California to South Dakota

I couldn't get in the truck fast enough to escape the August heat of Palm Desert, we got a late start around 2pm and stopped for the night in Mesquite, 2nd stop was in Idaho Falls and we were ever so close to our friend Blas, and did connect by phone but too far for a body hug.

 

 

We found a brewery with vegan food walking distance from our dumpy little motel so we got to get out and explore a little bit. The next day we had a very long drive to C'oeur d'Alene but we were going to be stationary for 5 nights with good friends so it was worth it!

Good friends, Derrel and Pam, Texans have managed to meet us at some of our favorite places while traveling so I've really been able to call them my friends, as well. Cora and Mike were traveling this summer in their new rv from South Carolina. And Raz and Cathy we've visited both in C'oeur d'Alene but also in Depoe Bay. All of them had been in the Philippines together and shared many infamous memories. They were a super fun group and I just knew we'd have a great weekend. And we did!

Willie and Raz

I found this in the local liquor store
and it became the weekend drink!

We got there first and scored the cute little cabin with a spectacular view

Last time we were here we were still living in our big motorhome and couldn't make it all the way down to the lake. It was also in the 90's - Raz put in a 50amp hookup for us so we could plug in up the hill by his "shop" aka MAN CAVE, so we were set, but it was much more fun being where the action was down by the lake.

We were soon joined by the  remaining cast of characters and a fun time was had by all!

Thanks, Raz and Cathy, for hosting!!

From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump up to Hope, ID, where our friends from Baja - Ed, Elissa, and Kelly summered. Elissa owns the floating restaurant at the Marina and I've really wanted to get up there and check out the area. Elissa heard we were going to be in the area, only an hour away, and invited us up to join them. What a great town! We just spent a day, and a night - dinner at the restaurant was awesome, and she went out of her way to make sure we had some vegan options, and we just had to play pool in Ed's "man cave" with Kelly, or we couldn't even call it a visit! 

We left early the next day to begin the arduous drive to Rapid City, South Dakota. We recently changed our state of residency to South Dakota, and not only for tax purposes, although that was a huge part of it. We have not actually LIVED in the state of California since 2010, but have been paying taxes to that state as if we have. South Dakota is one of three states that are advantageous for nomads to live in. Not only does it have to do with the fact that they have no state taxes, but they have very good policies regarding jury duty, vehicle registration and sales tax rates make it super easy for us, as do Florida and Texas. The reason why we chose South Dakota is because the mail service we use in Mexico uses the mail-forwarding service, My Dakota Address in South Dakota, so we already had a South Dakota address and the service there was super helpful in registering our truck and to vote. We also had a lot of help from them figuring out all of the documents we needed to get our driver's licenses. That was the one thing we had to actually go there for. And we had to spend one night in the state - providing the DMV with a receipt from the motel. The DMV is quite used to us nomads and it only took about 10 minutes and 20 pieces of documentation and we walked out of there with our actual licenses!