This is the State Capitol and grounds at Pierre in our home state, South Dakota. Since 2003, we have licensed, banked, insured, and voted (absentee) there. But we don't own any Dakota property and never have. Our legal address is a box in Sioux Falls, a perfectly nice little city, but one which did not present many photo ops. Like many full-time RVers, we chose South Dakota as our domicile for practical (tax-saving) purposes. There are three or four other states that may provide similar advantages; Bill did a lot of research before we decided to choose SD. Here are a couple of web-sites that were helpful in our planning:
Alternative Resources: http://www.alternativeresources.net
Escapees: http://www.escapees.com
We use Alternative Resources, which provides mail-forwarding services. ("How do you get your mail?" is one of the most frequent questions we get.) We simply call or e-mail AR with a current physical address and they forward all of our accumulated mail. Because we now do all of our banking (and pretty much everything else) on the Internet, we get our mail only once a month. The very nice people at Alternative will also take care of annual license renewal for our truck and 5th wheel. I'd be willing to pay their reasonable fee even if we were in Sioux Falls. Who wants to go to any DMV if someone else will do it for you?
But this summer, we will put in a physical appearance, because our drivers licenses will expire in August. (For this purpose, of course, they need to see our bodies and eyes.) The state issues five-year licenses. In 2003, this year seemed a long while off. Now it seems like the time has flown since then.
But here's the interesting thing about SD -- we really like the state! We chose it for practical purposes and knew that after our initial visit to set things up we wouldn't have to go there often. But there is so much to see. We made a return visit in 2004 and actually look forward to being there again. Needless to say, we never plan to visit "home" in the Winter (those snow marker posts along all the residential streets are downright scary). We certainly hope to avoid tornado and hail season as well and both years we were there, were fortunate to have only beautiful weather. (This picture is a typical prairie scene, where there's a monument to Chief Sitting Bull. It's lovely in the summer, but easy to imagine how it would look in the dead of winter -- or what would happen when the wind swept across.)
We visited the Badlands and Mount Rushmore and spent quite a bit of time in Custer State Park, which has more wildlife than most National Parks that we've seen. 
On our second visit, we stayed in Sturgis (but not during the motorcycle rally weeks) and that was our headquarters to visit Pierre and other surrounding parts of the state.
Both times, we visited the monument to Crazy Horse, which is an all-time favorite place -- in South Dakota or anywhere else we've been.
We look forward to seeing the progress when we're there later this year.
Comments