tbutler

We went through this in 2001, moving into our motor home July 7 and into a mobile home in a resort in June 2010. It was a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford to do it both from a financial standpoint and also from a comfort level of being totally footloose and fancy free! It isn't for everyone. I've known any number of people who say they just couldn't give up their house. For Louise and I it worked. We started in South Dakota with a company, My Home Address. We stayed with them until we made the official move to Texas in the fall of 2010. They handled our vehicle registration, we got South Dakota drivers licenses, and we registered to vote in South Dakota. We also moved our estate documents to South Dakota so they complied with the state laws. In effect we did everything we could to make ourselves South Dakota residents. The web site I've linked above will give you more detailed information. There is at least one other organization that provide mailing services and I'll include their web sites so you can look at their services and rates and make informed decisions. Dakota Post is located in Sioux Falls. It provides services similar to My Home Address. FMCA has transferred its mail forwarding services to this organization. Their site also gives a good account of the benefits of becoming a South Dakota resident and the process involved. I liked My Home Address (MHA) because it is located in Emery, SD. This is a small community and other than farming, My Home Address is the big dog in town. There were occasions when I called the post office and talked to them regarding a situation we had and there was no question from them about who we were or what our situation was. They knew MHA because most of the mail they handled was for MHA! The same was true when we dealt with the county government regarding voting registration. Some people worry about jury duty. In Hanson County where MHA is located the court routinely excuses full time RVers from jury duty. We also had no problem dealing with the drivers license office in Sioux Falls in this case. Basically, full time RVers is a major industry in South Dakota. I Googled "Choosing a Home Address" and came up with a link to this web site. It is a brief summary of all the implications of choosing any particular state as a home state. It is worth reading. When we went full time we found a book on this subject that gave more complete information but it was also dated because all these things change over time. I will say that as far as I know, South Dakota doesn't have any period of time that you have to live in the state to be a resident. We spent one night in a hotel in Sioux Falls, got our drivers license the next day, visited MHA and signed up with them, registered to date and returned to our motor home. We only "had" to go back to renew our driver's license every 5 years. Everything else could be handled through the mail and/or e-mail. Another topic that could help is to Google "RV Home Base." There are many sites listed here, could be helpful. I checked one and here is the link for that one. Again, this could help compare different states to see which would work best for you. The site lists many things to be considered, similar to the site above.

With the information about your coach, I would suggest that you contact Monaco Customer Service 877-466-6226. Talk to someone in tech service to get their advice. I know that we had a similar problem with the water compartment door on our coach. We were making a stop at the factory service center in Coburg, OR and asked them to fix it. They were able to pry the door open enough to insert a tool from the side and release the latch. Our door had a single center plunger so it may not work if you have several latch points. I don't know what kind of tool they used and I don't know exactly where they applied the pressure to release the latch. If that won't work, they may have other information on how best to attack the problem.

If you add the year and model of your motor home it would help. There are many different designs for doors and latches.

We weigh our coach every several years just to be sure we're OK. I haven't had a problem with weight since we purchased our current coach. The GVWR for our coach is 37,600 and the GCWR is 47,600. As of the last weighing in 2013 at Gillette, WY, I had 1850 pounds to spare on the front axle, 2650 to spare on the rear axle, 1175 to spare on the tow bar rating and 9675 to spare on the GCWR. These figures are from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) which does individual wheel weights and a thorough summary of your vehicle weight information. The RVSEF also does excellent safety workshops at every FMCA National Convention. When you do the weighing, they include a tire inflation table for your tires so you can easily look up the required tire pressure to ensure you have your tires properly inflated for their load. If you haven't had this done, I highly recommend it. The cost is nominal and the report is essential information for every motor home owner.

Hello fellow boomers! We're winter Texans who became sort of regular Texans after wintering in Edinburg for 10 years. We have a mobile home and are licensed and registered in Texas now. We share your interest in wine and history. We just left our campground today. We were originally headed for Galveston but the activity we had planned there this weekend was canceled. We're spending the night in Kerrville tonight on the way to the Denver area for a couple of weeks then off to Ohio for a family wedding. After that we'll spend a month in Missouri visiting some of our children and grandchildren. Our big trip for the summer is Newfoundland and Labrador, the only province in Canada we haven't visited. When we return from there we'll make a run for California to visit the rest of our children and grandchildren. By the end of October we'll be back in Edinburg for the winter! Welcome to the world of RV'ing. We can't imagine a better way to travel. Pack once leave for the summer, never leaving home! No suitcases, no shoes, no problems! Well I can't really say no problems, That's what keeps this interesting. If there weren't an occasional problem you would be constantly pinching yourself!

