LIVINGSTON, TEXAS

October, 2018

After a brief stop in Campbell, Texas to catch out breath we pulled into Livingston, Texas.  Why Livingston?  To become Texans, of course!

There were several reasons we decided to no longer maintain our residence in the Keystone State.  We’d had 23 good years in Bethlehem, but Brian’s driver’s license was due for renewal in February, 2019 as was Barbara’s in March.  Amiee and the Jeep would be due for their annual inspections in April and May.  OK – that’s why we would have had to return to Pennsylvania, but we only want to return to the east coast for life cycle events and to spend time with family.  Therefore we had to find a new home.  After reading internet forums we found out that South Dakota, Florida and Texas were the most friendly States in which to reside as a full-time RVer.  Amongst the best reasons, there’s no personal income tax in any of the 3!

The process to establish a new residence for an RVer is described well in any number of forums, blogs and websites, but for my simple mind, here’s what I understood.  Secure your mailing address, insure your vehicles to your new address, register your vehicles, obtain your driver’s license, register to vote, do business in the local community which will then show evidence of your intent to live in the State you choose, and get back to your RV lifestyle.

So why Texas?  It’s October and we wanted to head southwest for the winter.  Although there are many companies offering mail service for RVers, the oldest and most experienced is the Escapees RV Club, and its national headquarters is in Livingston, Texas.  An advantage of putting this all together in Livingston is that Escapees was founded in this small community about an hour or so north of Houston in 1978, and it has the well-being of RVers in its DNA.

After a brief call to the National Headquarters to clarify particulars about Escapees, we followed up with a call to a recommended law firm that just happens to be on-site.  We spoke with Susie Adams, who would become our attorney.  Susie said we had the “to do” list accurate, and she added that a vehicle inspection report was required to register our vehicles.  She let us know the ways to do business in the local community included obtaining a library card, using a local bank, using local vendors for vehicle repair and maintenance, and engaging local professionals such as an insurance agent, accountant, physician and attorney.

According to Texas law, if we are Texans our wills need to be on file in the State.  Susie and her office staff would help guide us through the process, and they would draft and file our wills.  We wanted to get this done while in Livingston, and her office sent us an extensive on-line questionnaire to guide the development of our wills as well as power of attorney and medical power of attorney documents.  After a couple of phone consultations we were confident that we would complete all of the necessary paperwork while in town.  Her office would also file a statement of domicile with the Court further proving our intent to become citizens of Texas.

We pulled into Livingston in time to have our vehicles inspected on a Saturday afternoon.  The inspection was safety oriented and focused mainly on lights, the brakes, tire wear, etc.  Both Aimee and the Jeep passed easily.  The Texas DOT set price for the annual vehicle inspection is $7.00, regardless of where you have the work done or who does the inspection.  An added bonus of choosing Texas is that although an annual inspection is required, if you happen to not be in the state when the inspection is due, you’re forgiven until you return, at which point you have 3 months to have the inspection completed.  Nice to be able to do this on the Saturday we pulled into town.  It enabled us to then set up camp and not have to move Aimee again until we were leaving.

Livingston, Texas is the county seat of Polk County.  The population of 5,400 are hard- working, down-to-earth warm and welcoming people.  While it’s just 75 miles to Houston, Livingston has no big city pretense; it’s just a down-home easy-paced nice place to be.  Lake Livingston is a few miles out of town, and it is one of the largest recreational lakes in Texas.   If you’re not camping, boating, or fishing, it is a good place to spend a hot Summer day at the beach.  Don’t misunderstand me.  Livingston has all of what you’d expect of an exurb and county seat:  state governmental as well as local  public service offices, the usual compliment of stores for shopping, pharmacy chains and chain restaurants, local restaurants, auto repair, car dealerships, health clubs, and gas stations.

Come Monday morning bright and early we were at the Escapees RV Club National Headquarters and talking with Sarah, filling out our Escapees’ application, and applying for a mail service.  Within 25 minutes or so we became Escapees members, officially had a Texas address, and set up our mail service; we were given printed address cards and mailing labels.

