My friend Jean Larson suggested that I make a blog post that answers a lot of common questions that I've been getting from folks. First of all, let me start off my saying that I DO NOT know all the answers to how this is going to work. But Steve and I spend a lot of time researching the way full-time RV'ers live, and we've learned a few tricks.
Q: How will you receive mail?
A: This is a two-part answer. First, I have to explain the Escapees RV Club.
There is an organization based here in Texas that many full-time RV'ers join called Escapees, or SKP's for short. When you join SKP's, your legal domicile becomes Livingston, Texas. There is a humongous RV park in Livingston where a lot of full-timers live, and it becomes their permanent residence. This has actually gone all the way through the Texas Supreme Court, and it is completely legal to live on the road full-time and claim Livingston as your permanent address.
As such, once we join Escapees, we will have a unique mailing address. Escapees offers a mail service whereby they will collect our mail, sort it, and forward it to any place that we want, at any time that we want. All it takes is a phone call.
Q: What about voting?
A: Well, that's something I haven't completely figured out yet. Since we still own the rental property, I would like to be able to vote in that district. However, my legal address will be Livingston, Texas, for the year we're on the road. So I'll still be able to vote in federal and statewide elections, but only locally in Livingston and Polk County. That's a bummer, because if they're going to raise my property taxes on our rental house, we should have some say in the matter! Someone on the SKP discussion forum suggest that we talk with the voter registrar in our present county to see if they'll still allow us on the voter roll. That's something to consider. Regardless of where our voting address will be, we will still be voting by absentee ballot. Since we've been a military family for all these years, this is something we are already familiar with.
Q: How will you educate your kids on the road?
A: Again, we already have a foot in the door on this issue since we have always homeschooled our kids. By law, you have to follow the compulsory attendance laws of the state you are physically IN, but only if you are in that state for more than "X" number of days. Since we plan to be on the go most of the time, we are fairly certain that this isn't something we'll have to be concerned with. We plan to follow the homeschooling laws for the state of Texas, just as we always have (with the exception of the two years we lived in North Dakota).
Now, as to whether or not we'll actually have TIME to get the book work done? That's another issue altogether! I'm honestly not sure how we'll get it all done while traveling so much. Luckily, Andrew and Ben are going to be seniors, and they have already nearly reached all graduation requirements anyhow. I'm not too worried about them. TJ will be in 10th grade, and that's the one that has me concerned. (More about him later.) After him, I will have Daniel in 8th grade. Since that isn't yet officially "high school", I'm not too concerned about him, either. He'll have lots of time to "catch up". Same thing with my 2nd grader Joseph. He will be 10 years old and has special needs, so his educational path is completely at his own pace. His focus is on the three R's only, so as long as he gets those, he'll be okay. NOW, all that said, it will be my 10th grader TJ that will be my biggest concern. I'm not sure how we'll make sure he gets what he will need. I'm going to create coursework based on the trip itself that will (hopefully) satisfy requirements for American history. I might try to do something like "American Cultures" or something like that. I dunno. I haven't thought that completely through yet. We'll figure it out eventually. For interest's sake, this type of education is referred to as "roadschooling". (Yes, there's actually a name for it!)
Q: What about medical/dental/vision issues?
A: Since Steve is a military retiree, our family has coverage through Tricare insurance. This is mobile and can be used nearly anywhere, plus we can be seen at military installations if needed. (Of course, in the case of a true emergency, we will just go to the closest facility.) Luckily, none of us has any ongoing medical issues that require constant attention. Daniel uses a daily inhaler to control asthma, but we receive his medications through the mail-order pharmacy. We just have to make sure his prescription is renewed right before we leave. Joseph has speech and occupational therapy twice each week, and that will have to be discontinued. I do have home instruction books for speech therapy as well as a few things for occupational therapy, but my hope is that I will be able to work with his current therapists and they will be able to give me resources for the year we're gone. Again, I don't know exactly how we're going to work this out, but I'm not too worried about it. And just overall, we're going to have to make sure everyone has a good, thorough physical check-up before we leave, as well as dental and vision exams.
Q: What are you going to do with the dog?
A: Ah, Cocoa the Dog. We so wish we could bring her with us, but six kids and two adults are enough for any RV. I just can't fathom having a 50-pound labrador/retriever mix along with us. My niece Pam in Colorado Springs has agreed to foster Cocoa for the year in case I can't find anyone local to do it. And if I can't find anyone local to do it, then I have to figure out how to get the dog out to Colorado Springs.
Q: What tow vehicle did you find that holds that many people???
A: We didn't find one that holds eight people! When we RV'ed with our long travel trailer, we pulled it with a suped-up 15 passenger van. We actually still own that van, but it won't pull our fifth wheel RV. As you can see from the first post in this blog, we have the typical pick-up truck tow vehicle which Steve will drive. I'll have to follow along separately in the van. Kinda stinks, but that's the reality that is our life.
I'm sure there are a lot of other questions that I haven't thought about. If you have any others, let me know!
