With any move, certain entities require notification and certain physical changes need to be made. When moving full-time into an RV, however, those changes are hardly typical and some questions and uncertainties arise. Here’s how Mister and I handled a few of those atypical circumstances.

Mail Service

“Sooooo, what do we do about mail? How do we receive packages? Bills? Voter registration and ballots??!! How will my college alma mater magazine ever reach me???!!!!” I was obviously headed toward full-blown panic. Skidding down that slippery slope my husband dreaded and tried, with every ounce of his being, to avoid.

After scouring Facebook posts and blogs and doing a bit of research, Mister found the answers to all my questions and more. He explained that we’d be using a mail service to receive mail and packages, scan envelopes, with an option to scan contents, and deliver our mail/packages anywhere in the U.S. 

After exploring several mail-forwarding services, we ultimately decided to go with St. Brendan’s Isle. 

From their website:

“St. Brendan’s Isle “Travelers Special” Mail Forwarding Service is designed exclusively for full and part time RV Travelers. As you travel from location to location, just let us know and we will send your mail whenever and however you request. We are very flexible and strive to meet your ever changing needs.

When subscribing to our RV Travelers Special Mail Service we will assign you a street address. Unlike a P.O. Box., this actual street address will allow you to accept, Certified Mail, UPS and Fed Ex and DHL deliveries.”

To date, Mister and I have had mail, prescriptions, and packages delivered to us at various campsites, using both express and snail mail options.

Prescription Refills

Retirement often comes with the need to maintain a strict regimen of diet, exercise, and multi-colored, multi-textured tablets. The stereotypical cocktail of morning and/or evening meds is the reward – or price, I’m not sure which – for a lifetime of hard work and hard living. So, again, how do we get our life-extending elixirs on a consistent and reliable basis?

As a former frequent flier, Mister was already established with a mail-order pharmacy service – a benefit option provided through his insurance. As an Express Scripts customer, he was able to have a 90-day supply of his daily required medications mailed to his location anywhere in the U.S. Enrolling me and my prescriptions, upon my retirement, simply entailed creating an online account and alerting my doctor.

Once we set up my online account with my physician and insurance information, my doctor’s office linked my 90-day refills to Express Scripts for mail delivery. Both of us now have our prescriptions sent to the St. Brendan’s Isle address then forwarded to our campsite.

Local Options:

In addition, we have used Walmart and CVS pharmacies, in various locations, for emergency and/or one-time refills. Recently, a call to my doctor’s office had a prescription available for pick-up at a Pensacola Neighborhood Walmart within an hour.

Establishing Residency  

The question of what address to use on our driver’s licenses was a nagging one for me. Initially, we chose to use my brother and sister-in-law’s address. They didn’t mind, and we even had a couple of pieces of mail delivered to their house to seal the deal. Still, I felt I was intruding in some way, like I had crossed some privacy line. I felt like a relative who had virtually moved in and wouldn’t leave. 

Enter Mister to the rescue, once again. He researched the requirements and pros and cons of establishing residency in the following states: Texas (our home state), South Dakota, and Florida. In the end, we chose Florida because:

  1. Lower vehicle insurance rates
  2. No additional driver’s license requirements to drive a large class A
  3. Disney World discounts for Florida residents 

Upon further research, Mister found that St. Brendan’s Isle offered a pathway toward becoming Floridians and a relationship with local agencies that made the transition easy.  Using the instructions and forms provided on the St. Brendan’s website, we traveled to Green Cove Springs, FL and did the following:

  1. Visited the local DMV and registered the RV and chose our license plate style
  2. Got back in line at the DMV (because this is a two-step process) and had our driver’s licenses switched from Texas to Florida (no test required other than a simple eye exam)*
  3. Drove one block up the street to the Supervisor of Elections Office to complete voter registration

*There are three critical items worth mentioning that were not clear in the website instructions:

  • ID requirements – proof of social security (your SS card is simplest) AND proof of citizenship are required
  • Two forms of proof of residential address for EACH party applying for a license (your individual name MUST appear with this address)
  • Vehicle insurance card MUST show Florida as the insured vehicle’s state of issue as a Florida State Insurance Card

This entire process took less than two hours to complete. Staff at both locations (yes, even the DMV) were very friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. We left Green Cove Springs with Florida driver’s licenses, plates, and voter registration receipts in hand.

Suddenly, we were Floridians. Wow, that was almost too easy!

The Moral of the Story

There are a million little details that come with owning an RV and traveling full-time. While I initially overwhelmed myself with questions and concerns about the logistics of maintaining this mobile lifestyle in a sticks-and-bricks world, I soon found comfort in the knowledge that systems exist and resources are available to reestablish services, connections…a sense of normalcy. Ultimately, with hubby’s help, I realized that this new-to-me experience is actually a well-traversed road with plenty of helpful folks and a multitude of signposts along the way.