The 2½ hour wait at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles…

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While in Penguin, Tasmania, in 2017, we took this photo on our way to the town of Ulverston. Tasmania never disappoints!  For more photos, please click here.

We each had over a year left until the expiration of our Nevada driver’s licenses. However, with uncertainty at this point as to when we’ll return to the US, we needed to take care of this task before we depart Nevada in four or five days.

We both dreaded the process when the DMV in Henderson (and other locations) usually requires appointments to avoid waiting for hours. The last time we did this, seven years ago, the line extended outside the building with no less than 100 impatient applicants pushing and shoving to secure their spots.

With Tom sick all week, we avoided going. But as time wore on, we decided we’d better take care of this regardless of how he or I was feeling. When we awoke yesterday morning, it was raining heavily.

We imagined standing in that long queue outdoors in the rain with both of us still coughing (especially Tom) and getting soaked. I’d packed our cheap plastic rain protectors in the blue bag and by 9:45 am we took off.

Imagine our elation when we drove into the parking lot and there was no line at all! Apparently, due to the inclement weather, people decided to wait and go another day, which proved to benefit us greatly.

Upon entry into the building, which was packed, within minutes we got a number from the receptionist, found two adjacent chairs and began the long wait, making sure we didn’t miss the call of our number over the PA system.

We realized the wait would be long, but we were so pleased to avoid standing outdoors in the rain, hardly a whimper crossed our lips during the over-two-hour wait.

Some may say, the facility is disorganized with so many applicants always waiting to be seen. In fact, we perceived it as being very organized and well-planned with friendly customer service and systems in place to facilitate a somewhat painless process.

I played with my new phone while Tom never took his eyes off the screen with the numbers that had been called and those numbers upcoming. The time went more quickly than expected and by noon we met with the rep who would process our renewals.

The process took about 30 minutes when the rep was curious about why we were renewing early, which is unusual. She then continued to ask many questions. Of course, we had nothing to hide, but we didn’t want to get into our entire story.

Finally, our temporary licenses were issued and we were directed to the area where photos are taken. Amazingly, there was no queue there and we breezed through the process in a few minutes.

Once out the door, we sighed in relief. It was finally done. Next time, we can again apply online when an applicant must apply in person. every other renewal time

We feel as if we accomplished a lot while in the US, amid both of us being sick; we applied for and received our visas for India, applied and are awaiting our “second, four-year” passports and now renewed our driver’s licenses. It’s been an enormous relief to get these time consuming and cumbersome tasks out of the way.

Our next project. Is deciding on how we’ll spend the two unbooked months in India after completing the Maharajas Train tour on February 8th. Planning this is a big project and we just may have to wait until we get settled in Arizona next week. Plus, we still have to work on hiring an attorney to assist us in getting the visa waiver to return to South Africa.

I’m off today to visit my sister Susan once again. I’d intended to go yesterday, but when we returned from the DMV so late in the day, I realized I’d be stuck in rush hour traffic, in the rain, on the return drive. No thank you. I’ll be on my way soon.

Have a pleasant day!

Photo from one year ago today, December 5, 2018:

Mom and piglet enjoying the cement pond on a hot day. It’s summer during this time of year in South Africa and with the drought and lack of bodies of water available to the wild animals, they may seek a refreshing dunk in the cement pond in our garden, intended as a source of drinking water. For more photos, please click here.

Turning the corner…Still lots to do…

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Two years ago today, in 2017, in Pisco, Peru, we spotted these children playing at the beach with views of colorful fishing vessels.  For more photos, please click here.

While we were about one week into the most recent cruise, one early evening at the beginning of the free-drink-happy-hour (two hours long), I wasn’t able to take a sip of my wine. I felt queasy and dizzy.

Tom walked me to the cabin, helped me get situated into bed while I encouraged him to go back to the event to enjoy the evening’s camaraderie and bring me a small plate of food from the buffet before he went to dinner in the main dining room. There was no point in him sitting there with me.

Before 7:00 pm, he brought me a plate of roasted chicken, grilled fish, and steamed veggies. By 9:00 pm, he’d had dinner and returned to the cabin for the night. 

I had no idea why I was dizzy, but by morning it passed, leaving me with a peculiar slight cough that eventually blossomed into the full roar of the virus from which we’re still experiencing now. It’s been 34 days since the onset.

As I mentioned yesterday, Tom is now suffering as I did over two weeks ago in Minnesota when I went to Urgent Care twice only to discover after taking antibiotics and cortisone. Ultimately, it is truly a virus with little to be done other than to wait it out.

Of course, if either of us had suspected it was more serious than the virus we contracted while cruising, we would have sought more medical advice. We had no fever, no symptoms of pneumonia, no chest pain (although our stomach muscles ached from coughing, a common side effect).

