warm as usual, but that's the case for most places this winter.

We also had a nice visit with our friends Debbie and Dave from Indianapolis and met up with more Ding Darling friends for Christmas on the beach. That was very special.

John, me, Debbie, Dave, and Jen

Linda, Jen, Alan, me, John, Lynda, and Charlie

Kayaking is one of our favorite things to do in Florida. We met up with several friends and went back to some of our favorite rivers (Rainbow and Weeki  Wachee plus a new one for us at Lido Key). The rivers in northern Florida are breathtaking.

Weeki Wachee

These are only some of the highlights. We have traveled back to many of our favorite places and it's always very special to meet up with friends and family along the way. 

St. Andrews State Park 

So, now we have turned left out of Florida and have traveled along the beautiful panhandle of Florida and tomorrow we will be in New Orleans for a few days. Let the good times roll!

We have some exciting plans ahead. Ultimately we are heading west and along the coast of California where we will met up with friends and travel into Canada and Alaska. This is a long time dream of ours and it's finally just about here. It's took a lot of planning and research and we hope to hit as many of the highlights as possible. Come along with us as we tour the last frontier.

Escapee Park in Summerdale Alabama

On The Road Again!

Tampa, Florida (79 degrees, blue skies)

Screech Owl - J.N. Ding Darling NWR

It sure is great to be back on the road again.  Our first stop is Tampa Florida to spend a few days with John's daughter (Jen) and to meet up with the Caloosa Bird Club at Ft. De Soto. This beautiful county park and campground is located in St. Petersburg and if you haven't been there we'd recommend  adding it to your "to do" list.  It does require advance planning to reserve a campsite due to it's popularity. The beaches are spectacular and it's a birding "hot spot"

It was great to spend some time with Jen.  She has such a nice apartment and it's cool to see some of our things interspersed in her place.  When we started full timing let's just say she inherited early.  She moved to St. Petersburg almost a year ago and she is  very happy with her decision.  

Fort De Soto is near her apartment and we decided to take the ferry over to Egmont Key for a day of shelling and sightseeing.  It's a pretty island managed as a State Park and by Fish and Wildlife.  Half of the island is a protected bird sanctuary (off limits) where thousands of birds nest and hang out this time of year. Over 300 hundred loggerhead turtles also nested here last year and the ranger told us they are hoping for more this season since  a large area area of the beach was reclaimed. 

Gopher Tortoise

Jen and I spent most of the time enjoying the beach and shelling.  She really enjoys this hobby and is quite lucky at finding some really cool ones.  John explored the fort area which was built in 1898 during the Spanish American War.  The island was also a camp for captured Seminole Indians during the Third Seminole War. 

Lighthouse (est. 1858)

Remnants  of Fort Dade (built 1898)

MacDill Fam Camp

We are staying out at the MacDill Air Force Base campground. The sites are very good size, well spaced, and nicely maintained.  It's only $20/night which is a great bargain in Florida and it's available to active duty and retired military folks.  There is an excellent beach and really is a city within a city. It takes almost a half an hour to get from the gate to the campground.

Right now it is only partially full but during peak season there is a rotation schedule which involves changing your site every two weeks.  During peak times the office told us you might be in a boondocking site. Last season the longest time in this area was eight days before rotating to a hook up site. There are some full hook up sites where you do not have to rotate at all, however, these sites must be reserved a year in advance and there is a long waiting list.  

Caloosa Bird Club

On Monday we met up with the Caloosa Bird Club for the last trip of the season.  Fort De Soto is a large park and our leader Vince took us to many areas. There were a few warblers and lots of shorebirds looking really fine in their breeding  plumage. There has been a Grooved  Billed Ani hanging out in the area for awhile.  It's unusual to see this bird in Florida and we had tried without success to find it in February while in the area for the Tampa RV show. Today with the help of our guide we were successful!  Thanks so much Vince. Our photo is not the best but we were thrilled to finally see it.

Laughing Gulls

A huge flock of Marbled Godwits

Grooved-billed Ani hiding in the brush

Two Royal Terns and a Common Tern

We also saw a Great Horned Owl and later it's nest with two baby owlets.  Life is good!

Great Horned Owl

Two Great Horned Owlets

Last night we drove over to Anna Marie Island to visit some friends we workamped with in Watkins Glen New York.  In the winter they live in a cute community of "vintage" trailers.  They purchased it last year and have fixed it up so nicely.  In this friendly community you own the home but rent the property. It's in a great location near the beach and quaint downtown.  We had a nice dinner together and caught up with each others travels.  They will be workamping this summer at a KOA in Bar Harbor Maine. We hope to visit them there on our way out of Canada this fall.

