Going broke in Texas or snow in New Jersey?

Whew ----- We thought living in Texas would be cheaper. We spent yesterday finishing up our Texas residency. To do that you need a Texas address, a PO Box is not sufficient.

We already belonged to Escapees at $60.00 a year. To have a physical address here we needed to pay $185. to Escapees for a mail forwarding service. Future years will be $85.00 plus cost of postage.

We had the truck and fifthwheel inspected at a cost of $31. Not a bad price. Now for the shockers. Initial registration of the truck was $192, future years it will be around $75. Initial registration of the fifthwheel cost $258, future years it will be around $147. Drivers licenses are cheap. Mine cost $24. and that is for SIX years. Lens was $60. for five years because he wants to maintain his CDL.

We had State Farm insurance on the truck in NJ. For the same policy in Texas we pay about $168 more a year. We can deal with that. What we are having a hard time understanding is the rate for insurance on the fifthwheel. We paid $535 in NJ. For the SAME coverage in Texas we pay $1,315 = a whopping increase of $780. a year!

One of the main reasons we chose to change residency to Texas was to get health insurance for Len. We can get a high deductible health savings account for him costing around $280 a month. Of course we are responsible for the first $5,000 in medical bills each year. This plan is really for catastrophic coverage. NJ does not offer such a plan. He could maintain his current coverage under the state of NJ for the rest of his life. However, it is an HMO and current cost is almost $800. a month.

Now for a look at what we left behind. Last weekend there was a major snow storm in New Jersey. These are pictures taken at our daughter Terri's house which used to be our house.



This is the path Terri and Steve had to shovel from the back door to the driveway. No wonder she had a backache the next day.

This is looking at the side of the house. She tells me at one point they could not see out the dining room window for the snow and is afraid the outside screen is damaged from the weight.

This is before they started shoveling to the driveway. In the background is the shop Len built and misses everyday. It was his sanctuary.

Now that they have shoveled to the driveway, another storm is scheduled to blow in tonight giving them another one to two feet.

So, I could either fork out a lot of money this week or have faced a lot of snow. Guess I chose the right one.

Tomorrow we leave here and head to Louisiana. We are not sure where we will be staying. We are having problems with the front landing gear and will be stopping at the Montana dealer in Orange, Texas right across the Sabine from Len's hometown. The rig is still under manufactuers warranty and we want a complete inspection performed.