Blues

Actually, the word "tax" hadn't even been mentioned when you posted about people filing fake domicile changes to avoid taxes. Plus, you were talking about people who live in one state trying to claim "residence" in anther state, which has nothing to do with people, like the OP, who don't live anywhere in particular but have to choose a place to domicile. myshipp, your situation is a textbook example of someone who decides to travel fulltime: I'm leaving here, not going back, and will either travel until I die or stop traveling when I find some place I want to settle down. As you noted, you're facing challenges because "the system" isn't set up to accommodate people who are doing that, including taking steps to declare a domicile. The vast majority of people just have a domicile, with no thought whatsoever.

A few years ago, a lady wrote up an account of establishing Florida domicile by flying in and doing it all in one day. For the life of me, I can't find it. I think you in particular may have trouble because you haven't been having mail sent to your Florida address. The reason Escapees doesn't suggest that you have your regular mail sent to the Florida address is that it automatically gets sent to your Texas address, and you pay a separate fee for each piece that gets sent. Not to mention that there's a delay involved. Personally, I've always been a little uneasy about the way Escapees does this, but so far it appears to work. But there are other mail services in Florida that don't involve having the Florida address serve solely as a place to receive only the portion of your mail that relates to your Florida domicile. The address you use for your Florida stuff is the same address you use for everything. But there's nothing stopping you from changing your address for bank statements or credit card bills to the Florida address before you have any connection to Florida. The language you quoted says that printouts of documents are acceptable; I have a street address on the .pdf copies of my bank statements, even though I don't actually get those in the mail. I wonder if you could change your address with your bank, for example, and ask them to generate a statement or other document with that address on it, and look at it online, and print it for use for getting your driver's license. It doesn't sound like the authorities make you bring the actual envelope or anything. And then once you use those documents to get your Florida driver's license, you can change the address back to the Livingston address, to avoid having to pay extra if something does happen to actually get sent. Again, this is an oddity with the bifurcated system Escapees is using that seems to work, but it just seems questionable to me. What you'll find is that for fulltimers, there's a lot of wedging yourself into various categories. Pre-Medicare health insurance is a prime example. The ACA says it's based on where you actually reside, but for traveling fulltimers, it's literally impossible to change health insurance for each place you stay, and I don't use the word "literally" lightly. There are time deadlines and documentation requirements that a traveling fulltimer simply can't fulfill, but nobody thinks that should disqualify them from having health insurance. So they figure out what can work, which is that they get it where their domicile is.

What good pre-Medicare options are y'all finding in Travis County? I looked into it, and all the plans that were on the exchange were either PPOs without a nationwide network or HMOs. What if a person doesn't spend time in any place long enough to apply for and get health insurance associated with that location before heading off to the next place?

The post with the misinformation was from a few days ago, in a thread that drifted into health insurance for fulltimers. The person who posted this said said that under certain circumstances, "going with an HMO might be a good option" for fulltimers, and I think tried to bolster the case by raising doubt about what the nationwide-network PPO plans cover, without any substantiation, or apparently even understanding of how the insurance works. Here's the full comment: http://www.rvnetwork.com/topic/137958-domicile-decisions/?do=findComment&comment=1005298

The following was in a thread that is now closed, so I can't respond to it, but there's misinformation in it that needs to be corrected. This post appears to be saying that out-of-state care would be out-of-network, but that's not the case with a PPO plan from an insurance company that provides its members access to a nationwide network (like Florida Blue, a popular choice among fulltime RVers because members have in-network access to Blue Cross providers across the country). I don't know where the poster got the idea that being outside the state would affect anything for a person who has a plan with access to a nationwide network and chooses a provider from that list. As for authorizations for "expensive" care, has anyone with a PPO plan been forced to get treatment from one particular in-network provider instead of another in-network provider in order for it to be covered?

If it's a service dog that is individually trained to perform a task for a disabled person, why would it be left behind?

No it wasn't. Let's review. You first said: When presented with the notion that it's possible for individual to make informed choices about whether to have various screenings, you didn't say, "Good point--I didn't think of that." Instead, what you said was:

She's doing informed preventive care, weighing the upsides and downsides to her. Just because it's not something you would do doesn't make it an invalid choice.

Just because someone makes a health care choice that you wouldn't doesn't mean it's dumb, never mind really dumb. I was just pointing out that there are people who don't want to have various screenings. I cited some of the issues presented by medical testing because I thought it would lead to an inference that they are making informed choices, and commenters would give their opinions some deference. Obviously I was wrong.

But what about your case of a broken ankle? Or even a heart attack, which could happen to a person in relatively good health? At what point does the covered emergency end, after which the traveler outside his HMO area has no coverage at all? If people want to go with an HMO because they think they will be able to deal with the restrictions on their travel and their choices in follow-up care, that's up to them. But as with everything, I think it should be an informed decision, and like I said, I never have been able to get an answer on when a covered emergency ends, which would be vital information for someone choosing a plan under which their coverage while traveling is only for an emergency. Or it's a decision some people make and then are thankful that they didn't undergo the hassle and expense of unnecessary tests and hassle and expense and mental anguish of false positives and further procedures based on the false positives.

