"From Alabama to Zion National Park"

Before I wrecked my life and ended up on Florida’s Sex Offender registry I always intended to travel in my retirement. Now, after prison and probation, I am in fact retired, and “free,” and have not given up my dream of seeing natural wonders and historic sites, visiting great cities, traveling to as many places as possible within the restrictions placed on me as a registered citizen.

While I may attempt traveling the world in the future, everything I’ve heard and read about International Megan’s Law requirements makes it sound difficult and even dangerous for a registered person. I therefore decided that my own home country is a pretty big place that, so far at least, nobody can keep my out of. Including all of its states and territories the United States spans half the globe and extends from the arctic to the equator. A guy could spend his whole retirement traveling this great land and never really see all of it.

As many of you may have discovered, however, interstate travel as a registered citizen isn’t as simple as getting in your car and driving away. Unless you don’t mind the prospect of inadvertently violating the registry laws of either your own state or whatever state you’re in at the time and ending up back in prison for a registry violation, it’s crucial to be conversant with and obey the registry laws of every state you plan to pass thru, which for me is every US state and territory.

The starting point for my research was the chart “Summary of State and Territorial Registration Laws Concerning Visiting and Temporary Residence by Adults” available on the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offender Laws (ACSOL) website. It’s a good summary chart, but it hadn’t been updated since 2018. Using the state statute references in the ACSOL chart I downloaded every state and territory’s registry laws, read them all, updated the information on the chart and corrected any errors that I found.

I also obtained a list of phone numbers for all 50 states’ SOR offices, and called every state to ask supplemental questions. As you might expect, some SOR offices don’t answer the phone and never call back if you leave repeated messages. Some states SOR offices have outgoing messages that don’t allow you to leave a message but only refer you to unhelpful online FAQ documents. Nevertheless, I found that when I was able to speak to a real person (which was about half the time) the SOR office personnel were uniformly courteous and willing to provide helpful answers to my questions.

The result of my research is the new and improved Summary of State and Territorial Registration Laws Concerning Visiting and Temporary Residence by Adults” chart. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW. My plan is to keep re-researching and updating this chart for at least the next ten years (i.e. 2021-2031) while I travel the USA.

However, all of this research – whether the state laws themselves, written responses to letters, or the oral responses by a random person in a state SOR office – may bear no relation at all to what you or I may experience if pulled over by an over-eager redneck sheriff’s deputy because you have a blown tail light. Do you want to be the first person to test the limits of any of this? I’ll bet the answer to that is NO.

So be careful out there, and safe travels!
Legal Disclaimer

I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY. THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE AND SHOULD NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR QUALIFIED LEGAL ADVICE.

Because sex offender laws are frequently revised by legislatures and reviewed by courts, the most current version of the applicable laws should be consulted and can generally be found by using your search engine to locate the statutes referenced on this site. This website does not include all laws that may apply to registrants in any particular state.


NEW! Updated 9/24! State & Territorial Visitor Registration Laws Guide

Click HERE. It'll pop up on your screen in a separate window.

Summary Map Click HERE. It'll pop up on your screen in a separate window.


NEW! Updated 9/24! State & Territorial Visitor Registration Laws for FORMER & LONG-TERM Registrants

MANY REGISTRANTS DO NOT UNDERSTAND that most states have registration laws that apply to out-of-state visitors even if you have served your registration duty in your state of offense and are no longer required to register there. Violating these states' laws during your visit can get you caught in these states' registries or even incarcerated EVEN THOUGH you have been removed from your own state's registry!

Furthermore, you may be surprised to learn that some states' registration laws may not apply to visiting registrants who have, in your state of offense, served your registration duty for the number of years specified by law in the state you are visiting - even if you are still on the registry in your state of offense.

Because confusion surrounding this issue will be a growing problem as more and more Americans (including myself) become long-term or former registrants, I have researched the registration laws of every U.S. state and territory related to this issue.

Click HERE to see this new research.


Recorded 6/23: My 2023 NARSOL conference domestic travel presentation

I have given several presentations on domestic travel at NARSOL and other national conferences. My presentation at the 2023 NARSOL conferences was recorded and is now available as a You Tube video.

This is about an hour long but contains a lot of information about domestic travel, so Click HERE to watch.


