Thursday, August 19, 2010

Official Again!

Our main purpose in coming to South Dakota was to renew our drivers licenses. Hard to believe that it's been 5 years since we became residents of this fine state. Time flies when you're having fun!

This year, thanks to the National Real ID Act, we will need to jump through a lot more hoops in order to get our licenses. We started looking for our paperwork two days ago and Doug ran into a problem. No birth certificate. Instead of sightseeing and playing, he started going through boxes and drawers and his closet. It's been a loooooong two days.

Finally this afternoon, it turned up in an envelope in the big lockbox. We quickly gathered our social security cards, birth certificates, my marriage certificate and stopped at the park office to get receipts proving that we had spent at least one night in SD.

We got to the DMV about 3:30 and it was packed. An employee checked that our paperwork was all in order then had us fill out application forms and take a number. At that point I noticed a sign on the wall stating cash or checks only. While I waited in line, Doug ran to the local Safeway to get cash.

At 5 pm, our number was called and everything went smooth as silk. Paperwork was perfect, eye exam was perfect, pictures were less than perfect and we're good to go for another five years. What a relief!

So......be prepared if you haven't renewed your license this year. All states are in the process of rolling out the Real ID Act and they mean business.

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