It depends on the plan. Florida has HMOs that are no better for travelers than what's available in other states, and it has PPOs that don't have a nationwide network. What a traveler wants is a PPO with a nationwide network, and Blue Cross in Florida has some plans that offer that. But Ambetter also offers PPO plans in Florida, but they don't have a nationwide network. So even in Florida, you have to be careful what you buy. But someone who's on vacation is planning on going home anyway, and can get follow-up care once they get home. But for someone who's not "going home" after the emergency--I've never been able to get a definitive answer on what's considered an emergency. Like a broken ankle--where does getting the cast taken off six weeks later fit in? Is that part of the original emergency? Is it a separate emergency, and subject to a separate emergency copay? Is it not an emergency at all, and therefore not covered unless your primary care doctor does it? What about emergency heart surgery? I assume you have to stay in the hospital afterwards. Is the hospital stay considered still part of the emergency, or is the emergency over once the surgery is over? If it's the latter, then you don't have any coverage for any of that hospital stay. And what about follow-up visits once you're out of the hospital? I'd be shocked if they're covered by the $500 copay for the original emergency, and unless you travel to a doctor in your network, they won't be covered at all. Having to be some place specific once a year, at the same time each year, would put a huge crimp in my traveling. Same with having to go back to a certain location in order to get follow-up care after an emergency. For someone who's really on vacation and going back home, it's not a particular disruption. But a traveling fulltimer would have to change plans in order to go to that location, plus find a place to stay for as long as he needs the follow-up care (the injured vacationer already lives there). I would much prefer being able to continue to get care wherever I had the emergency, or even in the next place I was planning to go. Or at least to have that option.

And frankly, even if you pay for the product there's no assurance that you're not still the product.

Can you give specifics on what's available in Texas that would work for traveling fulltimers? Everything I've seen is either an HMO or a PPO with only a local network.

I've stayed at only one campground on a military base, and that's where I encountered a dryer that had melted crayon in it. I'm glad I didn't look only for stray items on my pre-loading inspection, because it was hard to see.

I deposit checks by putting them in a postage paid envelope with the bank's address on it. There's always a rush to use the newest technology, and then later you find out what's really going on. It's mainly in the privacy arena (that we know of), but what's going on there doesn't give me any confidence in the financial arena. I'm still not 100% convinced that my money is safe and will always be available whenever I want it in accounts that have online access, but it's the only way I can function as a fulltimer, so I accept that. But I'm not going to compound the risk by putting it all in a device that gets carried around all over the place. The thing about alerts is that regardless of whether you find out one second or one month after your card is compromised, the card will still be cancelled and you'll have to figure out how to get another one sent to you (always a hassle if you're a traveling fulltimer). You're not going to have to pay for the fraudulent charges, so the early alert really doesn't do anything at all.

Then I guess it was just us they didn't like, since we were rolling in a new 40' diesel pusher.

We spent two months in an Escapee co-op park back when we first started fulltiming. We were 47 and 37 years old at the time. We went to a breakfast they were having, and didn't feel welcome at all. I can engage a fence post in discussion, and even I was struggling to get anybody to talk to us. So I talked at various people for a bit, and then we left. Then one afternoon we spotted a basketball hoop. We have a basketball, so we went and got it and shot some hoops. The next day, the hoop was gone. Another day, the 37-year-old was riding his bike around the fenced and gated park out in the middle of nowhere, and someone stopped him to make sure he was allowed to be there.

And I am amazed at the number of people who have their financial accounts intermingled with their cell phones.

Actually, I use a debit card at an ATM to get cash, not a credit card. And unless I give the merchant my phone number or email address, nobody's going to know it was me who bought whatever it is I bought. You can buy a gift card with cash, and use that to pay for online purchases. Of course, the purchase has to be delivered, so it can't be anonymous like an in-person cash transaction can be. And I, anyway, am not suggesting that anyone needs to never use a credit card. I use mine for pretty much everything I buy, knowing that I'm trading my privacy for the convenience and the cash back. But I do like knowing that if for whatever reason I don't want to have a given purchase matched to me for eternity, I don't have to if I pay cash. This might be a good idea if you use the same laundry each week but when traveling this would be just an additional step. Not only that, you incur a one-time charge for the card, plus I've been to ones where if you put too much money on it, they won't refund it. If you're not going to be there again, you're out that money. I just keep a bag of quarters in the glove compartment. It always has around $20 worth, and if I use them at a place where the change machine isn't working, I just make a point to replenish it next time I'm near a change machine. It's really not that hard, plus it means I always have $20 in cash in the car, in case I forget my wallet. Well, that's the thing. It's great until it's not great. I had my credit card locked down because I bought both diesel and gas at the same station (filled moho and toad), but nothing whatsoever got triggered when I had 65 Uber charges in just a couple of weeks, totaling over $2,000, even though I'd never had an Uber charge before (and in fact don't even have an Uber account).