The Traveling Registrant

The Once Fallen website offers this must-read information for all registrants planning to travel. Click here: http://www.oncefallen.com/travel.html

Unwelcome Images

My personal story of prison, probation and ... redemption? is posted on Medium. If you're interested you can click here:

https://therabbitisin.com/unwelcome-images-c06a3760b11a

Your first hurdle:

Permission to leave town

My state of offense (Florida) has a registry law that, like those of many other states, is completely silent on the question of what notice I as a registered person have to provide in the event that I intend to travel out of state temporarily but have no intention of establishing any “permanent residence,” “temporary residence” or “transient residence” in any other state. Instead, Florida’s SOR law reads as follows:

“A sexual offender who intends to establish a permanent, temporary, or transient residence in another state or jurisdiction other than the State of Florida shall report in person to the sheriff of the county of current residence within 48 hours before the date he or she intends to leave this state to establish residence in another state or jurisdiction … The sexual offender shall provide to the sheriff the address, municipality, county, [and] state … of intended residence … The department shall notify the statewide law enforcement agency, or a comparable agency, in the intended state [or] jurisdiction … of the sexual offender’s intended residence. The failure of a sexual offender to provide his or her intended place of residence is punishable as [a third degree felony].”

943.0435(7) FS.

Apparently, the drafters of Florida’s SOR law – and the many similarly worded statutes of other US states – never anticipated that a registered person would ever leave their state for any other reason than to establish a “permanent residence,” “temporary residence” or “transient residence” wherever they're going. Therefore I assume that I and many of you could legitimately assume we would be within our legal rights to just leave our state without telling anybody as long as you have no intention of, and scrupulously avoid, establishing any kind of residence that would violate your state’s statutes.

However, I DO NOT recommend doing this under any circumstances.

Why? Because there’s a 120% chance that your local sheriff’s department believes you have to tell them you’re leaving and where you’re going no matter what your state’s SOR law says or doesn’t say. Suppose you get pulled over somewhere for having a blown tail light. The sheriff’s deputy looks you up and discovers you’re an out-of-state registered offender. Next, he calls local law enforcement in your home state and asks, “Hey, did y’all know this guy was here?” They of course will say “No, we didn’t even know he left our state and we think that’s a registry violation – he is an ABSCONDER!” at which point you’ll be arrested, handcuffed and sent back to prison.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I want to spend my vacation.

Therefore I strongly suggest that you visit your local sheriff’s department or registry office and inform them of your intention to travel. I did this for the first time in October 2020, and have traveled out of state frequently since then, each time making sure to do so “within 48 hours before the date he or she intends to leave this state.”

Having gained some experience with traveling while registered I offer you the following advice:

Always notify your local law enforcement of your intention to travel and provide as much detail as possible about your travel plans. In particular, it helps to have at least one specific destination for your trip. Your local law enforcement is expecting you to have a destination. You probably do have at least one destination, and if it’s not a friend or relative’s home you probably had to make some kind of reservation ahead of time. Either way you know at least one address where you’ll be, so give it to the staff person behind the glass. They will feel more comfortable with this even if your plans include extended time to get to and return from the specific destination(s), during which you’ll be enjoying yourself.

I have found that if I give a general description of your travel, like some of the states you’ll be passing through, the staff person will happily enter that onto whatever form their filling out as “additional notes.” This may actually help you in case you get pulled over someplace because when the sheriff’s deputy calls your home state it’s all right there in the computer.

Recently I established a summer home in Iowa. Unlike Florida and many other states, Iowa’s registry law explicitly, but clumsily, addresses out-of-state travel. It says:

“[A] sex offender, within five business days of a change, shall also appear in person to notify the sheriff of the county of principal residence [i.e. the principle residence in Iowa], of any location in which the offender is staying when away from the principal residence of the offender for more than five days, by identifying the location and the period of time the offender is staying in such location.” 692A.105 IS.

While I was at my new Iowa sheriff’s department registering, getting photographed, fingerprinted and providing a DNA sample, I took the opportunity to ask how travel was going to work in my new state. I pointed out that although I can always provide a destination when traveling, there is no way I’ll be able provide locations and addresses ahead of time for every campground or motel room I might be staying at along the way.

The lady behind the bullet-proof glass stated that their policy for this type of travel is that I will need to keep a travel log for each trip, which I will need to turn in upon my return. This just shows how local sheriff’s departments come up with some policy to deal with these situations. As you know from reading elsewhere on this blog, I recommend you always keep a travel log as well as all receipts just in case you need to prove your whereabouts, so this sheriff’s department requirement, while ridiculous, turns out not to be a problem for me or anyone following my recommendations.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

 Oregon

Hellgate Canyon

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

O.R.S. 2021 §§ 163.476; 163A.005 through 163A.235, O.A.R. 257-070-0005 through 257-070-0040, 291-202-0040.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

10 days for initial registration and updates; 10 days for a move into the state. §§163A.010 through 163A.020.