Here is a reference for towing laws in the US and Canada. The web page is dated 2015. We're headed for the Northeast US and Canada. Towing lengths are less than 65 in many of the states in the northeast. In Massachusetts the limit for combined vehicle length is 60 feet. I'll be about 62 feet. In New Hampshire the combined vehicle limit is "none" but the two vehicle limit is 45 feet. I'm not sure what that difference is as far as definition. I do know that we've traveled through these states before and never had a problem. Now if we had an accident there could be problems. Smile and say yes sir, no sir, whatever you say sir!

There are as many interests in travel as there are people traveling. It always is helpful if you indicate your interests when you request information. If you tell us what you want to see, be it cities or rural, watching wildlife or hunting/fishing, history or antiques, festivals or sporting events, let us know and someone can suggest something special most anywhere!

This is a way cool site! Thanks for posting. I've bookmarked it, stored with my other resources on road conditions. Always nice to know something about the road ahead!

As Ray indicates, we can always use bloggers on this site. I've been blogging here and my family and friends follow even though they are not members.

We did that drive around the lakes in 2008 in reverse from your intended trip. We started in Detroit, MI (Henry Ford Museum is a must). Crossing into Canada driving south across the bridge into Windsor, Ontario. You can spend a week or so visiting the southern tip of Canada. It extends into Lake Erie at Point Pelee National Park. The area around there has beautiful homes, English garden landscaping and many interesting sites to visit. We enjoyed the area around London, Ontario for its scenery. Just outside London is the Museum of Ontario Archaeology which features a reconstruction of a 500 year old Iroquois village. Also near London is the Cheese Factory Museum. The cheese factory is closed but the museum is interesting and goes way beyond the cheese factory. There are three or four buildings with all kinds of historical items and displays. We enjoyed the history museum which features a story and display for a woman who is a local hero, having tipped off the British that the Colonists were coming. It is sort of a Paul Revere story from the viewpoint of the loyalists! Just goes to show one persons hero could be another persons villain! To the north is Stratford on the Avon River (sounds familiar if you've been to Great Britain). They have a wonderful theater there that focuses on productions by, wouldn't you know it, Shakespere. There are walking trails on both sides of the Avon River, we saw two pairs of nesting Trumpeter Swans complete with eggs in one nest and the young cygnets in the other. We even got to watch as the pen (term for the female) led the cygnets (term for the young chicks) followed by the cob (term for the male) from their nest into the river for a swim. Along the trail are English gardens. In town many small shops including a tea shop (Distinctly Tea) that Louise enjoyed thoroughly as did the shop owner when Louise checked out! We found an advertisement for a butcher shop, The Best Little Pork Shoppe just outside of town so we stopped and stocked up on sausage, chops, etc. Highly recommend this place. They were very happy when Tom checked out! We went on north to Sudbury, the heart of the nickel mining area of Canada. There is a nickel mine tour there at a place called The Dynamic Earth. They have a Big Nickel on a large signpost. There is also information on gold mines which operate in the area. There is a mine to tour. We had the luck of meeting one of the original miners in the cafeteria and enjoyed having lunch with him as he reminisced about his life. We stopped at the Soo Locks where Lake Superior transitions to Lake Huron. We stayed on the US side because we wanted to call home, fill up the diesel tank with US prices and as much as we love traveling in Canada, we just have to get home once in a while. While there we found a weeks worth of travel fun, touring the Tower of History, touring the Locks on a boat tour, touring a Great Lakes Freighter, and we took a train ride on the Algoma Central Railway to Agawa Canyon in Canada. We found out when we talked to my mother that they had also taken the tour and her parents had also done the train tour. So it has become a family tradition. We crossed back into Canada at Sault Ste.Marie (Soo Saint Marie on the US side). From there we drove the north shore of Lake Superior visiting Lake Superior Provincial Park briefly. We had a nice picnic inside the motorhome because we didn't want to be a picnic for the mosquitos. We did brave a walk through the woods to the lake shore and enjoyed a long walk barefoot on the sand of the small bay there. Then we shopped at the Agawa Indian shop and picked up some nice moccasins. There is a petrograph site on the north shore near there that is worth a visit. Agawa Rock has interesting hiking, great views of the lake shore and the paintings are amazingly clear for their age. Traveling further west, we stopped at Wawa (Native American name for the Canada Goose) and they have the world's largest one there. We stayed several days here because we wanted to explore the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve. Crown land belongs to the British royal family. This is a wilderness area which has some good gravel roads and then a really severe 4WD road. There are several game observation platforms along the road. We made it through but I would advise asking questions before planning to take that route. We had to ford several hundreds of feet across a pond formed by beaver that had dammed a small stream just below the road. That and several deep gullies across the road were negotiated by our 4WD Chevrolet Trailblazer. We were urged on by the bears and moose that we were seeing close up. It was fantastic and at the same time one of the more stressful things I have done. At one point the maps didn't agree with or provide enough information so we had to do some searching to find the proper road. That is always fun when you are miles from anywhere and haven't seen a vehicle in a long while. Louise called it being lost but you know how guys are, just keep driving you'll find a way out! We stopped again at Kakabeka Falls and hiked up to the top of the falls. Great scenery again. We ate lunch along the stream, sitting on a rock that was actually in the stream. Rushing water, cool air, lovely stop. Then we were back to the US with a stop just across the border in the "arrowhead" of Minnesota. The Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center tells the story of the early French traders in the area and their trips across Lake Superior and the trading post at this location where they collected the furs from the Native Americans and shipped them out by canoe across Lake Superior. Needless to say, these were hearty voyagers. A very interesting stop, we had popped rice (made from wild rice in an iron skillet over a fire). The buildings and the story are quite amazing. Our next stop was Duluth, Minnesota. Here I'm going to recommend that you stay at the Marina Campground which is right downtown on the Marina. You will be across the High Bridge, a vertical lift draw bridge from the town. From our campsite we could watch the Great Lakes freighters coming and going from Duluth harbor into Lake Superior. Walking across the bridge, there were any number of interesting restaurants and the aquarium, all worth a visit. The restaurant area is a night club area and is alive well into the night if you are so inclined. In Wisconsin one area I would recommend beyond those mentioned in the previous post is the peninsula north of Green Bay, known as Door County. This area features the Scandinavian culture that settled there. You'll find many Scandinavian restaurants, farms to tour, towns to visit and fruit and farm products to purchase on the site of production. From there we visited some friends in Wisconsin and then went on to the FMCA Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. So... start reading here and go backwards! There you are. It's a wonderful trip. We found no end of amazing things to see and enjoyed it thoroughly.

