Virginia

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Va. Code Ann. 2019 §§9.1-900 through  9.1-923 and §18.2-472.1.  Va. Code. Ann. §§18.2-370.2 through 18.2-370.5.

AWA Compliant

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Initial registration and updates for residents, in-state employees, and students within 3 days. Those employed in state for more than 14 days or more than 30 days in a calendar year must register within 3 days of arrival. §9.1-905.

Visitors on “an extended visit” of “30 days or more” must register within 3 days of arrival.  §9.1-905.  Per Virginia SOR response letter (2019), a procedure is available for removal from registry after departure.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence restriction:  Certain adult offenders with convictions involving minors sustained after July 2006 may not reside within 500 ft. of a school or parks adjacent to schools.  §18.2-370.3.

Presence restriction:  Certain adult offenders with convictions involving minors sustained after July 2006 may not loiter within 100 ft. of school, day care center, playground, athletic field or facility, or gym.  §18.2-370.2.  SVPs may not enter school grounds, with exceptions.  §18.2-370.5

Duration & updates:

Lifetime. Petition to remove –15 years §9.1-910.  SVPs update every 90 days; all others annually. §9.1-904.

Mount Vernon - George Washington's Virginia plantation

Most recent visit: December 2023

I don’t know if registered people talk much about Virginia where you live, but people travel back and forth quite a lot between Florida and Virginia.  They have family there, they find work there.  Virginia’s reputation as a decent place to visit that allows registrants to stay up to 30 days seems pretty well known here.  Thirty days is the longest statutory specified time period of any state.

However, be careful of residence, presence and loitering restrictions if they apply to you, because Virginia is a state where they will apply while you’re visiting.  And as with so many states, be careful of local sheriffs & police departments.

Having said all that, Virginia has a lot to offer visitors – history, national parks and forests, vacation resorts, theme parks, and beaches.  I have visited many of these places, but that was before - - before I wrecked my life.  Now that I’m traveling again I plan to go back and visit many of those places again.  In December 2023 I traveled from Florida with my now ex-wife but still Best Friend Forever to visit relatives and participate in a Wreaths Across America event on Long Island.  We had decided ahead of time to slow down and spend one night in Virginia so we could take in a few sights. 

On the day we arrived I convinced my BFF that Montpelier, James Madison’s plantation home, would make a good stop.  I had been there once before in the early 2010’s but since then they, like many other of the founding fathers’ plantations, have undertaken archaeological digs, added exhibits and updated the mansion tours to address the enslaved people who after all were the majority of those living there and whose labor supported our founding fathers’ lifestyles.

The following morning we visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation, where the same archaeology and tour updates have been made since my early 2010’s visit.  Both I and my BFF, who had never seen these great historic sites before, were incredibly impressed with both of these places.

The Space Shuttle Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

When passing anywhere near Washington DC my ex always wants to stop at the Smithsonian, and especially the Air & Space Museum.  The problem always is that traffic is a nightmare in downtown DC and parking is hard to find.  On this trip, as she was searching her phone looking for options she came across the “National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center” which turns out to be an absolutely enormous, entirely separate air & space museum on a huge campus in suburban Fairfax, Virginia.

With the Space Shuttle Discovery, an entire Concorde Jetliner, the actual Enola Gay, a Lockheed Blackbird, every other kind of air and spacecraft imaginable, and an IMAX theater with a James Webb Space Telescope movie among the features available, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center satisfies.  We may never need to fight downtown DC traffic again.

But by now it was late afternoon and we had to get going – we had a hotel reservation in Philadelphia that night.

Previous visit: October 2020

Luray Caverns, Virginia

In October 2020 I was “just passing through” Virginia on my way back to Florida from my brother’s house in New Jersey.

However, I wasn’t in a huge hurry so I decided to visit two places I’d never been.  I drove the length of the Skyline Drive, which was beautiful with many scenic overlooks and lots of fall color.  From a registrant’s point of view it also offers another positive attribute – Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway are both under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Parks Service rather than the state police or local sheriff’s departments.  Neither you nor I have any intention of violating any law while traveling, but it was still nice to know I was under that much reduced threat of police harassment.

I also made a side trip to Luray Caverns.  If you have read my other state blogs you’ll know by now I am a cavern junkie.  Luray Caverns was my second cavern on just this trip (the other being Diamond Caverns in Kentucky).  It’s a great place to visit even during a pandemic.  Unlike most caverns they don’t have tour guides; instead they hand you a brochure to use during your self-guided tour (maintaining social distance of course). 

By late in the afternoon I was starting on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  There are national forest campgrounds along the way so I found one and bedded down for the night.  The next morning I was off to North Carolina.

 Colorado

 

Rocky Mountain National Park

From the 50 State Visitor Guide:

C.R.S. 2019  §§16-13-901 through 16-13-906

C.R.S. §§16-22-101 through 16-22-115

C.R.S. §§18-3-412.5 through 18-3-412.6; 8 C.R.R. 1507-24

AWA Compliant

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Initial registration and updates within 5 business days.  “Residence” means 14 consecutive days in any 30 day period. §16-22-105.

“Temporary Resident” includes present in Colorado more than 14 consecutive business days or 30 days per calendar year. §16-22-102(8)(c).

Transient registrants subject to annual registration must report every 3 mo. Transient registrants subject to quarterly registration must report monthly. §§16-22-105 through 16-22-108.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

No statewide restrictions.

