The joys of the DMV

We found out shortly after we returned from DC that our car had been delivered to port and was ready for us to pick up. We were so excited to have it on American soil and to be a two-car family again! We headed to Portsmouth, VA after packing up all our Black Friday, NYC and assorted other purchases. We promised Hayden and Oscar this was the last time they'd be squished for awhile.

After about two hours we arrived and soon heard our names over the loudspeaker. We would soon learn that it meant nothing, and we waited about an hour and a half before we were able to pick it up. Since our car was shipped from overseas, of course it had no plates! So once we had our papers, we had to go to the DMV to acquire a travel permit that allowed us to drive without plates. Soon we were gassed up, split up and back on the road to North Carolina.

The next day we went to the License Plate section of the DMV to title and register our car. Since it had never been registered nor titles in the states, we read online about all the required documents and showed up with about every identifying document we had for our car and ourselves. Wouldn't you know it, we didn't have a customs inspection that no one told us about. Further, they only do said inspection M-F from 8-10 am. It was noon, and Friday. So we called to see if they would do it for us but no dice. Unfortunately, the trip pass we had from VA only allowed us to drive the car through Saturday, which meant 30 minutes on the phone with our insurance company to get the documents we needed to acquire yet another permit. At this point, it was 4pm on Friday, and the LAST place I wanted to be was the DMV, which was a different one than we had been to earlier. Lucky for me, the guy inside found out I was a military spouse and that Jay was in the Army, and waived me through saying "I served for 8 years, give her anything she wants." So we finally had the trip permit and plans to get the inspection done on Monday.

Monday morning came and we showed up nice and early at the DMV for the inspection. It literally took 2 minutes in the freezing cold, and we had what we needed to go BACK to the OTHER DMV. Ugh. But this time we had everything we needed and saw the same guy we had seen on Friday. We waited while he processed all the paperwork and were so close to our plates when he told us what we owed. We were expecting under $100 with the registration and plates. NOPE. We bought our car from a military dealership in Germany, which means it was sold to us tax-free. When I read about it on the website, it mentioned a tax bill that would come later. No no, that's the county tax bill. We now had to pay the sales tax on the vehicle, which brought our bill to SEVEN HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT DOLLARS.  Definitely not expecting that. Alas, we paid it and had plates and registration. Only to be changed a week later, when the Purple Heart plates and new registration came in.

Guess who's excited to go back to the license plate DMV to re-title Jay's new truck? Yeah, not this girl.