We've had the Thetford Aria Deluxe for the life of our current coach. It has been an excellent toilet. I've never worried about the amount of water, never had a problem with the black water tank. All you really need is enough water in the bowl to cover the seal. If desired there is a button to add water for those occasions when more water will be needed. The less water the toilet uses with each flush the longer your freshwater tank supply will last and the longer between dumping the black water tank. Even with minimal water from the toilet, most of what comes out of the black water tank is liquid or is in liquid suspension. If you haven't used a clear connector for your dump hose, I recommend it. They make straight and angled sections about 4 to 6 inches long that can be used between the dump outlet and your hose. Any camping store will have them. Using it may not seem pleasant but it is educational. You won't have any more doubt about whether there is enough water in your black water tank. Not only will you learn that but you will find that no matter how much water is in the black water tank it will not rinse clean just from dumping. We have a built-in rinse system that sprays the inside of the tank. Once that runs clear we dump several 2 gallon buckets of water straight down the toilet. I have Louise pour one bucket straight down the throat in the time the flush valve remains open. This hits the bottom of the tank right where the solids accumulate, right under the down pipe. This will rinse out the difficult material that can build up if not purged regularly. Using the clear connector, I can see how much remains even after the built-in rinse is running clear. The built-in rinse system will never remove the stubborn pile right below the toilet.

Our in-motion dome will go when it dies. We don't use the in-motion feature at all and will move to a HDTV capable dish with our next. How long will that be? We're on our fourth KVH dish in eleven years with this coach. I don't think it will be too long. No more KVH for us. The larger pop-up dish which provides HDTV capability also gives much better reception in marginal conditions such as stormy weather or high latitudes when the satellite is located near the horizon. We were impressed by the RV Mogul equipment displayed at a recent FMCA Rally. Another company which will be on our list to consider when we make the change is Winegard.

