-The answers you never hear from those who full-time RV.
-These topics are very crucial to know
if you are planning on living on the road.
Get ready to take some notes. -Here we go.
-Let's have a discussion about getting mail on the road.
We're going to go right into what we personally use.
-Like I was a little nervous getting into this.
I'm like, where we going to ship our mail?
We use a program call Escapees. Now, they offer multiple services.
Which is at the base rate, $50 a year.
But to get the mailing service, it's going to be an additional cost of like...
-$95 to like 135.
-So, when you sell your sticks and bricks,
now you need somewhere to ship your mail.
You ship it to Escapees, they're going to manage it for you.
Figure out where you are in the country and then say, hey...
where do you want us to ship this mail?
And you're like, I'm here, ship it here.
-It's great because they hold onto it and they sort it for you.
So, when you're ready to finally have it sent to you,
which is what we're going to get into later of how do you get that
from Escapes to you, it's really really convenient
because they're really quick on the phone
and their online service is really nice.
-And they have an extra service of scanning.
So when you're worried about junk mail, out on the road, like we were,
they can scan it,
and send you like a PDF document or something online,
and then you could tell them like hey, I want that discarded
or actually that's an important document,
can you please send it to me?
-Now you could sign up for this program in person
and they're located in Livingston, Texas.
Or you can just do it all online.
And if you're not sure how it all works
and you're kind of nervous, just call them and they'll walk you through it.
-Everything we're going to talk about, from here on out, obviously,
is going to be in the description below.
So if you don't know how to access any of this information,
just look underneath the video.
You have to be on a phone so if you're on your TV,
just hop on your phone, watch the video, and then look in the description.
Another program that we're not familiar with but it's an option for you
is America's Mailbox or Traveling Mailbox.
-Yeah, I believe they're similar to how Escapees works.
They can sort and scan and send your mail to you.
-So you want to go ahead and sign up for a program with Escapees.
You send your mail there but how do you actually get it out on the road.
The easiest way to start off
is ask the campgrounds that you're staying at, do they accept mail?
Because they're used to people being on the road full time.
-The thing is though,
you don't want to have a campground being your like main source of mail.
-If we know we're going to a campground for a couple days,
we usually just give em a call ahead of time.
Tell em our scenario that we're full-time on the road and say, hey...
can we send some packages your way?
99% of the time, they're on board with that.
-But there are campgrounds that don't allow this.
So, definitely call and check ahead of time.
-Let's say that the campground just as Renee said,
does not accept that one-time delivery of the package,
what do you do then? -Oh!
-Come on Ney Ney. What do we got?
-There is something called USPS general delivery.
We have not used it before but basically what I've read online
is that you can have a package or just one time mail
shipped to the local post office.
Now the USPS general delivery might not accept UPS packages
or FedEx packages, from what I read.
-Okay. -But there are some locations,
UPS locations, that will accept those packages
but once again, you have to call first
and then expect that there might be a fee.
-And if you guys know more information about this,
please enlighten us by throwing it in the comments below for everybody,
including us to read, so we can learn.
Another great convenient option that we use
so much out on the road is, we're all so familiar with Amazon.
Like Amazon is everywhere. -Yeah.
-Use Amazon lockers and if you're not sure what an Amazon locker is,
they have these lockers that are super safe and secure
set up in like local grocery stores or gas stations.
They'll ship the package there, they'll put it in a specific locker,
send you a code on your mobile device.
You take that code, you type it in,
and then it will open the locker and your package will be waiting there for ya.
-We’ve done this so many times and it works great.
-Heck, the camera that we're using right now, we had it sent to the
Amazon locker and we picked it up and wada bing bada boom.
-No way? -Oh yeah.
Now I'm thinking of it though, what about friends and family?
-Oh…
Basically, wherever you feel like you're going to be in your travels,
call ahead, talk to your friends and family.
Make sure it's okay to ship stuff there,
and then you plan it along the way.