State law does not specifically address visitors. Per Oregon SOR response letter (2020), visitors are not required to register, unique among states. However, to be safe, visitors should use the 10 day rule in §163A.020 as a guideline.  There appears to be no limit on return visits per month or year.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residency restriction: “Sexually violent dangerous” offenders and “predatory sex offenders” may not reside “near locations where children are the primary occupants or users.”  O.A.R. 291-202-0040.

Presence restriction:  Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, neither “Sexually violent dangerous offenders” nor Level 3 offenders may enter a “premises where persons under 18 years of age regularly congregate,” including schools, childcare centers, and playgrounds. O.R.S. § 163.476

Only Level 3 offenders are placed on the public website. §163A.215

Duration & updates:

Lifetime.  Petition to remove – T1 – 5 yrs; §163A.125. Updates annually.


Beach art at sunset on the Oregon Coast

Most recent visits: Aug. & Sept. 2023

I have read enough issues of the NARSOL Digest with state reports from Oregon Voices to know it’s no picnic being on Oregon’s registry.  And yet I must also point out that, at least in its treatment of registered visitors, Oregon is one of the least harsh of the states.  

State law does not specifically address visitors. In 2020 the Florida Action Committee sent letters to every state SOR office with questions about how their registries affected out-of-state visitors.  No surprise – not many states responded to these questions.  But Oregon did respond. 

According to Oregon’s SOR response letter, visitors are not required to register, unique among states.  There is no set number of days visiting registrants can be in Oregon, and no restrictions on return visits per month or year.  Despite this, you will notice that in my 50 State Visitors guide (see above) I still recommend that to be safe, visitors should use the 10 day rule in O.R.S. §163A.020 as a guideline.

Oregon does have some residency and presence restrictions, but they apply only to Level 3 and/or so-called “sexually violent dangerous offenders.”  If you don’t fit into those categories you’re safe.


Oregon's beautiful Pacific seacoast

First pass through Oregon

On the day I entered Oregon from Washington State my first stop was the impressively named Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  I drove eastward on WA State Road 14 from Vancouver as far as far as U.S. 197, then crossed the Columbia River and returned mostly on I-84 which, sadly, is the main river road on the Oregon side.  Because you have a state highway, an Interstate highway and a major rail line all squeezed into this river gorge, and the river itself is a shipping route, I have to tell you it ain’t all that scenic. The setting of the Dalles Dam is nothing if not ugly.

From the Columbia Gorge I headed for Oregon’s famed Pacific seacoast which I followed from Roads End State Park south to South Beach State Park before retiring for the night.  As much as Oregon may be in the state government business it’s even more in the state park business.  It seems like they’ve turned almost every available scrap of state land into a park, which of course means there’s a fee to get in.  The good news is there is one state beach park after another as you travel the seacoast.


Clearwater Falls, near Crater Lake

On Day 2 I thought I had extra time so I headed inland to see what Oregon’s national forests are like.  Unfortunately I ran into a major forest fire, everything was closed including waterfalls and I had to turn back.  Returning to the seacoast at Florence, I followed it through Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and points south.  

By the morning of Day 3 I was as far south as Gold Beach, only to discover that the highway I wanted to take inland (U.S. 199) to my reserved campground near Crater Lake National Park was closed due to another forest fire.  That left the “Bear Camp Coastal Route” through Siskiyou National Forest as my only option.  “Scenic” is one way to describe this mountainous one lane road with occasional turnouts. “Scary” is another.  The good news is that most of it is paved.


Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park

Wow, spectacular.  Day 4 in Oregon was Crater Lake National Park day.  I stopped to see beautiful waterfalls in Umpqua National Forest before entering the park from the north.  From that direction the first thing you come to is the main view of the crater.  Crater Lake is a volcanic crater, not a meteor crater.  From there you can follow a ring road around the crater to see it from many angles before returning to the main view before choosing to leave to the north or south.

Unfortunately the far part of the ring road was closed for maintenance on the day I was there, so I had to turn back at Cloudcap Overlook.  One thing I’ve gotten in the habit of doing at national parks is hiking one of the easy nature trails.  Most of them are really quite good – after all they’re in national parks.  In this case it was Castle Crest Wildflower Trail.  Very nice.

