Wednesday – San Diego, California

Patience is a waiting game!

The whole day today was to be dedicated to getting my bike registered in my own name, this could be simple or hard, I had no idea. The DMV was not going to open until 9am, but Craig assured me I would need to be there early, wait in line before opening and I would be maybe lucky if I got out before midday 😦

I am used to Auzzie government departments, so I thought, no worries, I would take a book, some water and a few snacks and settle in for the day 🙂 So, off we head after some different brekky of blueberry waffles, and sure enough although I was early, I was not first, others knew of the possible delays!

The line snaked around the next two corners, but I was fine, I had a book and spent the next half hour or so relaxing. After the place opened up it only took about 15 minutes to get to the front, here I was confronted by a person rather than a machine and he directed me to fill out the back of the Title document and take this number! That was all good until I found I did not have the actual paperwork with me, I searched everywhere in my bag, called Craig to see if I left it in the car, nope, so it must be back at the house, bummer, what a waste of time, I need to give myself an uppercut 😦

Craig drove me back where I eventually found the title document on the seat of the bike!!! Now we went back down town where I had to stand in line again, get another ticket and after a few hours of reading my book, I was at the counter 🙂 The chap did not ask me any of the questions I expected, like show me proof of ID, passport or anything, he just dialled in my bike details and hit me with a bombshell!!!! That will be US$473, WTF, but I am in no position to argue, so I handed over my Mastercard which he handed back and asked for cash, cheque, or debit card, bugger!!!!!!

It seems the actual rego transfer cost bugger all, about $15, the fine for not paying within the 10 days was $40, but the biggest hit was the bloody sales tax, $403, crikey, but I actually put down on the paperwork the real price I bought it for, so I am to blame ( I found out later Tom used the same number as me so there is no issue with lying etc).

Of course I was now buggered, I do not carry that type of cash on me and do not have a debit card after cancelling my Wells Fargo account yesterday, so I asked if I could go to a bank and come back, he assured me if I was back before 1.30pm when he went to lunch, I could jump the queue otherwise I would be standing in line for another ticket. So, I went and met up with Craig and bought him some lunch before finding a cash vending machine and withdrawing the needed funds. Once back at the DMV I successfully gave him money and he gave me a temporary registration ticket in my name, the real one would arrive in the mail within 3 weeks but this one had my name on it, so I should be good to cross the Mexican border!!! This is me with the DMV salute, think rubbing your fingers together counting money(DMV=Department of Money Vaccuum) 🙂

It was now mid afternoon and on the way back we stopped at a local AAA branch to get some maps as I am a reciprocal member, this branch looks nothing like my RACQ office at home!!!

Once back at Craig’s I ended Donunder’s concern about where I would hang my helmet now the passenger foot peg was taken up by a bag 🙂 And, a surprise to me was the fact that this photo, with this particular lighting, showed up my dragon in Gold, that looked real cool 🙂

I then spent some time on the blog before heading down to a post office, I had been holding back on last months send home stuff, I am unsure why, but finally I got it sent, along with some stuff I once again have not used, the bike is getting lighter, I now have more space to stash things like food and beer etc 🙂

After this I went to a book store where I was looking for a phrase book without words, just a picture book, but I did not find one, this was a surprise, it is a big shop!

But, in the end I gave up and went looking for another item I wanted, that was a USB key without encryption, I had two with encryption, but I wanted a basic cheapo small key just to take some files to a printer and get some copies, but once again I was stuffed by progress, I could not find any, oh well, I would work something out!

Once again, the evening was a quiet one, a few drinks on my part, Lisa had a beer, Craig was a wuss again, he kept using this mixing drugs and alcohol excuse, fair enough, I am sure he will get better soon, but I reckon if he mixed them he would not care if he did or didn’t, so who has the better attitude 😕 🙂

Day – 10 miles and 16 km
Trip – 37,591 miles and 60,497 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

USACanadaMexico

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