It gets tricky though, because sometimes packages
might not arrive for about a week.
So you really have to know where you're going to be, a general location.
It can be a game, sometimes.
-Plan, plan, plan.
We've been doing this for five years full-time
and we only recently signed up for Escapees.
So what we did before is
we had all of our mail sent to Renee's parents house.
They collected like a whole bunch of it for us
and then shipped us all the mail in like
one big package, wherever we were.
So if you're not with any of these programs as a yet,
don't sweat it. Just use your friends and family.
-Yeah, can we get Dexter's Fancy Feast?
-By the way, did we buy his Fancy Feast recently? -Oh crap.
Moving on to our next crucial topic. -Because it hits home.
We're both nurses so people ask us,
what do we do for healthcare out on the road?
-First aid kit. You're good to go.
Just kidding.
This can be really tricky.
So, we're going to try to explain it
and steer you in the right direction as best we can.
And of course, if anybody out there
has options for others in the comments, please share below.
We're going to start with what did we do because we know a lot of you guys
watching are either getting into travel nursing or
you are travel nursing and you're not sure what's going on.
-Especially in between assignments.
You're like, wait, I lose my health insurance. What do I do?
-Your travel nurse company,
your recruiter that you're working with, should hook you up with
health insurance while you're working.
-And then after your contract is completely over,
you're going to be dropped from that health care insurance.
You're going to have to find your own insurance out there.
-Yeah, because these assignments are usually only 13 weeks long.
And they can't just insure you forever.
What we've run into is that if you have a...
your next contract secured with that same company
and you want to take a couple weeks off,
they'll actually keep you insured.
-Check with your travel company and see what they can do for you.
-We have also, in between contracts, did a short-term plan.
Uh we did it through United Healthcare One
and when our time off was longer than four months,
we just signed up for a really quick health care plan.
And it just got us by, just in case we any like issues or emergencies.
-Getting back to swinging into actually living in a full-time RV though
because that's applicable to everybody.
What do you do when you're living and you're saying this is home.
How do I get healthcare out on the road?
-Your best bet is if you already have a job
and now they're letting you work remotely, so you can hit the road,
is stay with that insurance company,
and make sure that they can cover you nationwide.
-Huge, easy, simple.
But let's say that's not an option for you.
We recently just found a great option that might be applicable to you.
-We stumbled upon RV Insurance Benefits.com
We got connected with Bob.
He got us set up with our own plan and then he was telling us
about how this could benefit so many people hitting the road.
We want to make sure you guys are aware of this.
-We're nurses but with the whole like insurance thing...
Over the head. We needed someone to sit down with us,
break it down in easy, digestible pieces.
Bob, you're the man. You helped us do that.
-Everyone is different. The plan that we have is not going to be
good for you and your family,
or the next neighbor or neighbor next to you in their RV.
-Not going to lie. Health insurance on the road, it's tough.
Especially if you have a lot of pre-existing medical conditions.
-It's also tough if you take a lot of medications. -Yeah.
-Or if you take controlled substances.
These are a lot of bumps in the road that you might run into
if you have all these things. -It's a sticky situation.
So, what we recommend doing is reaching out to Bob.
Like I said before, we're going to put this all in the description.
Click on it. Give em a call and see if it's a great fit for you.
Another cool thing is
part of our plan that we recently just signed up for has telemedicine.
And if you don't know what that is, take it away Ney Ney.
-This is so awesome for people who live on the road
because you could basically see a doctor virtually.
Not just a regular doctor but you could see specialists.
It's so awesome, we have not used it yet.
-Who wants to take time out of their day
and go drive to a doctor's office? This is eliminating that whole process.
You do it all online, you do it through your computer.
You have that professional right there whenever you need them.
-They also do preventative services with this telemedicine.
How cool is that, because that is probably like the key to staying healthy.
-Elaborate for me. What do you mean preventative?
