D M V
Department of Motor Vehicles. Endless waits in lines. Surly or indifferent workers behind the counter. No matter what paperwork you bring, it isn't enough.
I was pleasantly surprised when there were only a dozen or so people in line in front of us. There were at least 8 windows open, so the line moved at a reasonable pace. The guy that waved us out of the waiting line was just coming back from lunch, so he was fresh.
We had a lot of stuff to change to Arizona, our drivers licenses and all the vehicles. We were fully expecting for this to be a "recon" mission, so it was nice that we were able to get the bulk of the changes done. We have to come back for drivers licenses and the registration on the motorhome... the motorhome has to have an emissions test done on it before we can register it... and we'd prefer to not disconnect, move it, and take it to an inspection station until we're ready to leave this RV park.
For the drivers licenses, we have to have birth certificates, Social Security cards, OR US Passports. We had our passports with us. Then, one more requirement that we hadn't anticipated: 2 pieces of mail each with our new address on it. Which won't happen for a while (although we did register the address with the Post Office yesterday), because we won't get the key for the mailbox until we get the keys to the house; and that won't happen until next week.
So, yes, we will have to go back again, but we know what to expect. And we found out we can make an appointment, instead of standing in line. Our new friend Ricardo at the DMV was very "by the book," but he was helpful and patient. Vehicle registration costs in Arizona are higher than in Texas, but we can do them for 2 years... and from here on, it can be done on-line. And the cargo trailer is a "permanent" registration: pay for it once, and you don't have to pay again for as long as you own it. When it is all said and done, it will be over a grand to switch the vehicles to Arizona.
Probably the best DMV experience I recall. Although here, it is called MVD, as in: Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division.
We had lunch at In-N-Out Burger. It is reasonably close here in Goodyear (I haven't seen one nearby where we are moving). Plus it is right across the street from Lowe's, where we looked at ceiling fans once again (made some changes) and checked out some bathroom storage options. A stop at Best Buy to nail down our choice on new TVs for the living room and bedroom.
Then, one more stop to get things changed to Arizona: the bank. We had to update our address information. You'd think it would be quick to make that change. Yeah, that's what I thought, too. It took almost as long as our time at the DMV (MDV?), but at least we had chairs at the bank. The young lady making the changes and ordering new checks for us was very friendly, but there seemed to be a lot of security confirmation necessary. And we have been doing business with this national chain for over 40 years. On the bright side, they will be mailing our new checks, so we'll have at least one piece of postage with our name and address on it for the DMV.
All this took up most of the afternoon. It was 102º while we were driving back to the RV park. And comfortably cool inside. The a/c doesn't have to work as hard with this low humidity. That said, you don't want to be out in the sun if you can avoid it. Rufus thought he wanted to go for a walk when we got home... "I think we'll wait for the sun to go down, buddy."
Another day of chipping away at getting settled here.
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This evening, we started working through address changes with various businesses, vendors, and accounts. It won't all happen in one evening.
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