Before setting out to the County Tax Assessor’s office to register our vehicles, we called our insurance agent in Pennsylvania with our change of address and waited a couple of hours for our new insurance cards.  We took our present vehicle titles, new insurance cards and inspection report with us to the County Tax Assessors office, completed the required applications, and walked out with our Texas license plates 45 minutes later (bring cash or check; no credit cards accepted).

Just down the road was the Texas Department of Public Safety and an hour or so after queueing-up and completing the application we had a paper copies of our Texas driver’s licenses.

Standing in line and completing applications ate up the most time in a rather easy process to become Texans.

When you apply for a driver’s license you can also register to vote.  The next day or so we visited a local branch of our bank and ordered checks with our new address, obtained a library card, had the Jeep’s oil changed, and filled a prescription for Barbara. I think we did admirably in showing our intent to live in Texas.

But that’s not all for our visit to this part of Texas.  The Saturday we pulled into Livingston our beloved Wolverines were playing the Wisconsin Badgers.  We found this dive bar on Lake Livingston that gave us our own corner with a big screen TV to watch the game while the rest of the bar watched the Astros playoff game and followed by a karaoke night.  You should have seen the waitress’s face when Barbara asked for the beer list!  We quickly ordered a couple of Shiner Bocks.

We went looking for somewhere to ride our bikes or hike, and while we did not find what we were looking for we did find an odd sculpture in a small town northeast of Livingston, a river overflowing from the recent rains carrying debris downstream, a strange looking duck, and a flock of white pelicans.

Livingston is just about an hour north of Houston, and Tomball is about a half hour west.  Our son-in-law Ben recommended stopping at Tejas Chocolate and BBQ in Tomball.  Brisket is the BBQ King in Texas, but what interested Ben was their chili relleno smoked sausage, and their expertise as a chocolate craftory.  A chocolate craftory practices a “bean to bar” process, selecting cocao beans from around the world, slow roasting the beans and then making hand-crafted chocolates.  Our bellies were happy indeed.

Atlas Obscura noted several places in Houston as “don’t miss.”  The Eclectic Menagerie Park, The Orange Show, Smither Park, and the David Adickes Studio were just crazy enough for our taste.

The Eclectic Menagerie Park is a private collection of massive steel monsters “guarding” the Texas Pipe Works property.  This collection of 26 titanic sculptures is the work of artist Ron Lee, who uses his on-site workshop to construct over-sized versions of animals and even a few machines from the company’s unused pipes and equipment.  The collection is on private property and only visible from the south side of Texas Highway 288 or the on-ramp to the highway.  Luckily, after bumbling around a while we found  construction on the shoulder of the on-ramp where we could park in order to take a few snapshots.

The Orange Show is a folk-art environment in Houston’s east end.  It was built single-handedly between 1956 and 1979, by the late Jefferson Davis McKissack, a Houston postal worker.   The outdoor 3,000-square-foot monument is maze-like in design and is constructed of concrete, brick, steel and found objects including gears, tiles, wagon wheels, mannequins, vividly painted iron statues, tractor seats, and statuettes that are colored orange.  Unfortunately it was not open the day we choose to visit, and we could not enter the attraction.

Smither Park is just down the block from The Orange Show and it is filled with vibrant mosaics created by more than 300 folk artists.  Many of the artists are self-taught, and use recycled materials like broken dishes and discarded glass in their creations.  It’s an ongoing, evolving project, so it’s still frequently filled with artists adding new works.

Giant heads occasionally litter the industrial Houston neighborhood where sculptor David Adickes has his studio.  David Adickes is known for large statues.  He sculpted a 67-foot replica of Sam Houston for the city of Huntsville, Texas.  In Lead, South Dakota, Adickes created 43 enormous busts of each American president for display at an educational museum.  Unfortunately, since moving to a new location the public is not invited into the studio, but we did manage to see many of the busts through the fence.

Turned out to be a very short, but very full week in Livingston, Texas.

Barbara and Brian