-Like you can see a nutritionist. -Oh, that's super cool.
So, yeah. There's a lot of options out there and preventative is always great.
If you know nurses, we're all preaching preventative medicine is key.
So, stay healthy. Stay out on the road.
-I love that if you woke up
and you're just feeling a little under the weather,
you have a sore throat, little cough...
You can get on with the virtual doctor and they'll let you know,
okay, I know exactly what this is.
I'm going to call you a prescription to where you are.
Or you should probably come into the office and get further
evaluation. -Evaluation, exactly.
As far as prescriptions, that's a whole another ball game.
So, reach out to Bob. Tell em your scenario, your situation,
what you're dealing with, and see if this is going to be a good fit for you.
-What if you already have health insurance?
You have everything established that you need
with your doctors back home.
But how do you get your prescriptions filled on the road?
Ooh. -Great question.
-You just have to make sure you sit down with your doctor.
Let em know that you're doing this
crazy adventure with your RV coming up.
And figure out what's going to work best for you and your scenario.
Especially if you take controlled substances.
We chatted with some people that have to deal with
controlled substances, on the road,
and what they say is that they
have a really good relationship with their physician.
And they know their scenario and if they need a script filled,
they can call it in for them.
Now, we don't really see doctors a whole lot.
We probably should but we're one of those people that are like,
yeah, we'll figure it out. -Yeah.
-But if you are a person that likes to have all your annual
checkups and you are really good about seeing the doctor...
Not like us. -More power to you.
-A lot of people will come back to a certain home base.
They kind of have that area every year that they go back
and they do all their appointments. They get their medications filled.
So, I just want to make you guys aware that that's what
a lot of other full-time RVers are doing and that's always an option.
-But let's talk about the home-base situation. -Oh, yes.
-You're calling this your home and you're like, but where is home?
Where do I keep a driver's license or where am I actually calling home?
We got some great options for you that we recently just found out as well
because we just went through all of this. -Let's talk about domicile.
-You hear about everyone picking up and selling their homes
and hitting the road but then you're like, wait a second,
we're missing some crucial pieces here.
-For many years, we just kept our domicile as Pennsylvania
because that's where our home was.
That's where our nursing licenses were.
But then we realized, wow, we're paying a lot in taxes and
income tax every year and we really don’t need to be.
-We're not tax professionals. So, reach out to your CPA
and figure out if this is a good option for you.
We did and it worked for us.
So, we went to a domicile of South Dakota because it worked in our benefit.
-A lot of people are deciding to change their domicile to a few states.
Now, Escapees will give you a couple states of options for mailing addresses.
-What are those states? -South Dakota, Florida, and...
-Texas. -Texas. -Yeah, that's right, Texas. I forgot about that. -Texas.
-We picked South Dakota. It works best for us.
Do your research and figure out what's good for you.
-Because every state has benefits and cons, right? -Yeah.
Let's talk about a couple of those. -Yeah. So, for example,
South Dakota is great. No-income tax.
Everything is super easy when it comes to like
renewing your license and registrations
but… -Yeah, the registration is even cheaper on the truck. -Yeah.
-But what? -We just read that if you have a lot of health problems
and you need to get services done with a certain provider,
nationwide and they're established in South Dakota,
it could be really really hard.
-Oh, like you have to go back to South Dakota…
-Yes. -To kind of get those checkups and everything? -That's what I heard.
We don't really go see doctors. We don't really…
-We're nurses, like we diagnose ourself and then we wait till the last second
before the point of no return and then we go see somebody so…
Well, what about some pros and cons of Texas?
-Texas is awesome except that every year you have to get a
inspection on your vehicles. -Oh really? Like, vehicles? You said plural.
What do you mean vehicles? -Meaning like your truck, your car, and your RV.
-Really? -State inspection. -So, that's a must. You can't get around that.
-You have to be there every year which is fine because Texas
is big and takes up half the US anyway.
