What if your travel plans crumble?
On my most recent cross-country trip my travel plans really did go kerfluey, so I decided the best public service I can perform is to tell you about it, and tell you how I fixed registry-related issues as I went along, so you too will know how to repair travel disasters on the fly.
My story actually begins a few weeks before I began this road trip, when I had to junk my old beast of a car and get a “new” one – new to me anyway. And I must say I am so far very happy with my new car, despite the fact that later in this story it will be the cause of one of my registry-related road trip disasters.
Until now, everything I owned was registered and plated in Florida. I have a Florida driver’s license. But now I was junking the old beast in Iowa, registering and plating the new Sienna in Iowa while still retaining my Florida driver’s license. Question: Is that a thing? Can I really do that and will either state’s DMV or SOR office care?
Answer: Yes, I can and did do that, and nobody cared. I even pointed it all out to everyone at both registry offices and DMV’s (little did I know how soon I’d be back in Florida so I could take care of that part) and they told me point blank – nobody cares.
There were two little problems, however. One was that my old car’s title was in Florida and I had to have a friend find it and mail it to me. The other, more germane to you if you’re a registrant, was that while my Iowa registry office was happy to remove my old car from my sheet, they insisted on keeping the old Florida license plate number on it, apparently out of fear I would use that plate to go commit a sinister crime (!), until I could produce an official Florida return of license plate receipt.
After groaning over that for a while I just tossed my plate in the car, figuring it’ll be where I need it when I get back to Florida next winter.
A few weeks later I went to the Johnson County sheriff’s department to report travel. For this trip I had cobbled together four unrelated errands all of which were somewhere in the eastern U.S.:
1. Attend the NARSOL conference in Atlanta.
2. After stopping at my sister-in-law’s house in New Jersey to take measurements for #3, go to Maine to make this year’s attempt to go whale watching (see my Maine blog entry).
3. After stopping at my brother’s house in Rhode Island, go back to my sister-in-law’s house to do the strangest errand of this trip, namely load into my new Sienna an old school telephone booth to be transported to Iowa. I’ll explain that later.
4. Join my family, who were also on the return leg of their vacation by this time, in Philadelphia, to spend three days exploring Pennsylvania before we went our separate ways back home.
Now, how shall we report this travel to my local sheriff? By the way, how to report multi-destination travel is a frequently asked question for me as a travel advisor. I decided to give them as destinations any place I would be staying more than one night. These were: the NARSOL conference hotel in Atlanta; the state park in Maine where I would camp while trying to see whales; and two nights at a hotel near Hershey, PA with my family. Everything else, including visiting my brother and sister-in-law, was no more than an overnight stay while traveling to the next destination. My sheriff’s department was happy, and of course that’s what I live for. Now let’s see how all this turned out.
1. NARSOL Conference in Atlanta
So I set off for Atlanta, and wow that was a great conference. But while there I got on the hotel computer to pursue a different project that few people outside the Florida Action Committee know about. I am determined to take control of my own end of life destiny by establishing my own assisted living / rehabilitative care / end of life care facility which (a) will accept registered people (including me) and (b) complies with all of Florida’s horrible residency requirements. Because all the goodwill in the world is worthless if I can’t register that address at the sheriff’s department.
2. Maine whale watching Divert to Tallahassee
So the first step in this project is to find and purchase the right property. And much to my surprise a property had just then come on the market that was absolutely perfect. I would never be closer to Tallahassee than I was right then in Atlanta, so I dropped everything and headed south that Sunday to participate in a frenzied bidding war that I ultimately lost. I hadn’t put my finances in enough order to be in a bidding war anyway, but I’m now fixing that and will be ready next time.
However … this little Florida escapade raises a couple of registry questions. Most obviously, the second thing I had to do Monday morning was call my Iowa sheriff’s department and attempt to delete the Maine state park and replace it with my home address in Tallahassee for those three days. Fortunately the woman behind the bulletproof glass remembered who I was and cheerfully made the change. I would even able to catch up to my previous travel plans by proceeding to my brother’s house in RI with a stop in NJ to take measurements.