I just made a correction to my post above. It does not include medical insurance of any kind. Your own medical insurance should cover you while traveling in the US. Check with your specific plan. If you have Medicare, there are Part B supplements that will cover you while traveling outside the US for the first 60 days (Plan F, G). I think its really funny, your connection to Edinburg. Two weeks from today we'll set out on our summer travels. We are headed for Newfoundland and Labrador and then will make our way across country to visit our grandchildren in California in October. Last year we spent a week with them at their vacation home in Elkton, Oregon. We have to be home by the end of October so our plans seem to preclude our meeting unless we end up parked at the same RV park sometime during the summer and fall. Sandpipers Resort is located north of Edinburg where Seminary Road (a northern extension of Sugar Road) ends. It's a beautiful park, really quiet during the summer as most people do what we do, head for cooler climes. So you won't be surprised, it isn't your normal tourist park. Clothing is optional! Bring plenty of sunscreen! Tom & Louise Butler

It's included in your FMCA Membership. Look for FMCAssist in the benefits. It covers getting the coach back home. You have to pay for operational expenses (fuel, maintenance, etc.). It includes medical evacuation and much more. Check out the details on the banner on the home page or click on this link. Print out your cards with membership information today. How cool is that???

Nothing like reviving an old posting! Happy 50th Birthday KOA (3 years late!)... KOA... Slowly I turned, inch by inch, step by step... When we bought our first motor home and were preparing to sell our home we moved into the motor home full time in a KOA, returning to our sticks and bricks home only to clean her out, paint and fix up before the sale. We were at the KOA for several months. It was a nice place not too far from home and we enjoyed the stay. We had their discount card and made a practice of staying at KOA's when they were available. We also stayed at other campgrounds. KOA's are pretty uniform, other parks not so much. We found the prices a notch higher than other parks and over time found that the other parks met our needs for less money. We had one really bad experience with a KOA that pretty much soured us on the entire chain. If you've stayed at KOA you know that they have rules. Lots of rules. More rules than most any other park we have stayed at. Rules keep everything nice and quiet and under control. Nice for families where you want a safe controlled manicured experience. The park which ruined KOA for us was run by two ladies who were hel2 bent on enforcing rules. Unhooking our car which was on a tow dolly and fitting everything on our site I put the tow dolly aside on the grass. It was going to be there just until I could get the car out of the street and then would be stored under the rear of the motor home. It hadn't been there a minute when we were told in no uncertain terms that we could not put the tow dolly on the grass. Later, Louise was using the internet. They had a timer and you got ten minutes. When the timer went off they came over and unplugged your from the wall outlet! No one was waiting, your time was up. We had a name for these two ladies (a WWII reference, think total control) and we still laugh about them. They were total control freaks. And that is what many of those rules KOA has are about, control. I prefer to live with less control, more freedom. So now we'll stay at a KOA if it is the only reasonable choice. If something else is available, we'll go elsewhere. I can't remember the last time we stayed at KOA. We are in campgrounds for over 100 days each summer and when we were full time it was more like 300 days a year. A footnote. The park mentioned above was sold and became independently owned. We stayed in it under independent management years later. The park was definitely different. Unfortunately, the last time we went by the place it was an abandoned campground. All the buildings were there but the park was closed, overgrown in weeds. I guess the moral of the story is that you can have your porridge too hot or too cold. What we're looking for is the porridge that is just right (for us).

jleamont, You can find the list of chapters under the Chapters/Areas tab at the top-right side of the FMCA home page. You can search the list by area or by any key word you would like to use. FMCA has 475 Chapters. There are chapters for most coach manufacturers, engine manufacturers, special interest groups of all kinds as well as a host of area and local groups. Take a look at the list and do a little searching. Most groups have minimal dues so you can join, get their news and maybe get to a rally this spring or summer. There is no limit on the number of chapters you may join so if you find several of interest, join several. Welcome Su-Ann and Rich! Hope you enjoy the forum! Don't hesitate to post any questions you may have and also share your experiences here or perhaps as a blog.

Then there is the last minute thing. We hardly ever make reservations more than a few hours ahead of time. One time we were in California headed east on I-80. It looked like Reno was going to be our overnight stop so we called a park. They said that the "Hot August Nights" celebration was going on and they were full but the lady said they had just had a cancellation so we got a spot. We went into town, enjoyed the vintage car parade, enjoyed the crowd and got a good nights sleep. It doesn't work all the time but you just never know. As to the newbie tag, after you have made a certain number of posts, maybe 20 or 30 your tag will change. Newbie refers to your status on the Forum! Welcome JD and keep coming back!

