I was up at the crack of sparrow fart this morning as we all had a busy day in front of us. I have my driving test and Sarah was due to have her written test this morning. After getting back from weight watchers, Sarah came back in the car ready for me to drive the BMV (Bureau of Motor vehicles). I thought I better do some last minute maneuvers in the car before doing my test as I realized that I hadn’t actually done any of the 3 maneuvers in our new car (the golden hornet) that I have done in the UK driving test all those years ago. You may wonder how is it possible that you have never done a parallel park in the USA yet? Well the truth is you don’t need to (for the most part). It is all car parks with lines on the ground that fit two of our sized cars within them. So there I am outside our house trying to pretend that there is a car there while gently reversing back in to a space. I didn’t hit the curb…. the reason being they don’t have those either! The edge of the road near use is a kind of gutter that directs rainfall into storm drains rather than Curbs. Bo**cks to it. That will do and let’s just hope it is the other two maneuvers (turn in a road and reverse around a corner).
We get to the BMV just in the nick of time. After me going there twice last week to sort out the number plate for my car, this will make it 11th time in total. My god! I check in at the welcome desk and wait for my turn. “Kevin will be with you after this lady” says the lady at the counter. I look at this very serious looking bloke with a goatee beard walked across the waiting room with an air of “I could make or ruin you day in one easy word.
After 35 minutes he came back with the first girl who seemed to be explaining to her waiting mother how she failed her driving test. This guy is obviously not a pushover.
He called me to the desk and asked me a load of questions about my health, previous driving convictions, inside leg measurement and if I dress to left to the left or right. We walked to my car and he said he needed to check the all the lights and the indicators were working. I won’t lie to you, this was the scariest part of the test as I thought it may fail. He asked which car was mine and I said, “If I am feeling posh I would say it is champagne but I’m common so it is tan”. He gave me a grin that kind of broke the ice. Once we were out of the car park it was very relaxed and to be honest it was more like giving a mate a lift, but they know the directions to wherever they are going. We were just chatting the whole time, but I did the mandatory over exaggerating of the looking at mirrors and making sure that the hands were at 10 to 2.
I PASSED! YAY!
I filled in paperwork and watched the lady on the desk type really quickly in the computer. I was expecting her to say “computer says no… cough”. FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES later… She gave me a photocopied A4 bit of paper. “This is your temporary license. Your one should be the post and with you in the next 15 – 60 days, after it has been checked with the department of homeland security. This one is valid for 15 days, so if you don’t get one on the post, then come on back in” she says. Great! That will be 12 times at the BMV in 2 months. It’s all good fun, in a kind on gouge my eye out with a rusty spoon type way.
It turns out that Sarah couldn’t do her test as her Social Security Card (SSC) has her maiden name on it. Even though she had taken our marriage certificate with her, she still needs the correct name on her SSC. We then head off into the VERY cold Indianapolis to the Federal building. Been there, done that. It was closed so we head off via the kids museum to entertain them for the rest of the day.
In the evening we head off to a place called Columbus, Indiana. Every year they have the festival of lights parade. This is really cool and reminded me a little Disney world… but not quite. It was really good and the kids loved the different lights and cars that took part in the electric lights parade. One moment you would have a group of smart cars covered in Christmas lights, quickly followed by a huge truck with strobes and the horn blasting as loud as it would go. The kids loved it and enjoyed watching the fireworks from the back of the car.
A lie in tomorrow I hope!
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