But here’s the odd thing: Because I was originally supposed to make both of these one night stops while returning from Maine to Philadelphia, they were not “destinations” on my sheet. My next “destination” was the hotel near Hershey, PA. By catching up to my original plans I would be, in fact, off the registry’s radar for several days, in a completely different part of the country from where they thought. Hmmmmm …
But why was my call to Iowa the second thing that morning? Because they were in a different time zone from me, so I could first go to the Leon County registry office to “check in” AND “check out” because I’d be leaving 48 hours later. I took that opportunity to delete my old car and add my new one, just as I was supposed to. Then after calling Iowa once that registry office opened I moved on to Priority #3 which was finding my old FL license plate right where I had tossed it, turning it in at DMV and obtaining the all-important official Florida return of license plate receipt.
Last Florida thing – I knew from past experience that if I tried to report the rest of my trip as being from Florida they would require me to change my home there from “open ended temporary residence” to “permanent residence” and have a return date. That certainly would be a disaster. So I told them I was returning to Iowa, to the permanent residence they had on file for me there. As far as I’m concerned that was a true statement – they were returning me to the tender mercies of the Iowa registry, and if anyone wanted to call the Johnson County sheriff’s department they, after all, would know right where I was. Well, once I was in RI they would.
3. Car trouble in Rhode Island
Then as I was leaving Florida on my way to get back on track, I started having car trouble! Specifically my car started misfiring –which to my chagrin was the same problem that caused me to junk my old car! (see my Missouri blog entry for more on this). But this time it was only at high speeds. I only had to back off to 65 mph to make it all go away – so much so that by Virginia the idiot lights even went off, a sure sign my car hadn’t misfired in a long time.
Still, while I was in New Jersey that first time I went to my sister-in-law’s car repair guy (her husband was a car repair guy so I trust her judgement) that Friday morning to get diagnostics. His verdict – Ignition coil #2. Just take it easy until you get back to Iowa and you can get it fixed then.
So off I went to Rhode Island. But as I was passing through Westchester County suddenly my car started misfiring again, with a vengeance and at every speed. Shit! I limped on and the Connecticut Turnpike was a nightmare. I called ahead to my brother and said “As soon as I get there you have to take me to the nearest Toyota dealership!” They were the only place I knew would be open both Friday evening and all day Saturday.
When we got there I admit I was a total jerk. NO, you cannot schedule this job for Monday! NO, this has to happen right now! You have to push all your other customers out of the way and work on my car NOW!
But aside from being determined to get my trip back on track, there was also a registry-related reason that I was acting like such a jerk. Anyone who’s ever participated in an ACSOL monthly zoom call knows that Rhode Island has the shortest registration grace period of any state – just 24 hours. Janice announces it every month just like clockwork. I who have a brother living there know this very well but as Janice always points out, it’s a small state and I’ve never had any reason to be there more than 24 hours (see my Rhode Island blog entry).
Well guess what?! There might be a first time for everything after all! I had entered RI at about 4:00 pm, so I had until 4:00 pm on Saturday to get the hell out of there!
Now let’s be realistic for a minute. I already told you I had not reported Rhode Island as a “destination.” Nobody either in Iowa or Florida even knew I was there – even though it was exactly where I was supposed to be on that day when I originally reported my travel in Iowa. Once I was in RI my trip was officially “back on track.” So if I were to stretch the boundaries of Rhode Island’s registry law, no one would ever know. On the other hand, any encounter with law enforcement while stretching that boundary would be … unfortunate, not to mention so paranoiac I’d probably have a heart attack.
But despite my behavior … or perhaps because of it … Toyota didn’t get to the diagnostics until Saturday morning. So my brother took me on a walking tour of downtown Providence – which turns out to be a really cool place – followed by dinner out joined by my sister-in-law (his wife).
The following morning Toyota got around to the diagnostics. Their verdict – Ignition coil #2. Mercifully they had one in stock! They also wanted to replace all my spark plugs so I said fine. $788 later I was out the door by 1:00 pm and out of RI by 1:30, leaving 2 1/2 hours to spare. After one pre-planned stop in CT I was on my way to the Garden State. And I must say, my car has been purring like a kitten ever since.
