What a saga!

I don't know why we are being thwarted at every step, but this is getting ridiculous. Today we went to the Santa Fe MVD with the boat on the trailer, arriving by 8:15 AM. I got number 26 this time. I sat there for a few minutes, listening to the numbers being called in English and then Spanish. Number 26 popped up in no time. We gave our documents to Shirley, and she informed us that we could title the trailer and boat but we could not register the boat today as they did not have the stickers available yet. Oh boy. But some lady on the telephone had said specifically that the stickers were not at issue. Oh yes they are! No amount of groveling would make her budge. She said we could title everything but no registration until the stickers show up in February or March.

Next, we got to know Julie. She is a vehicle identification inspector. I asked if we could have one of last year's stickers (remember last year was only 5 days ago). Nope. I said I didn't care if it I had to pay for two years but only got one. Still no. They all got a memo yesterday that said they can't give out last year's stickers. She was so sorry... Only title today, folks. Then come back in February or sometime after that.

We dragged outside to the boat and Julie began her inspection. The trailer number passed inspection (LOL), but we couldn't find the boat hull identification number. Tim crawled all over the boat and couldn't find it. I finally called Lee, our housesitter (sitting our house with us in it), and asked him to look thru my email to find David's phone number (David is the previous owner) so I could call him and ask where the hull ID is. Left a message. Slumped down in the front seat of the car. Breathe in. Breathe out. Sometimes that's so hard to remember. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Julie told us that we would have to go the State Police about the hull ID number. Recall we narrowly avoided the State Police on the trailer ID. At this point, Tim decided maybe we could get SOMETHING accomplished. He went back in and a while later returned with the trailer title and a license plate! We were just about to roll out of there, resigned to our January 22nd appointment with the State Police, when David called. "The hull ID number is inside the starboard bow on the gunwale." Aggggghhhh! Sure enough, it was there, under an old washcloth that he had taped on to keep a cleat from abrading the boat cover. Back in went Tim. Out came Julie. She was happy with the number. Back into the office. Back out came Tim and Julie to look at the number again. Strange... Into the office. And finally Tim came back to the car. "So, did you get the title?" No. Somebody at the Maryland MVD is dyslexic. They transposed two letters in the hull ID number so we have to get a replacement title from Maryland." OMG. This development called for a stop at the Tesuque Village Market for a pecan roll and a latte. Eaten in gloom. I called David to tell him about this new development ("I see a trip to the MD MVD in your future..."). He allowed that this really couldn't be very difficult; all we would have to do is scan the title and email to the MVD. I told him that if his MVD was as disfunctional as ours, we might as well sink the boat.

It turns out though that there is intelligent life at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, where boats, which are not considered motor vehicles, are registered back there. Sheritta is going to be head of her department if she isn't already. We were worried when she didn't call back after we left several messages. When she did, however, she confirmed what she had told David earlier--that all we needed to do was send her the original title, she would research it to find out where the fault lay, and then provide us with a new title. She asked for the boat number (its current registration) and called back 5 minutes later to say that she had looked it up and found that, yes, somebody in their office transposed the letters on the original title. Tim rounded up the documents, I wrote a quick letter to Sheritta, and Tim rushed off to mail the title posthaste. Well, the US Postal Service doesn't really do posthaste. Their rush delivery will arrive Thursday. That's the day after tomorrow.

As for the registration sticker, we thought about who we know who could call the governor, but instead called MVD Express, a private contractor that will provide MVD services for a fee. One of the only good things Gary Johnson did as governor. I asked about getting a sticker from last year, and guess what? Yes, we can do that! Once we get the title, of course.

Ah, life in a banana republic.