I should probably write a primer on moving to a new state
because it’s not really that straightforward or easy. But I
barreled through it anyway…
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| First snowfall November 12th |
Bright and early on a snowy Monday morning, I visited Mike’s
local insurance agent and moved the car insurance on one of my vehicles. This was pretty easy. Just write the check, make the insurance
effective immediately, and then call the Iowa insurance company to cancel.
Mike has done business with them for years, and I think they
know his and my life history. I had to
smile when I was told “we love Mike” and now “we love you too”. I don’t know, in all my years in the
insurance business, I don’t remember ever saying “love you” to a customer. Hoosier hospitality???
After studying my Indiana driver’s manual diligently, I set
out Tuesday morning to get my driver’s license.
Armed with a passport, social security card, credit card bill, bank
statement and medical bill, I was able to prove my identity and that I was really living
in Indiana. Seems that Indiana issues
secure ID’s that follow rules from the Dept. of Homeland Security…
I passed the test.
And now that I’m a newly minted Indiana licensed driver, I’ve been
boring Mike with all my new found knowledge:
- · 500 feet-distance you must turn on low beams when approaching oncoming car
- · 100 feet-distance you must stop when approaching railroad crossing arms that are down
- · 45-max speed in construction zone
- · 55-max speed on “urban” interstate
- · When stopping at a stop sign without a crosswalk, you must stop parallel to the stop sign.
- · Only 1 car can be in the intersection when the light is yellow.
- · Fascinating facts about parallel parking which was met with much laughter since I can’t parallel park to save my life!
Of course getting a license
involved 2 trips to the BMV, 2 pictures and twice as much time as I wanted to
spend there because “downtown” didn’t accept the license using my middle name
when my passport used a middle initial.
Hey, my second picture turned
out better anyway, and this was compliments of this nice older woman who waited
on me during the 2nd visit.
She was from the Quad Cities area, and we had a great discussion about
Iowa. In the short time it took to get
my 2nd license, I learned a lot about her life. She was a bit lost since her husband died
earlier this year, and she was contemplating moving back to Iowa to be closer
to family. She felt that she wasn’t
ready for the decision, and I suggested she take her time for such an important
decision. I am not sure why she divulged
all of this. Maybe she just needed to talk.
I wanted to hug her as I left the BMV…
The next day I dragged Mike to the BMV for the 3rd
visit in 2 days so we could get my 2 vehicles registered and licensed. Actually this experience went very quite
well. We were excited to learn we could
get the same vanity plates for the Challenger “IH8SLOW”. Of course several days later we got a nice
notice in the mail saying this vanity plate was “declined” because of
“inappropriate content”. The only thing
we can figure out is that Indiana does not like the word or any representation
of the word “hate”. So back to the
drawing board on that one…
So with my pocketbook about
$800 lighter, I am getting firmly entrenched in Indiana. I must say that I was sad to give up my Iowa
drivers license and license plates and say goodbye to my Iowa insurance agent
who said they would “miss me”. Funny how
all of these little things are are outward symbols of leaving a state where I
have lived since college. I miss Iowa, but rest assured that I will be proudly
wearing my University of Iowa sweatshirt!
And in between building new
friendships with the BMV and insurance agents, I found some time for
creativity…Ornaments, purses and
sun catchers oh my…
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Have a great week!
Diane
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