South Dakota Residents

We‘d been living on the edge for too long, taking our chances. . .so I finally made several l-o-n-g phone calls to find reasonable full timers vehicle insurance.  I’m very happy with the information, service, & insurance I got from Dougherty Insurance in Sioux Falls, SD. They are a family-owned, independent broker that can check the rates & quotes from nearly all carriers of full time RV insurance. In case you didn’t already know, having most all of your worldly possessions in a vehicle capable of moving from state to state needs a specific type of insurance quite different from insurance for a S&B house. Like. . .most RVs will never have termite damage!
So, with a permanent South Dakota address already, & now decent fulltime insurance, we took the opportunity in late February to complete divorcing Missouri & sneak into Sioux Falls, SD to officially establish residency (between snow events). The day was clear & sunny with a slight breeze, & not looking like winter at all. We got a small discount at Tower Campground as a customer of our mail forwarding service with Your Best Address. Still, for one night, not needing any of the facilities or even hooking up to water or sewer, I thought the $30 charge was a bit steep.  We went to the Administration Building for Minnehaha County to get the process completed. Jeff got his SD driver’s license, but I didn’t have my first marriage license from 1969 to prove a name change so I couldn’t change my license. [Divorce papers alone don’t work.] We also got license tags for the pickup & trailer, but since they expire in May, I can get my license when we return for the vehicle tags then. We also registered to vote. I think we’re done here for now.
Whew, I’m very relieved to reside in a state now without income or property taxes. I want life to be simpler & less stressful (or is that just less taxing?), so this is working out well.
Oh, and about this winter thing. We hauled out of Sioux Falls the next morning slightly after 7am as the snow was starting to cover the ground. Thankfully, the roads were just wet & the snow turned to rain within a half hour south of town. But it was way too close!
We also managed to visit with a former co-worker & good friend who now lives in Sioux City, IA. It was just raining there also, but still on the chilly side. Missouri was looking better all the time now.
We decided to stay a couple of nights at Weston Bend State Park, located on a bluff above the Missouri River south of Weston, MO (across the river from Ft Leavenworth, KS). We’d visited this park several times but never managed to camp there. Very nice park.