"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.

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 4/25! State & Territorial Visitor Registration Laws Guide

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

NEW! Updated 6/25! Research on Local Restrictions

Derek Logue of OnceFallen is conducting research on local registry restrictions around the US, prioritizing the states with the worst local restrictions first. Be sure to check this site out if you are concerned about local laws.

Click HERE to see this research.


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 10/24: My 2024 ACSOL conference domestic travel presentation

I have given several presentations on domestic travel at NARSOL and other national conferences. My presentation at the 2024 ACSOL conference 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, June 24, 2025

 Flirting With Ontario

Including Akwesasne Nation, St. Lawrence Seaway, Niagara Falls

From the 50 State Visitor Guide : New York

N.Y. C.L.S. 2019 Corrections §§168

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

10 calendar days for initial reg., after “establishing residency” (not defined), and for updates. §§168-f, 168-k.  In-state workers required to register if present for more than 14 consecutive days or an aggregate period exceeding 30 days in a calendar year. §168-a.

Visitors: Per NY SOR office, 10 consecutive days or 14 per month. NOTE: Partial days count (except just passing through).  Procedure available for removal from registry after departure.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Certain laws may impose a 1,000 ft. residency restriction from schools and child care facilities for registrants on parole or probation.   

Duration & updates:

20 years to life.  Updates: L3 & “sexual predators” 90 days; all others annually.  §168-h.

Flirting With Ontario

A couple of years ago I visited the International Peace Garden, which is open to Americans but part of it is in Manitoba.  I blogged about that.  Since then I’ve kept wondering, are there other places along the US-Canada border where Americans are permitted inside a hermetically sealed little chunk of Canada? 

If you know of any, please let me know.  Meanwhile I have now made it a game to noodle along the Canadian border for other special places like that – beginning with Ontario.  As I flirt with Ontario I’ll report what I find here.

One thing I want to make clear is that this is just a game.  Nobody is trying to sneak across the border.  I don’t even want to do that and it would violate the rules of the game – which are that it has to be a bona fide place where any American is allowed to be without a passport.  So let’s play the game:

Akwesasne Nation (St. Regis Mohawk Nation), St. Lawrence Seaway – Most recent visit: May 2025

The weather totally sucked the whole time I was in the Akwesasne Nation. Their territory lies on both sides of the St. Lawrence Seaway and of the US – Canadian border.  In the US it’s called the St. Regis Mohawk Nation.  So in that way you can kinda pretend you’re in a separate nation when you enter the reservation, and that separate nation includes lands on the other side of the border and …


Map of the Akwesasne Nation (grey) and Robert Moses State Park (Barnhart Island)

The Akwesasne Nation’s chief sources of prosperity are: (a) it sits right at the main St. Lawrence River / US border crossing for the entire region, and (b) the St. Lawrence – FDR Hydroelectric Power Dams are right there too.  If they didn’t get a cut of that action they got totally jipped!

But for the same reasons, on any road trip through this region you’d better get used to seeing a lot of dark colored SUV’s – both Akwesasne Nation and US.  I don’t think it’s because the Akwesasne people have a special fondness for them either.  I stopped near the bridge / border crossing just to have a look and the place was crawling with them. 


Yup that's Canada all right! As seen from Robert Moses State Park.  I got closer to the water's edge than this but thought better of the idea of "suspiciously taking a photo" from the riverbank.

I also visited Robert Moses State Park which includes the dams which you can see from a distance and the canal locks which you can go to.  It’s at the Visitors Center.  Yes I saw dark colored SUV’s there too but no so many.  The park is on an island in the St. Lawrence River, the island itself is on the Canadian side of the shipping channel, so here again you can kinda pretend …


Ship coming through the lock - cool!

One thing nobody seemed to mind me doing was driving all over the park including right up to the riverbank where Canada was just a few feet away.  This park at the north tip of New York also offers camping and cabins!  When I got to the Visitor’s Center there was a cargo boat going through the locks and I got to see that.  All in all and pleasant place to pretend you’re in Canada.

Convenience store chain store you should be forewarned about:

Stewarts Shops – What began out as a little chain of ice cream shops is now this region’s main convenience store chain that happens to include an ice cream bar.  What they don’t have is a soda fountain.  Why don’t the people of New England and Upstate New York like fountain sodas?

Niagara Falls and Gorge – Most recent visit: May 2025

On my most recent visit the weather continued to totally suck the whole time I was in the Niagara region.  I bypassed Niagara Falls itself because I had been to the falls before.  I believe it was on a trip I took in the year between when I was arrested and when I was sentenced.  I planned on a few hours but couldn’t do everything in that time.  I did go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride which visits Horseshoe Falls which is the Canadian Falls and I don’t think they’re enforcing the border that much out in the middle of the river, so there’s that.

I also did Cave of the Winds and a couple of other things but I don’t remember going to Three Sisters Islands which probably get you as close to the border as you can get on land.



Niagara Gorge and the Whirlpool as seen from the American side

In early June 2025 I decided to go to Whirlpool State Park this time instead.  The bad news is that to get there you have to drive on the most inappropriately named road ever constructed – Niagara Scenic Parkway.  Wow is it ever in bad shape!  The good news is the Whirlpool and the gorge are pretty amazing. 


Whirlpool State Park

The park overlooks the Niagara Gorge at a sharp bend where the whirlpool is.  This is without a doubt the best view of The Whirlpool (except for the cable car on the Canadian side) and that view is from the US but the thing you’re there to look at is in Canada.  Oh well …

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