Duration & updates:

Lifetime. Petition: 5 years. Quarterly registration for SVPs & out-of-state who register quarterly in state of convictions. Others register annually. §16-22-108

Colorado Update: October 2023

Petrified tree trunks at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Enjoy your Colorado vacation but don’t get the idea that it’s a state where you might want to live permanently.  Registration is lifetime no matter your tier or equivalent. The only good news is that for Tier 1 or equivalent you can petition for removal after five years.  But as with most other states, there’s never any guarantee of approval.

But for visitors, Colorado has some of the least punitive requirements of any state. Yes, it’s 14 consecutive business days (or 30 per year) to establish a temporary residence. With 2 weekends included that means at least 18 days total; more if there’s a holiday.

Colorado also has no statewide presence or residency restrictions, although you should still be careful because local restrictions are allowed under state law.

If you read my previous blog – Utah – you may have noticed that at the end I said the next and last state on the return leg of my trip to the 2023 ACSOL conference was Colorado.  And much like my time in Utah, I was only slowing down to see a couple things on my way through Colorado, after which I was hurrying home to Iowa.

This pass through Colorado took two partial days one full day, so my total for the year 2023 was 8 business days plus 2 weekend days, well within Colorado’s limit.  On Day 1 my primary destination was Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  I had stayed overnight there two years before (see below) but not seen much of it in the daytime and wanted a return visit.  This is a truly stunning canyon, really one of the hidden jewels of the national park system. Very impressive! 

Much like my visit two years prior, that night turned out to be the coldest night of that entire trip.  I guess this mountainous western part of Colorado is just naturally cold!  Good thing I happened upon an RV park that also had cabin rentals with heat – and hot showers!

Day 2 I sort of slow-walked my way across the state without a primary destination, but happened upon Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  Interesting!  The fossil beds consisted mainly of petrified tree stumps. 

That night I found a state park campground in eastern Colorado and the weather was much better.  The following morning I was out of the state early and on my way home.

 Colorado scenic train rides: July 2023

 

Durango & Silverton Scenic RR

Enjoy your Colorado vacation but don’t get the idea that it’s a state where you might want to live permanently.  Registration is lifetime no matter your tier or equivalent. The only good news is that for Tier 1 or equivalent you can petition for removal after five years.  But as with most other states, there’s never any guarantee of approval.

But for visitors, Colorado has some of the least punitive requirements of any state. Yes, it’s 14 consecutive business days (or 30 per year) to establish a temporary residence. With 2 weekends included that means at least 18 days total; more if there’s a holiday.

Colorado also has no statewide presence or residency restrictions, although you should still be careful because local restrictions are allowed under state law.

If you have been reading my blogs you may know I’m a sucker for a scenic train ride.  The problem is that each one takes most of a day, so if I encounter one while traveling I have to decide between the train ride and anything else I may have intended to do that day.  So the entire purpose of this trip was to go on five Colorado scenic train rides in seven days and get it all out of my system (at least for this year).  Naturally I had to do advance research and make train reservations ahead of time.

I should also say here that when I showed up to report travel at my local sheriff’s department with all my reservations in hand they let me get away with using those train dates and locations as my travel destinations instead of motels and campgrounds.  Of course, whether your local sheriff would be that accommodating is a separate question.

So here are a few comments on the scenic train rides:

Georgetown Loop Scenic Railroad

++ Lots of scenery packed into shortest least expensive ride. Get the mine tour (costs extra).

-- Too “family friendly” – themed playground, toy-heavy gift shop etc. made me paranoid.

Leadville Scenic Railroad

++ Lots of scenery packed into a “relatively inexpensive” ride.

-- Goes through a crappy part of Leadville going and returning; ride is “one-sided” i.e. all the scenery is on the left (downhill) side as your facing the front of the train.

Durango & Silverton Scenic Railroad

++ Most scenic, and the entire train turns around so anything you didn't see on the way up from your assigned seat you will see on the way back.

-- Expensive, box lunch was extra, tracks run alongside US 550 for about an hour each way, tracks poorly maintained so the train rocks a lot.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

++ Very scenic and you are allowed to move around so you can see out of both sides of the train, price includes buffet lunch, tracks well-maintained.

-- Expensive, not as close to the scenery as others, goes through flat scrub for an hour after leaving town.

Pikes Peak Cog Railroad

++ Unique attraction and technology that takes you to the top of Pikes Peak.

-- Less scenery except from the top of Pikes Peak, assigned seating means you only get one view, buffet lunch at the top costs extra.

In between the train rides I also visited a few other places, including: Rocky Mountain National Park (spectacular and one day only just scratched the surface); Mesa Verde National Park (lots of ancient pueblos, cliff dwellings and petroglyphs – a real hidden gem of the National Park system); Great Sand Dunes National Park (a disappointment); Garden of the Gods (wow you’ve got to go!).

Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park

Previous visit: October 2021

In October 2021 I entered Colorado from Utah on I-70 in mid-afternoon.  My first destination was Colorado National Monument. I had been there once before but it was a decades ago.  I remembered that it was beautiful, not far from the interstate, and has a scenic drive that only takes an hour or two depending on how much time you want to devote to it.  On all these counts, Colorado National Monument did not disappoint. On the minus side, it was pretty darned cold that day in late October.

My plan was to go south from the interstate and sort of slow-walk my way through Colorado mainly following U.S. 50.  On that route the next national park was Black Canyon of the Gunnison which, like most of you I’m sure, I’d never even heard of.  It was late enough in the season that I worried whether the campgrounds there would be closed. They weren’t, but wow, that was the coldest night of camping on my entire trip!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park