What about Florida? What's the con of being a domicile in Florida?
-One of the things that we notice is car insurance rates are higher.
They kind of rocket up because they're exposed to hurricanes,
other natural disasters there within Florida, that kind of put you at risk.
So, with increased risk is increased prices with insurance.
-A lot of people do domicile in Florida.
And we heard that if you have a lot of health issues
/ if you're on Medicare that
Florida is great when it comes to access to healthcare.
-As we said before, we are not professionals in any of this.
So, please do your due diligence, your own research. -Please.
-And be your own advocate. The Hanks are here for you.
We just want to set you up with some baseline information.
-So, why don't we share with them the process of how we became
residents of South Dakota, our domicile process.
Now, you can do this entire process in one day,
which is crazy to me. -Blows my mind.
First thing we did was…
Actually, Ney Ney, I'm going to let you take this one because
you are the master of this. -Okay. -Okay.
-The first thing we did was actually get a physical address
for the state of South Dakota and we did that through Escapees.
Now, it was time to switch over our registration for our truck and trailer.
Now, we did this via phone call and mail.
You can get this all done in one day, in person,
but you do have to go to the county that your physical address is in.
Here's what happened. Our Pennsylvania registration on our truck
and trailer was about to run out
and we knew that there was going to be a lapse.
So, we were like, well, let's get our South Dakota plates
ahead of time and get those established so that we are not paying
Pennsylvania registration to renew and then having to change it again...
anyway. You know what I'm saying? -Oh, I know what you're saying.
It's not like we call up Pennsylvania and be like, yo
can we get that uh registration fee back, please?
It depends on what your scenario is.
Either call them, take your time with it, or just go get it all done in one day.
-Yeah, we just want to make you aware that you could do it via mail
but it's not the easiest option.
-So now, we got our registration taken care of.
We got the license plates put on.
Now, the last step was to actually go get our licenses.
-Now, the great part about this
is it doesn't have to be in the county that you are domiciled in.
We didn't have to go to Pennington County. -That's great.
-Where did we go?
-We went at the very, very, very, very like Southeastern tip of South Dakota.
What was the name of that little town? -Yankton.
-Yankton, South Dakota. -Which is pretty cool.
I mean we wanted to explore that area anyway so we were like this is perfect.
-What we had to do was actually stay one full day,
24 hours within the state of South Dakota
and prove that we had done that within the past one year?
-Correct. -Yeah.
You had to take that physical receipt
and take it to the actual DMV to prove that you had stayed that 24 hours.
-And RV parks count, hotel counts.
So if you want to just fly and get all this done...
you can stay at a hotel and have that receipt. -Yep.
-Or you can be like us RVers. We went to a KOA.
-Take your home with you and enjoy it
but don't forget the receipt before you go to the DMV.
-Also, don't forget a print out that you have a legal physical address.
-Yes. -We have a paper from Escapees that says our names
and it says that our address is so and so, Box Elder, South Dakota.
-You must bring that physical form with you.
You can't email it. You can't text it.
It has to be in your hands when going to the DMV.
-So how was the process of actually switching over our license and everything.
-That was so simple.
-Did we have to make an appointment? -No.
We just showed up. We filled out a piece of paper.
Took it up to the gentleman. He made us do like some eye tests.
You know, make sure our vision was good.
Once we cleared that… Well I knew I was in the clear.
Ney Ney with her glasses and six eyes or whatever. She was…
She passed so we're good there.
He's like alright you're good to go. I'm going to get this printed for you.
We got our new driver's licenses and then we were official.
-And we walked out the door with them.
What about when it's time to renew your license?
Uh isn't it every five years? -Correct.
-So that's not bad at all.
-That is just a process of how we set up domicile.
There are other ways to do it but we wanted to make sure we actually
threw it at you the Hank's way.
-And while you're at it, check out this playlist right here
because we want to get you guys started off on the right foot.
Love you guys. -Bye. -Bye.