Escapees RV Club: The Full-Timer's Guide to Mail, Domicile, and Community

Escapees RV Club is different from every other campground membership. It's not primarily about discounts on nightly rates — though those exist. It's about solving the practical problems that come with living full-time in an RV: where is your legal home? Where does your mail go? How do you find community when you're always moving?

Founded in 1978 by Kay and Joe Peterson, Escapees has grown to over 65,000 members and built an infrastructure specifically designed around the full-timer lifestyle. Here's what it includes and whether it's worth the membership fee.

The Mail Forwarding Service

The Escapees mail service is headquartered in Livingston, Texas. Members get a permanent mailing address, and Escapees holds, sorts, and forwards your mail on your schedule. You can call or log in and request a forward whenever you need it, receive scanned images of envelope fronts for non-urgent mail, and have packages held until you can receive them.

For full-timers, this solves the fundamental problem of having no fixed address. The forwarding fees are additional to membership (based on weight and frequency), but the service is reliable and purpose-built for this use case. No general mail forwarding service does this as well as Escapees.

Texas Domicile: What It Means and Why It Matters

If you're giving up a fixed home to live full-time in your RV, you need a legal domicile — a state of record for your driver's license, vehicle registration, voter registration, and tax purposes. Escapees has built an entire infrastructure around establishing domicile in Texas for this reason: Texas has no state income tax, relatively low vehicle registration fees, and a straightforward process for establishing domicile without owning real property.

The process: visit Livingston, Texas in person (a one-time trip), establish your mailing address, get a Texas driver's license using the Escapees address, and register your RV in Texas. Escapees staff walk members through the entire process. Many full-timers plan an extended stay in the area to handle the logistics.

South Dakota and Florida are alternative domicile states that full-timers also use — no income tax, straightforward processes. But Escapees' infrastructure in Texas makes it the easiest option for members.

Campground Network and Discounts

Escapees operates a network of parks across the US (called SKP Parks or Escapees Parks) that offer members significantly reduced rates — often $20–30/night with full hookups. Many of these parks are long-term friendly, with monthly rates for members doing an extended stay.

Beyond their own parks, Escapees has discount agreements with hundreds of additional campgrounds. The discount structure isn't as systematic as Passport America or Thousand Trails — it varies by park — but the combination of owned parks and partner discounts provides real value for members who plan routes around them.

The CARE Program and Rainbow's End

One unique aspect of Escapees is the CARE (Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees) program — a community for members who need more support as they age, with a semi-independent living community in Livingston that accepts members who can no longer live independently in their RV. This reflects the Escapees philosophy of building a genuine lifelong community, not just a discount network.

Membership Cost and Value Assessment

Annual membership runs approximately $70–120/year depending on membership type (individual vs. couple). This is lower than most premium campground memberships. The value calculation is different: if you're a weekend camper, Escapees probably isn't your best membership. If you're a full-timer or planning to become one, the mail service and domicile infrastructure alone justify the cost many times over.

Combining Escapees (for the full-timer infrastructure) with Thousand Trails (for campground nights) and Passport America (for broad discount network access) is the standard membership stack for serious full-timers.

Related: Maximizing Thousand Trails  ·  Passport America guide  ·  Full-time RV living guide

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