We were in Coburg, OR last fall. There was a couple at the service center there having the same kind of problem you mention on a Knight. I don't know if it was exactly the same, I do know that they talked about the cable system being the problem. I'm certain that if you contact Monaco (877-466-6226) and can manage to get your coach to a factory service center they will resolve the problem.

We were in Coburg, OR last fall. There was a couple at the service center there having the same kind of problem you mention on a Knight. I don't know if it was exactly the same, I do know that they talked about the cable system being the problem. I'm certain that if you contact Monaco (877-466-6226) and can manage to get your coach to a factory service center they will resolve the problem.

I guess it was inconceivable to me that an escape window would be behind the headboard (covered by the headboard). Is there some kind of break away mechanism that would allow the headboard to be removed or lowered quickly? I don't know how the coach design could pass safety codes if the escape window is really inaccessible. While both Herman and I have Monaco coaches, ours has an escape window above the counter on the section with drawers for clothing. It is accessible and allows us to sit atop the counter to get into the window easily. It is on the same side as the door. We have an escape window in the living room above the couch that is on the opposite side from the door. I don't know what the exact regulations are for escape windows but it sounds as if each has to be on the opposite side of the coach which also ensures that one is opposite the door as well. By the way, when we take our grandchildren on trips the first thing we do with them is to have them open the escape windows so they not only know where they are but also how to operate them. It also breaks the "seal" so they open easily. That is something I try to do frequently. Regarding finding a replacement for your window, Papermaker, I would suggest contacting companies that do coach modifications. Look over the ads in the FMC Magazine. I've attended sessions at rallies done by some of these companies and they do amazing things. I'm sure that replacing a window with an escape window would be an easy fix for them if you find the right company. I don't have any name for reference but if you can't find someone in the FMC Magazine, try the internet. I seem to recall companies in Oregon, Indiana and Florida that do that kind of work. I'm sure there are others.

Our coach has the Aladdin System which monitors a number of items, tanks, engine, electric, etc. When we plug in at a campground one of the first things I check is the voltage reading. It normally shows up with the voltage in the 120V range. Then if it is air conditioning season I'll turn on both air conditioners to see what happens to the voltage. There have been only a few times this has caused a drop below 110V. One at a campground in Alaska and the other at a campground in Maine. In the campground in Maine it dropped to 90 with a single air conditioner. This can damage the air conditioner. We had no choice but to live without the air conditioner. We were there two days and then moved on. This kind of voltage problem won't melt the wiring in the breaker panel. That sounds like a grounding problem. Voltage drops are caused when the line feeding the post is substandard in size. If the wire is sized properly for the amperage and the length of run from the source, the voltage will drop only slightly as the load increases. If it drops too much, there is no immediate solution the campground can make to correct the situation other than possibly locating you to a different site. The only way to fix this is to re-wire the post to source. So I wouldn't purchase a special piece of equipment to solve low voltage problems. We stay at all kinds of campgrounds. We seldom stay in the high priced campgrounds. Even so, in my experience, the problem is very rare, not worth spending money to fix it.

You can replace those by yourself but it is much easier to replace them with assistance. I've done it several times. Your assistant doesn't have to have any mechanical talent, just an extra pair of hands helps. If it were my motor home I'd replace the toppers and that is the perfect time to adjust the tension. When you get the replacement from Carefree of Colorado, they will match the size and color based on the serial number of the toppers. You will find that serial number on the roller. You can unroll the roller by hand with the toppers in place, simply rotate the roller to loosen the fabric until the bare roller shows up. Look for a label, usually on the other end from where you are standing on the ladder. Copy down the serial number and model number. The serial numbers will be different on the two toppers even if they are the same size. Contact Carefree of Colorado and they will ship replacements. You might want to have the dimensions of the toppers in hand just in case they ask for that information but my experience is that the serial number identifies the product in their records.They come with installation instructions and it is for the most part a screw driver and wrench process in my experience. You will need a good stepladder to allow you to get to the toppers from the side of the coach, it can't all be done from the roof in my experience. To adjust the tension, you will first remove the topper, slide it out of the rail on the roller and the rail on the roof at the same time. Before removing it you will block the roller so it won't unwind the spring completely (directions in their instructions). Measure the width of the old fabric and compare to the replacement. Any change in width will have to be taken into account when you make adjustments in the tension. If the replacement is longer (more to wrap on the roller), it will take additional and additional 1/2 or full turn to take up the additional fabric and the tension won't change. If the replacement fabric is shorter (less to wrap on the roller), the tension will be greater with no adjustment. With the fabric off, remove the block on the roller and give it an extra turn winding it against the spring tension then block it and install the new fabric. If it just needs a little tightening I'd just do a half turn. Most rollers have a two rails located 180 degrees apart. If you think it needs to be a lot tighter, give it a full turn. But beware, you can tighten the spring too tight which could 1) inhibit the ability of the slide to move out freely or 2) over-tighten the spring causing the spring to break or 3) both of the previous problems. You don't want the fabric so tight that you can use it for a trampoline, just enough to keep it taught in its extended position. After adjusting the tension then install the new topper. Before doing the second slide you could check to see if the tension is what you want and then make the same or a different adjustment with the other slide. You might hold off any finish work (caulking or sealing around screws, etc). on the first slide in case you decide you need to make further adjustments in the tension. That of course would involve removing the fabric and re-installing it. In addition to the reasons given by others, another reason I like the toppers (may not apply in the UK) is that they do a wonderful job of insulating the roof of the slide-out from sunlight and the resulting heat. They will significantly reduce your need for air conditioning in hot weather.

