A place Out West (12/14/2009): Here's the latest notion. I buy a nice used RV (say, from a dealer in Arizona) and drive it to a nice RV storage lot in (say) Belen, NM, which is handy via mass transit from a nice airport (ABQ). Then rather than burning time and dinosaurs to drive it across NC, TN, AR, OK, and TX to get it to where I want to enjoy it (dark public lands in NM and Arizona, or, with Amy, anywhere on the Paseo del Norte) and then driving it back again, we just drive the Subaru or the Honda to the Charlotte airport, wait for our boarding call and emerge a few hours later in Albuquerque. Stargaze, relax. Put the RV back in its leased spot, go home. Rinse, repeat as needed. It's way cheaper than driving, way cheaper and more versatile than buying acreage.

So, there are a lot of good RV's to choose from. I've found several I would gladly purchase and a perfectly affordable spot for it. Now, how does this work?

I am a North Carolina resident. The RV will be parked and driven primarily in New Mexico (it will likely never see this side of the big river, let alone NC).

Must I register it in NC (because its owner resides here)? How do I do that since it will have to pass inspection every year at registration renewal time?

Or should I register and insure it NM, since that's where it will be? But NM insists on two proofs of residence before I can register a vehicle there. I'm not a resident and have no interest in saying otherwise. I've had one of the Good Sam Club's forums helping me with this. So far, the most straightforward answer seems to be: form a LLC in Montana and register it there. This is straightforward? I'm missing something somewhere. More when I know more.

:: back to the slow blog ::