Due to Dale's art show schedule, we are always planning our travel routes 4-10 months in advance. We had been hearing from other full timers that SD was allowing driver license renewal by mail, however, this doesn't apply if you haven't been in the state within a year of your renewal date.
Knowing that in 2018 both of our licenses expire we've just started to think about when / how we're going to renew them. Our art show schedule won't have us anywhere close to SD so we're starting to think that flying in and staying a couple of nights might be our best option. We also have a strong desire to avoid SD in the winter time!!! We're finding that flights from Las Vegas to Rapid City are about the least expensive and since it's easy to route from AZ to CA via Las Vegas in April, that's looking like a very logical option for us and we might just have to plan a stay in or near Death Valley to cross one more national park off our bucket list!
As I was reviewing the requirements and thinking about the timing, I discovered that you can renew up to 180 days in advance, hmmm, Dale and I have birthdays that are 185 days apart and our planned trip would be approximately 2 months before his birthday. Upon a little further investigating I did find out that as long as I traveled with him and both our names are on the hotel receipt, I could then renew by mail later in the year, as long as the hotel stay was within 12 months of my renewal date.
Just thought I would share this for those of you that have to consider the timing on your SD license renewals.
Neil and Connie said
03:08 PM Jul 14, 2017
Two things…you don't have to go back to your home county to get renewed…anywhere for 1 night in SD will do. Second…we had this same decision last December and it was either drive to SD in December or switch to FL…switching to FL turned out to be cheaper especially as we'll eventually settle down there.
NWescapee said
12:43 PM Jul 17, 2017
Thanks Neil and Connie, since we'll be flying in from the Western US, Rapid City is usually the least expensive flight. We've already calculated the difference between flying in and driving there, plus the extra time to drive and flying in just makes more sense for us. Due to my work from home job we usually only travel on weekends and don't want to drive there too early, absolutely do NOT want to deal with snow.
Florida is a possibility in the future but since our travel plans for the next 2 years don't have us driving anywhere east of AZ, just not the right timing for us to make that change at this time.
Due to Dale's art show schedule, we are always planning our travel routes 4-10 months in advance. We had been hearing from other full timers that SD was allowing driver license renewal by mail, however, this doesn't apply if you haven't been in the state within a year of your renewal date.
Knowing that in 2018 both of our licenses expire we've just started to think about when / how we're going to renew them. Our art show schedule won't have us anywhere close to SD so we're starting to think that flying in and staying a couple of nights might be our best option. We also have a strong desire to avoid SD in the winter time!!! We're finding that flights from Las Vegas to Rapid City are about the least expensive and since it's easy to route from AZ to CA via Las Vegas in April, that's looking like a very logical option for us and we might just have to plan a stay in or near Death Valley to cross one more national park off our bucket list!
As I was reviewing the requirements and thinking about the timing, I discovered that you can renew up to 180 days in advance, hmmm, Dale and I have birthdays that are 185 days apart and our planned trip would be approximately 2 months before his birthday. Upon a little further investigating I did find out that as long as I traveled with him and both our names are on the hotel receipt, I could then renew by mail later in the year, as long as the hotel stay was within 12 months of my renewal date.
Just thought I would share this for those of you that have to consider the timing on your SD license renewals.
Two things…you don't have to go back to your home county to get renewed…anywhere for 1 night in SD will do. Second…we had this same decision last December and it was either drive to SD in December or switch to FL…switching to FL turned out to be cheaper especially as we'll eventually settle down there.
Florida is a possibility in the future but since our travel plans for the next 2 years don't have us driving anywhere east of AZ, just not the right timing for us to make that change at this time.