The Phantom Ship

By mid-afternoon I was leaving Crater Lake by the south exit.  With a few hours on my hands I checked out Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.  Yes it’s worthy of being a national monument.  It was the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend and I had a reserved campsite at Valley of the Rogue State Park which turned out to be a glorified I-5 rest area.  Don’t believe me?  Go see for yourself.

On my fifth and final (partial) day of my first pass through Oregon I decided to stop at Oregon Caves National Monument.  It’s 45 minutes from Cave Junction on U.S. 199 up to the cave, so buy your tickets at the Visitors Center at the junction.  Good cave and a good tour.  As you walk out the cave exit you’re invited to hike the nature trail, which I did and it’s quite beautiful.

Yes, by this time U.S. 199 was open so I could get to California, but the campground I had reserved there turned out to be closed on account of the fire.


Oregon's Outback

Second pass through Oregon

I was in California for one partial day and three full days before returning to Oregon on what was by now the return leg of my Pacific Northwest Tour.  Having spent the night before at Lava Beds National Monument in California near the state line, I entered Oregon this time near Klamath Falls and traveled east on State Road 140 to Lakeview.  On my Rand McNally map Lakeview promised a hot spring and a geyser, but like I had already seen on Montana's Flathead Reservation, they were long ago privatized into what is by now some kind of fleabag resort. *Sigh.*

Southeastern Oregon, a.k.a. Oregon’s Outback, is a remote place of stark beauty but most of that beauty is on private ranch lands.  Therefore there’s only what you can see from U.S. 395 and few places to pull over and enjoy it.  However, after the town small ranch town of Burns there were several campgrounds in Malheur National Forest and they weren’t crowded on a weeknight in September.

On Day 2 of my second pass through Oregon I continued north and east until I reached the tourist town of Baker City.  I was hoping to stop at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center but guess what?  It’s closed for renovations until 2024!  Oh well – I continued east to see what Hells Canyon National Recreation Area is like.  And the answer is – yes there’s a lot of recreational opportunities there but the scenery is not as impressive as its name implies.  Less impressive than Oregon’s Outback where I’d been the day before.

Because it was Friday night I’d long ago made a reservation at the cheapest motel I could find online in Ontario, OR. That was a good thing too because when I pulled in the “No Vacancy” sign was flashing.


Hell's Canyon

Oregon as a temporary regional base camp

As I mentioned a few posts ago in my Pacific NW Tour Overview, I began to think that if I do this again it would be nice to establish a temporary base somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, break my travel into a few shorter excursions and spend the time in between at a comfortable base camp.

Naturally I would want to do this in a way that won’t require me to register in the state where the base camp is located.  That means I’ll need a location that will allow me to come and go 3-4 times over, let’s say, a two month period, staying put for up to a week each time, all without triggering an obligation to register in that state.  Then when I report travel at my local sheriff’s department in either Iowa or Florida, I can give them just that one location as my “destination” for the entire trip, while listing in “The Notes” section at the bottom of my sheet all the states I’m planning to visit in my excursions from that destination.  With that in my glove compartment I’ll be all set.

In the Pacific Northwest only one state meets all these requirements and that is Oregon, where State law does not specifically address visitors (see my 50 State Visitors Guide). Per an Oregon SOR office letter responding to questions by the Florida Action Committee (2020), visitors are not required to register, unique among states.  Registration is required within 10 days for a move into the state, so in my Visitors Guide I recommend not staying any longer than that for any single visit.  However there is no limit on return visits, so Oregon law allows me to follow my plan as described above.

After spending a night in the sleepy Oregon border town of Ontario I started thinking that for me at least it would make a good spot for a base camp.  The entire Northwest from Montana to the Puget Sound to California is within an easy day’s ride.  It’s a “twin city” of Payette in neighboring Idaho, so between those two and a few nearby smaller towns I’d have access to any of my daily needs, not to mention the “relatively cheaper gas” right across the state line.  Yet as a temporary Oregonian I’d be covered by the comparatively less restrictive laws there.  It all makes sense to me.

It was (partial) Day 3 of my second pass through Oregon when I left for my first foray into Idaho.  At day’s end I decided to return to Ontario for a second night to scope out where the cheapest weekly rate for comfortable accommodations might be found there, and came across a nice RV Park near the I-84 exit.  Staying an additional night in Ontario added one more partial day to my total stay in Oregon for a total of:  First Pass – five days, Second Pass – four days, separated by three days in California.  Well within Oregon’s legal requirements.

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