I’ve had a lot of time in the last six months to think about what’s going to happen when it’s time to leave the east coast this fall. I have had a lot of thoughts rattling around in my brain that have been difficult to articulate precisely. These thoughts have been about the collision of my dream for a full-timing life and the reality of it.
My dream of full-time RVing is an American one. It falls apart in the face of Canadian reality. It is impossible in Canada to have the kind of freedom I wanted RVing to give me. There are a number factors which have led to my growing disillusionment with the full-time RV lifestyle in Canada:
-The Cost: living in this country is expensive and you don’t gain anything by being an RVer because Canada doesn’t have nice open tracts of land where you can spend months on end. I’ve stayed in places where RV park rent was twice the monthly payment on my house.
-The Constraints: It’s impossible to travel freely around Canada if you want to abide by the laws governing health care, vehicle registration, and insurance
-The Climate: There is no decent place to winter in this country.
My two months in the US last year confirmed that for me to continue RVing, I need to be able to travel in the US for a good part of the year. My expenses drop by 50% when I’m there. I can’t work there, so I need to spend the other part of the year in Canada to work and save money. But I can only do that if some nice folks will let me park in their yard or their driveway, otherwise all my income disappears into rent.
Since even before I hit the road, I thought of buying some land to use as a home base. The more I realised how much Canada was constraining me, the less I wanted to buy land to play by the rules. But going to the States changed my attitude. I can get that lot to satisfy the US’s concerns about my having ties to Canada. Now that I have satisfied my Canadian bucket list, I wouldn’t mind going back to the same place every year for four or five months to work without worrying about paying rent or overstaying my welcome.
Having traveled the breadth of this country, I knew that the only provinces where it made sense to buy land were Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Every other province is too expensive and too restrictive, with rules governing how long the lot can stay empty and forbidding turning them into RV pads.
Manitoba’s real estate prices have jumped 158% over the last six years. Saskatchewan is ripe for a comparable boost as it now boasts the only truly affordable acreages along the US border. The word on Bay Street is that now is the time for savvy investors to buy Saskatchewan property and that that investment will pay for itself shortly, just as those who were wise to buy in Manitoba a few years ago have made good on their investments.
So that’s why I decided to meander through the Saskatchewan countryside yesterday. I was checking out several possible pieces of property.
Today, I drove back out to Assiniboia to make a formal offer on the ideal piece of land and a backup offer on a slightly less suitable lot. And that’s all I have to say about that at this time.
Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about
Who’s never left home, who’s never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl’s dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn’t yet guessed
I look forward to the positive outcome! *hugs*
Sending good vibes your way. It would be terrible to WANT to live a certain way and not be able to because of Government constraints. I guess that is why there is a really large group of Canadians who live part of the year in the desert southwest USA, or in Mexico.
Bast: *HUGS*
Martha: I think what I find unfair is that I pay my taxes and would even be willing to pay extra taxes, say property taxes on an RV, to be legal, but the government is run by idiots who can’t think for themselves (with all my apologies to my non-idiotic former colleagues!).
I want to be part of that group that goes south, but without a retirement income, I’m always going to have issues at the border. I’m hoping that having some land will help prove that I have ties to Canada.
Congrats on your offers, I hope your #1 pick goes smoothly. 🙂 I never even considered a plot of land to park at, nice addition to the RV dream I have going on. 🙂
Nicole and Linda: if it’s meant to be, it’ll be. If not, I will look again next summer.
Lynn: Using a relative or friend’s address means implicating them in a web of lies. I’d rather be independent. Americans understand full-timing. When I crossed into Washington last spring, it didn’t matter what my address was, only that my RV is clearly my home. I’m not sure a plot of land will solve the problem, but it ought to help. The other half of the equation is income and savings. I’m not concerned about this upcoming trip; I have more than enough in the bank and a Canadian deadline for returning to my country. Coming back next winter, it would be nice to say that I am going back west to develop my plot of land.
I’ve been following you from way back when. I am confident that you will find a way.
I have been reading all the websites of solo woman RVer’s and I don’t think it is an easy life for any of you. I would like to RV too but only part-time as I like my house and Canadian summers too much. Because of my interest I just finished a book about the implications of loving in the US part-time. If your land purchase doesn’t work out. Could you consider using a relative’s as a home base. You could use their address, pay a stipend for rent, get them to forward your mail and have all your bills and paperwork go to that address. If you can provide all those things, you shouldn’t have any trouble crossing over for 6 months like all the other snowbirds. Your only problem is that you are “untethered” right now with no base. Have you actually run into problems while crossing the border?
If your work is done over the phone and over the Internet, why can’t it physically be done anywhere? Who would even know exactly where you are? I bet 9/11 made it a lot harder to cross the US border. Used to be so easy. Canada was like a cousin. Best of luck on your changes. Will you spend the summers in SK or winters?
Technically, because I am working for a Canadian company, myself, and am paid into a Canadian bank, I can keep doing what I’m doing in the US although there could be tax complications. But the agent at the border last year told me that about 99% of his colleagues would turn back someone planning to work in the US without a visa because that’s just easier than trying to figure out if someone’s setup is legit. He told me get to the border with enough for the winter and say that I will be keeping an eye on my company but am otherwise on vacation. If I get caught working, no biggie, I’m legal. Yes, a customs agent told me to say what needs to be said to get across the border as long as I will be complying with the law.
I would certainly tell the border agents you are on vacation. You are. If you choose to spend some time in your vacation home and work for your Canadian company, how is that any different than the millions of US citizens who do a bit of work on their vacations off US soils? None of them pay foreign taxes unless their company is actually in the other country. Yours is not.
I think what they are actually concerned about is a non-US citizen working for a US company without proper papers or paying taxes – oh and terrorists. And permanent residents who will never go back to their own country. That’s not your intent or actions. Whatever work you do is done wholly in Canada – remotely – and you affect no US companies whatsoever. All the time you are in the US and not working is vacation time so that is what you are doing. Just like the tons of Canadian snowbirds are. It’s not like you are being dishonest about the time you plan to spend in the US or do anything that is actually illegal. Oh, and every time you buy something in the US, you pay some US taxes. I would think having a Canadian property would ease their minds – it is what they are used to. Anytime they encounter something out of the ordinary, they get nervous. They needn’t know it is just land. Welcome to the USA when you get here. 🙂