WE PASSED THE TEST

Things didn't go as smoothly as we wanted on Tuesday when we went for our Washington State driver's license. The property tax bill, since it only had our lot number on it wasn't good enough, so we had to go into Newport to the Pend Oreille Utility District, and put in a work order for our electric service. By the time we were finished with all the other appointments we had, we postponed a return visit to the Department of Licensing (DOL) until Wednesday morning.

We started seeing a big difference in how life is in Washington as opposed to California. We checked out of the hotel and drove over to the DOL to be there before they opened. In California, 30 minutes before the DMV opens, there is a line of people around the building. We pull up to the parking lot and we are the only ones there. Not only are we the only ones there, but no one else even begins to show up until 5 minutes before they open. At one point, Craig even got out of the truck to go check the sign on the door to make sure they were even open.

With some trepidation we took our number and waited for them to call us to the counter, a mere 5 minutes later. We handed them the receipts from the utility company and we were off to the races. After answering a multitude of questions, taking the dreaded eye exam, which by the way for the first time I had to wear my glasses for, (I really should be carrying that AARP card on a lanyard around my neck), and 30 minutes later we had our California licenses invalidated and walked out with temporary Washington driver's licenses. We could now officially call ourselves Washingtontonians or something to that effect.

As you can see from the picture we are still a ways off from being able to put the park model on the lot, and there are still decisions to make regarding options on the house, but we hope to put in our order by the first two weeks of May, and with any luck have it delivered sometime in July. We are both excited about this next phase of putting down roots again and having a real home base to go to during our off time.

We have another change that I will be sharing with you in the next few blog entries, but for now we are basking in the glow of our new residency, and looking forward to celebrating Craig's birthday on Sunday before we hit the road again. Yes, life is good and we couldn't be happier!