You might think you can't get out that escape window but you haven't really tried. There was a fire in a motor home that was parked just one space from ours several years ago. The two residents are older than us and much less mobile. Both got out of the emergency escape window. They were scraped up and bruised but they got out and walked away from a rig that burned to the floor. That was their only way out as the front of the rig was already fully involved when they woke up. If you really believe that you can't get out that window, you should think seriously about finding a solution. There are rope ladders which can be stored inside. You could leave a ladder outside that window every time you park. Maybe you need to shop for another motor home with a better set-up for an emergency window. I wouldn't want a motor home that I could not escape from in an emergency. It's not an item that is high on everyone's shopping list but it should be.

I don't know what fuel mileage I get going up hill, every hill is different! I don't know what mileage I get on any specific trip, I seldom fill up at the end of a trip except at the end of the travel season. I do know that my Alladin is better than Ray's, mine gives me 255.9 MPG (2 x 128 - its a function of the computer design, remember the early 64K computers ) down mountain grades! Sometimes I drive 70, sometimes I drive 50. I seldom drive faster than the speed limit. My target speed is 62 to 65 MPH on the interstate highways and slower on most federal and state highways. We have children and grandchildren in the Missouri, Colorado and California so we see our share of mountain driving. We've visited every state in the US (except the obvious Hawaii) and all of Canada with the exception of Inuvik and Newfoundland and we'll get to Newfoundland this year if the creeks don' rise! The rig described below gives me 8.3 MPG. That is 133,526.6 miles divided by 16,055.9 gallons of fuel over the life of the coach, not a readout of a computer calculation. Before this one we had a 38 foot 1994 Dynasty with a Cummins 8.3L. With 26,839.2 miles and 2960.8 gallons we got 9.1 MPG in the 2 1/2 years we drove her. In both cases we had a diesel generator that runs off the main fuel tank and I have not compensated for that usage. Louse likes to have heat or cooling as well as lights TV and Internet. We have 120 V electricity on 24/7 when we are in the coach on the road. What we don't get from campgrounds we get from the generator. The 7.5KW Onan generator on our current rig has 1690 hours on it since we purchased it. We put 103 hours on the 5KW Kohler generator in the Dynasty.

Talk to your doctor. If the prescription can't be submitted to the provider electronically, have him mail it to your mail handling service and then it will be forwarded to you. You may have to contact the doctor each month to provide the location where you prefer to pick up the medication if you are moving frequently. If you must physically see a doctor each month for this prescription, you may have to limit your mobility, staying in an area for several months at a time in order to make it easier. Working with the same doctor in each location for a period of time will help. Like all regulations, there are good reasons for the restrictions. There were some doctors who were known for writing prescriptions for huge amounts of pain medication. Many patients were addicted and the medications were being black marketed to support the addiction of those patients. Thank those who were abusing the system for the increased monitoring of pain medications. Here on the Texas border it is common for people to go to pharmacies across the border to obtain prescription medication. Many prescription drugs in the US are available without prescription in Mexico. For those medications that require a prescription most pharmacies have a doctor who can see you to write a prescription. You may be able to obtain prescriptions for more than a single month this way. Taking the prescriptions back across the border is not guaranteed but I've never had a check done the few times I've obtained medicine in Mexico. Medicine is cheaper in Mexico but the prices seldom beat what our insurance coverage would provide so we seldom used this source.