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From Savannah we had a simple drive to our next camping spot. Stagecoach RV Park is situated just west of St Augustine and only about a 19 mile drive to Green Cove Springs which is our home base. Originally we thought about staying for a full month just to take it easy, but the campground could only get us in for a week. This should still be plenty of time to do what we need to become Florida residents.

We got in early enough on Monday so we were able to get setup and then drive into our mailing service. We had started using St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs Florida a few months before we had even moved out of our home in NY. The service has been working out quite well for us. We had purposely not forwarded our last batch of mail so we could go in to pick it up in person and ask them some questions about the process of setting up our domicile in Florida.

The woman we spoke to was very helpful in confirming a few things we thought we knew and answering some of the things we were still unsure of. In order to register a vehicle, you either must bring the vehicle with you to the DMV so the clerk can go out and check the VIN or get a document signed by a police officer verifying your vehicle's VIN. The woman at the mail service said it's a lot easier to just drive both the motorhome and car to DMV.

On our way back to the campgrounds, we stopped at DMV to check out the parking situation. Being late afternoon by the time we stopped, the parking situation was not great for a 38 foot motorhome. Since it was likely to be much more crowded the next morning, we decided it might make more sense to go with the alternative method.  On Tuesday morning, Chris called the local sheriff's office and reported a burglary figuring they should show up in no time. JUST KIDDING! She had a whole speech ready to describe what we needed but the person on the other end knew exactly what was required and an officer would be there in awhile.

Less than an hour later, we see a sheriff's car pull up in front of our site and she comes in to fill out the paperwork. We had the wrong form printed, but she just went back to her car and printed the one required. This turned out to much easier and quicker than we were expecting. We easily would have spent over an hour packing up the rig and setting back up when we returned. With this new form in hand and all the other paperwork we believed we needed, we drove to Green Cove Springs DMV. It wasn't very busy and we managed to get through all the paperwork in just under an hour. Next we walked the block to the county office building to turn in our form form stating we intend to make Florida our domicile. For anybody that plans on going through a similar process, we have the list of abbreviated steps we went through at the end of this post. 

By getting done with this in a day, we now had time to see what else there is in the area. The one place high on our list was St Augustine - the oldest permanent European settlement in the US. We stopped at a Howard Johnson on the way to downtown to see a huge live oak tree that is estimated to be over 600 years old! It is a fascinating tree and I learned that Howard Johnson still exists. Next we drove to the visitor center parking lot. At $12, it wasn't cheap but it was convenient. After a quick look around the visitor center, we headed across the street to Castillo de San Marcos. This is run by the National Park Service and as such we were able to use our annual pass to get in for free. 

The Old Senator - Over 600 Years Old

Not only Old but BIG!

Fountain at Visitor Center

Being built in the late 1600's, this place was quite impressive. We spent a couple hours wandering around checking out displays and catching one ranger talk. There were multiple bus loads of children touring the fort so we needed to come back to some displays after the group cleared out. If you get the chance, the fort is a must see location. Had we been there on a weekend, they actually shoot off the cannons as part of the activities. 

Main Entrance to Castillo de San Marcos

Inner Grounds of Fort

The Moat Sans Water

Cannons Over Wall

Besides offering a great view of the surrounding area, there were many interesting things to see. Maybe the most surprising thing was how ornate many of the cannons were. Hopefully the pictures will do them justice. Each corner of the fort had a bit of a lookout turret. Only one of them was not blocked off. It offered an interesting view that a sentry might have seen over three centuries ago.

Through the Peep Hole

After the fort, we walked down St George Street. With only pedestrians, and every building being some sort of shop or restaurant, there is lot to check out. There were no things we found we needed other than being lunchtime, we were in search of food. There were almost too many choices, but we eventually settled on a place with reasonable food and we planned the rest of the afternoon. 

Ponce de Leon

Guardian of Bridge

There are numerous old churches in town, several of them being quite beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful building was on the campus of Flagler College. What used to be the Ponce de Leon Hotel built in 1888, it is now a dormitory! This place is just a little fancier than the concrete block wall building I stayed in my first 2 years in college. The lobby of the building is open to the public and many people were milling about. I suppose the students living here have gotten used to the crowds. 

Entrance to Flagler College

Ornate Carved Lion

Not Your Typical College Dormitory!

Entry into Lobby of Dorm

Lobby Ceiling

Abbreviated steps for becoming Floridians. We started steps 1-3 several months in advance of move date:

1. Establish mail service - we chose St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs, FL
2. Change addresses to your mail service, turn "paper statements" on for bank and financial companies as each person needs official snail mail when applying with FL DMV.
3. We had passports as secondary ID beyond NYS driver's license, but you also need your hard copy of SS card, so Chris had to get that issued in advance.
4. At least a week before planned "move" date, we called around for insurance quotes with the constraint of company covering "full timer" liability coverage and both motor home and tow car with same company.  We ended up with Progressive.  We picked an effective date for early in work week as offices not open weekends.
5. The timing of our move was late October and I called our health insurance provider to verify that we could retain our NY health insurance thru end of year and start the following year with FL Blue Cross
6. Physical arrival in Florida
7. We stopped at our mail service for an "in person" pick up of mail and ask questions about FL residency process - they were very helpful.
8. Florida DMV requires "witness" of vehicle VIN by either DMV or law enforcement officer.  We drove past DMV and decided that it was unlikely that we would be parking motor home there.  So we called the local sheriff's office to request verification of VIN and within an hour there was officer in our campsite with all the paperwork the witness VIN step.  Motor home can stay parked at campground - yeah!
9. Next stop was to DMV, with a ton of documentation in tow.   In less than an hour we had new driver's licenses, consecutively numbered FL plates for motor home and Jeep, temporary vehicle titles and voter registration.
10. We then walked across the street to courthouse to submit declaration of domicile.
11. NY state won't let you cancel car insurance until they send you a receipt for returned plates.   Last stop of the day is to post office to mail NY the plates, and in the meantime we have insurance in both FL and NY