John, me, Thomas, and Fidencia

Cute property nearby

Thomas and Fidencia's home

Today we are stocking up on groceries at the commissary and getting ready to head to northern Florida for a little kayaking.  Stop back soon! We are going to visit some mermaids.  Do you know where we are going?

Domicile Changes, Quick Road Trip, and Farewell to the Tetons

Jackson, WY (46 degrees, below freezing at night)

Devils Tower

Our mail service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Dakota Post (formerly Alternative Resources) recently announced they were moving to a new office building which would require us to have to change our address.  They are adding a scan service which will email a picture of the front of your received mail envelope allowing you to choose to  forward or destroy each piece prior to forwarding it to you.  In addition, they are now the mail service for FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) and for a variety of reasons need a bigger building  It's a huge inconvenience to us to have to change our address and there have been no offers of any kind by this mail service to compensate you for this inconvenience.  I'm not sure the scan service is all that important to us since we don't receive very much snail mail anymore.  

I started to  research changing our residency to Florida since we will be visiting this state more frequently than South Dakota  In the process of this research I read it is no longer required to return to South Dakota every five years to renew your drivers license. We've always been able to register to vote and obtained our vehicles license plates by mail after our initial visit. This recent change now allows you to renew your drivers license once by mail therefore only having return to South Dakota every 10 years. Sounded like a great idea, however, there is a catch.  You have to spend one night in a hotel or campground within the year of  renewing your license.  This receipt has to be less than one year old.

We talked about our upcoming plans for travel and it looked like our current location was our best and least expensive time to secure the one night stay in South Dakota.  The closest city with a  hotel from Jackson Wyoming was Hot Springs South Dakota and so without much time to plan we took off for the weekend.  It was one long road trip (over 1100 miles roundtrip) but we now have the receipt to use next spring for the renewal.

Residency requirements for states change frequently and many South Dakota full time RVers had to change to another state after Obama care went into effect. If this is your option for  medical insurance you are  required to live in the state for at least 10 months and this really is not an option for a full time RVer. We have Federal insurance which does not have this requirement and allows us to seek medical care wherever we are at the time.  

Deciding which state to call your domicile as a full timer requires a lot of research and what fits for one RVer may not work for you.  There is more to consider than just whether or not a state has income tax.  Somehow I missed this recent change in driver license renewals in South Dakota, so be sure to check often and watch forums, blogs, and state websites for the current information.

The cost of changing our residency to Florida would be more expensive in the long run. Our motorhome insurance would increase by $300 a year and licensing our car and motorhome is slightly more expensive. We would also have change to a Florida mail service because I think it's important to be able to have a good defense if your residency is ever challenged.  Claiming you are a full time resident with an out of state mail service in my opinion could be problematic.  Trying to coordinate license plates and registration take a lot of planning as well to avoid a big cost in the overlapping of dates.  

We did detour out of our way to visit Devils Tower National Monument.  It was an interesting place to visit and is considered sacred by many Indian tribes.  We saw four groups of climbers ascending the 867 foot tower.  A ranger we spoke with said there were more injuries from folks hiking around the monument rather than climbing it.  They average about five climber rescues year mostly due to climbing ropes getting stuck.  Working in a National Park this year has made us more aware of rescues and injuries  which occur each year. It really was not something we were very aware of until this season.  The Jenny Lake Rangers in the Grand Teton National Park were very busy this season rescuing climbers and there were several deaths and severe injuries.  We have great respect for the men and women who help out and risk their own lives in the process.  

The Devils Tower was named by explorer but the Indians named it Bear Lodge. The folklore around this name can be read here .

Back in Jackson you might notice there is SNOW on the mountains.  It sure is beautiful to see but also makes us realize it's time to go.  

Our last week with Grand Teton Association went by very quickly. It was very difficult to say good bye to the full time staff  and the friends we have made while living in the area.  It's been such a great experience and by far our favorite workamping job.  

GTA Luncheon

There were several good bye lunches and dinners and we really feel blessed by all the friendships we have made.  We will certainly return here again in the future and a long list of "wanna do" hikes and kayak trips is already being compiled.   We would highly recommend GTA to others workampers who might be looking for summer/fall employment for 2015.  

We will soon be on our way back to Florida but a few side trip are planned.  Be sure to check back soon.