I don't care how good you are at tracking people, absent facial recognition (which was definitely not in use when the pregnant teenager got outed), if a customer pays with cash and doesn't use a loyalty card or give an email address or phone number or other identifying information, there's no way the purchase can be attached to a data file on that person.

It became obsolete and foolish, as well as a huge waste of time. Right now the Amex Blue Cash Everyday card is paying us back 6% on groceries (yes, six percent, not a typo), and 3% on gas/diesel. It would be crazy to use cash. And it takes longer to get it, and use it, and deal with change. Right now, cash transactions are anonymous. Not wanting every single thing you buy to be recorded in a database isn't necessarily foolish if you value your privacy, or at least as much as you can get these days.

These were all notably unique to me. Since I have a washing machine, the number of laundromats I've been to is small compared to people who have to go 25 or 50 times a year. Plus it's a production to figure out which one to go to in the first place, and then load up the car and make sure I don't leave anything behind in a washing machine or dryer, or dropped on the floor (never did find that lost sock in Crested Butte).

I ran into this at Smith's in Taos, New Mexico, a couple of months ago. There was a sign at the entrance about it, even though the policy had started back in April. Kroger first did this a year ago, at Foods Co stores, which are all in California. At the time, people worried that it was a harbinger for other Kroger stores, but so far, it's been only Smith's.

I have a washer/dryer onboard, but every once in a while use a laundromat (16 years of fulltiming), and I have the same dispiriting experiences you do. Smokers right at the door, and even inside, they reek if you're within 10 feet of them. Slack-jawed people watching blaring TVs, or yammering into their cell phones. Screaming kids running around. Sound familiar? A laundromat in El Reno, Oklahoma, was the worst I'd ever seen. I'd taken the cover off my mattress, along with my bedspread, and turned around and walked out and put them back on the bed, unwashed. Fruita, Colorado, was also gross. And in Padre Island, Texas, my sheets came out of the washer with oil all over them. My takeaway was to be careful when in areas where there is oilfield activity, which all three of these were. But I've had some nice ones, too. The laundromat in Winter Park, Colorado, was just wonderful--clean, unpopulated, and a chill vibe. Three miles up the road, in Fraser, it was merely passable (but I did find a dollar in a washing machine). The one I went to in Boulder, Colorado, was also super--on a weekday morning, just a couple of college kids in there. Crested Butte, Colorado, has one laundromat, and at least half the machines are always broken every time I've been there over the years. Frisco, Colorado, has two laundromats, and the one I went to had a nice atmosphere (which probably just means there was hardly anybody else there, and they didn't have TVs blaring); the change machine ate my $20 bill, and there was a sign saying to call a phone number if you lose money and I did and left a message with my address and got a $20 bill in the mail. Harrisonburg, Virginia, had a nice new laundromat when I was there, but it didn't take coins--only cards, for which you had to pay $1 or something, and if you put too much money on it you didn't get it back. Not a great situation for people just passing through. These places with nice laundries are often fairly wealthy communities, and I think there's a correlation. Crested Butte's laundry is attached to the hostel, which uses those machines to wash bedding, plus the hostelers use it, which counteracts my usual experience with laundromats in expensive places. (And I just noticed that the majority of these are in Colorado. That's probably because we're usually boondocking in Colorado, or don't have sewer hookups, so we're more likely to use a laundromat.) We don't stay in RV parks that often, but I always check out the laundry room, and they're usually okay, although in some cases, the laundromat in an RV park is the public laundromat for that town. The problem for me is that there can be a limited number of machines, and often no double front loaders or the like. I don't really care for top-loading machines. I do know that timing can make a big difference. I avoid Mondays like the plague, and weekends are obviously crowded. I haven't really decided whether weekday mornings are good or not--they can be overrun with kids, but otherwise don't seem as crowded as evenings. I'm guessing Tuesdays would be a good day, because that's the day that I see laundromats running specials, like free drying. (You'd obviously not want to go when they have free drying if you want to avoid the teeming masses.) If I used the same laundromat all the time, I'd figure out the ebb and flow of people and work around it. And that, of course, is one of the problems with being a fulltimer--not being there long enough to figure out the ebb and flow, never mind take advantage of it. Yelp reviews can be helpful if you keep in mind that most people posting there are idiots whose main complaint about everywhere is that the service employees were cold or arrogant. But you can read between the lines and get a feel for whether the place is new or old, whether they take coins, etc., which can be helpful. To be honest, if I had to always do my laundry at laundromats, I'd rethink fulltiming. My washing machine can do a load with 8 gallons of water, and I've often used it while boondocking because I have a 75-gallon gray tank. It's great if we're mountainbiking a lot, because I can wash just those filthy clothes without going to a laundromat, and the front loader spins the dickens out of them, so they easily dry overnight.

The "months later" worked for you because Les Schwab doesn't accept returns of unused tire chains until after the "end of the season." So it won't work for people just passing through somewhere they think they might need chains or are required to carry them.