4. Loading a phone booth
So what’s this about a telephone booth? Well, after my brother died my sister-in-law asked us whether we wanted any of his personal items. I thought about it for almost a year before saying, “I want the phone booth. I’m going to bring it to Iowa and set it on my patio and have it to remember him by.”
Now, when you say something like that you’re kind of obligated to getting around to picking it up and taking it to Iowa. That’s what this errand was all about. That’s why I’d had to go meet two days ago with a couple of my brother’s car buddies who had been enlisted to help me load it – they couldn’t believe it was going to fit in the back of a Toyota Sienna until they measured it for themselves. I was back that Sunday morning to get their help sliding it in. Then I was off to my next stop, Philadelphia, to meet up with my family.
5. Touring PA with family
The next 2 1/2 days went very smoothly, I stayed at the same hotels as my family, just a different room, we toured Pennsylvania Dutch Country which I hate (see my PA blog entry) but everybody else loves. On the day the kids went to Hersheypark my BFF & I instead went to the American Antique Car Association Auto Museum also in Hershey. It’s really great and I have mentioned it before (PA blog entry again). Then we did laundry together, which is super romantic.
On the third day we separated, but before heading home to Iowa I had one more overnight stay, this time at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in Maryland. When I set this stop up I asked them, this is the night of July 3 – are you sure that’s okay? Are you going anywhere for the holiday? But they said no problem, come visit.
6. DC on 7/4
Once that was settled I started to think – Hey, I’m going to wake up on July 4 just minutes away from Washington, DC. Wouldn’t it be fun to spend that day as a tourist in DC? I didn’t think about this seriously until after I left Iowa, so does adding this extra travel day present any registry issue, either in Iowa or DC?
Answer: No worries. My experience in both Iowa and Florida is that nobody cares if return a little late – just settle up when you check back in at the end of the trip. In this case I had actually told the lady behind the bulletproof glass that I was returning Friday late, so I’d be back to check in on Monday. If this little side trip delayed me until Saturday it wouldn’t change anything.
I must say that the epic failure of my trip to DC wasn’t registry related. Perhaps you will recall it was only a few days before July 4 that (a) Biden had a poor debate performance and (b) SCOTUS made things infinitely worse by granting all presidents immunity for “official acts.” I don’t know about you but I became very distressed over this, even as I was travelling with family in Pennsylvania.
In my distress I realized I was going to be in Washington, DC on July 4. I fantasized there might be protests or marches on that holiday, and I would be there for that …
Then two things happened: (a) I realized that this was perhaps the most unrealistic fantasy I’d ever had (and that’s saying something!) and (b) I found the act of making my own protest signs to be quite cathartic, so by the time I finished them I no longer felt the need to use them for anything.
And so, of I went to Washington, DC with not greater aspiration than to make the Supreme Court one of my stops and perhaps yell at them for a few minutes. Of course my rant would include cussing them out over Smith vs. Doe. But unfortunately I got off at the wrong Metro stop ( Note to self: Capital South is the closest station – not Judiciary Square) and after wandering aimlessly lost for a while came out on the National Mall near the Smithsonian.
At that time the annual DC Fourth of July parade was assembling in that area and beginning its march down Constitution Ave. I noticed that many of the causes or populations that I might sympathize with had been co-opted by the parade. Many had floats and teams of marchers. No wonder they weren’t protesting. Got a worthy cause to promote? Join the parade!
Later I told one of my Florida advocate friends that I no longer want to go vigil on the Supreme Court steps next year. Instead I want a float in that parade! I want WAR to bring their coffin and display it on our float. And I want Derek to be on the float with a microphone reading his list of victims of vigilantism as we march down Constitution Ave. Yes Derek I was really inspired by that …
Well there goes another unrealistic fantasy …
After having lunch from one of those super expensive food trucks that are all over the place in DC ($12 for shaved ice??) I returned to my car and left for Iowa. The rest of my trip was uneventful. And yes, when I returned to the Johnson County sheriff’s department to “check in’ the following Monday, I tried to slide the official Florida return of license plate receipt under the bulletproof glass but the lady refused to even look at it up close. She just deleted my old license plate and was done with it. I guess she was aware of the stupidity of her job.
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