Full Time RVer

Washington’s Clallam County is looking for hosts for a couple of their campgrounds. You’ll need to take first aid training and undergo a criminal background check.  Here are the details:

Bear Creek Campground on the south side of U.S. Highway 101 at Milepost 206, along the Sol Duc River.
Time: Summer months only. One-month stay minimum; longer stays are welcome. Campground is open all year. Recreational opportunities: Sites available for self-contained overnight camping (RVs welcome) and day use. Hiking trail to Sol Duc River. Two ADA-accessible sites and two ADA-accessible toilets. Viewing platform (ADA accessible). Fishing. Host Site Accommodations: No water or electricity. Requirements: Two hosts preferred.

Contact: Cathy Baker, 360-374-2860 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 360-374-2860 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, or cathryn.baker@dnr.wa.gov.

Lyre River, five miles outside of Joyce.  Hosts are needed now through September. Recreational opportunities: 11-site campground. No trail access. Host Site Accommodations: RV pad, water, no electricity. Requirements: Two hosts preferred.

Contact: Wayne Fitzwater, 360-374-6131 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 360-374-6131 end_of_the_skype_highlighting; wayne.fitzwater@dnr.wa.gov.

South Dakota is one of the states popular with fulltime RVers. Not so much for making visits there, but with no state income tax and low fees on vehicle registrations, some fulltimers make the Mount Rushmore State their legal domicile. Now, according to a local paper, state authorities are asking questions that are making some RVers uncomfortable.

The Argus Leader says that state officials recently sent a memo to county treasurers throughout the state, mandating more information from folks renewing or applying for vehicle registrations. “The goal,” says Debra Hillmer, chief of the state’s Motor Vehicle Department, “is to discourage falsified applications and collect information on where people really reside. Ultimately, that information could be used by other states to crack down on their residents who license cars, boats and motor homes here.”

Apparently this information swapping has already started. Witness a 2007 information exchange between Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Comparing Nebraska driver license data to South Dakota and Iowa motor vehicle registrations yielded some 13,000 matches–8,000 alone from South Dakota. Nebraska’s DMV was not pleased, figuring the crossovers cost Nebraska plenty of tax money.

But it’s one thing for neighboring state residents to try and cheat on taxes; the issue for full time RVers is a whole different matter. It’s often held fulltimers can choose any state they want to call “home,” from a legal perspective. South Dakota doesn’t disagree with that, but the requirements to ‘prove up’ your domicile status can be a bit of a pinch.  While “nomads” as the official state jargon calls fulltimers, are welcome to register vehicles in South Dakota, those who use a mail-forwarding service address must sear out an affidavit that they have no other address outside of South Dakota.

That could prove problematic for those who own a deeded RV lot in say, Texas or Arizona, but chose to only visit the place occasionally, or never touch tire there, and simply rent it out to others. Or what about the snowbird who maintains a post office box in a snowbird town for the convenience of receiving that mail forwarded from South Dakota. Lie on the affidavit and you’ll set yourself up for a possible felony charge.

The issue is one that’s emotionally, and politically charged. Some point the finger at pressure put on popular fulltime domicile states by neighbors jealous of the revenues made. Others say that the increasing noose of US Homeland Security regulations are at the base of the controversy. Regardless of the cause, it must give something for those fellows up on Mount Rushmore to discuss when the subject of freedom is raised.

Many fulltime RVers have lists of “must sees” and “must dos” that keep them occupied 24/7. Others may not be so organized, and occasionally hit a snag of, “Well, what do we do now?” While RVers are pretty familiar with the National Park System, the National Wildlife Refuge System is one of the country’s best kept secrets.

The National Wildlife Refuge System is considered by some to be the world’s premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife.  Teddy  Roosevelt kick started the system when he designated Florida’s Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge as the first wildlife refuge in 1903. Since then, the system has grown to more than 150 million acres, with nearly 600 wildlife refuges.

Many refuges offer interpretative car routes that cross some amazing landscapes and provide close-up views of wildlife. The government says there’s a wildlife refuge within an hour of every major US city, and the gate fees are typically very low, or free.  Many refuges in the system are more than just big fish ponds with flapping birds. While you’ll see plenty of birds in most refuges, depending on your locale you may even see bison roaming the road up ahead, or experience the last untilled prairie grass in the US.

Some refuges allow RVers to camp during their visit. Others have hiking trails for those who want to get out and about on their feet.  Fishing fin-attic?  There are refuges where visitors are granted piscatorial privileges. To find a refuge along your trail, point your browser to http://www.fws.gov/refuges/