Yesterday, I awoke to feel dizzy again, on top of awful coughing, and this morning that is gone, and much to my delight, my cough has lessened dramatically. Oddly, it came in with dizziness and left with the dizziness. Go figure. I’m finally out of the woods, or so it seems.

Tom is insistent we go to the DMV today, but again oddly enough, it’s going to rain today. A visit to the DMV results in an extended outdoor queue often standing for hours. We couldn’t book an appointment based on a lack of availability while we’re here before we depart for Arizona next week.

The result? Today, rain or shine, we’ll stand in line at the DMV to renew our driver’s licenses. Yes, we have raincoats but no umbrella. Who has an umbrella in Nevada? It rarely rains here.

I’d planned to see Susan today, but that’s up in the air based on how quickly we can get through the line at the DMV. If not today, I’ll go tomorrow. Perhaps, the lines will be shorter today with it raining.

Out of the small backpack, I just dug out the total-body-coverage cheap plastic raincoats we’d purchased in Thailand for 85 cents each which have served us well on several occasions over these past few years. We’ll see how they work for us today.

No doubt, I’m dreading this DMV thing, but it has to be done. Tom offered to go on his own, but I, too, need my license renewed, and it makes no sense for us to go separately.

We’ll continue to keep our readers informed of the infinitesimal activities of our time here in Nevada. Soon enough, a little excitement may ensue as we begin to pull ourselves out of the throes of the virus.

Happy day to all, rain or shine.

Photo from one year ago today, December 4, 2018:

This fluffy little one captured our hearts. For more photos, please click here.

Paperwork time…A reality and responsibility of traveling the world…

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It’s a well operating out of a local’s house in our neighborhood.
“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
Buffaloes swimming together in the river alongside the villa.

There are currently three batches of documents to complete and process:
1.  Absentee ballots for the upcoming election on November 8th in the US
2.  Visa extension for Indonesia
3.  Tom’s driver license renewal

In just over two weeks, we’ll have to go to Lovina’s immigration office. The forms we used previously must be redone with the correct dates and information.

We’ll continue to post photos from the harrowing four or five hour drive. This is a glass shop which surely had glasa blowers in a back room making these items for sale.

This time when we apply for the visa extension we’ll be driving to Lovina on our own without Gede with us. He’ll have to create a somewhat complicated letter as our sponsor which is written in Indonesian. He was with us last time we visited the immigration office and processed the sponsorship in person.

This time, since we’re going on our own, Gede will have to sit beside me while I type the information into a document  while he translates the form which we’ll print and bring along when we apply. 

We weren’t near the airport.  This is a display of a jet engine atop a building behind many power lines.

Tom’s driver’s license expires on December 23rd. Nevada DMV doesn’t allow an applicant to submit the paperwork sooner than 60 days prior to the expiration date. The paperwork can be submitted by fax so we’ll prepare it all, email it to son Richard in Nevada and he’ll fax it from his office.

Once the renewal license is issued it can’t be mailed to our address in Nevada per their regulations.  It can only be mailed to an outside Nevada address. Daughter Tammy will handle this for us; receiving the license at her home address and placing the license into another envelope with a stamp. She’ll immediately mail it to our mailing service in Nevada.

Vegetation growing on the roof of a restaurant in Denpasar.

Once the mailing service receives it, they’ll ship it to us wherever we are at the time to arrive within 3 to 5 days by expedited international shipping. If we don’t receive the license in time for the rental car we’ll need in Tasmania, we’ll rent the car in my name since my license doesn’t expire until February 20, 2017.

I’ll have to go through the same process 60 days prior to my license expired.  At least, this one time, we’re allowed to do this by mail and fax. Next time, in four more years, we’ll have to appear in person. We’ll certainly keep this in mind when we begin to plan far into the future for 2020.  Gosh, that sounds like a long time away, but it’s only four years.

This is a modern furniture store in Denpasar.

The next item, the absentee ballots, must be processed by this upcoming Monday in order for us to actually receive the ballots in time for the election. That’s a little tricky as well with regulations varying from US state to state. I won’t bore you with the details.

All of these tasks require a huge amount of printing, scanning, copying and preparation. The printer here isn’t so good, although we can manage to get it to spew out what we need for all three of these transactions.The rest we’ll figure out.

An upscale Italian restaurant, likely visited by tourists in Denpasar.

There’s no doubt that preparing all of these documents is cumbersome and time consuming. To a degree they weigh on our minds. When we work on these types of tasks we do it together, making it a lot easier than doing it solo.

Thank goodness we still have our trusty portable scanner which proves invaluable for many aspects of these types of processes. A camera just doesn’t do a good enough scanning job on letter or legal sized documents.

Colorful display of shop on the main highway.

Once we have these tasks completed, we’ll be relieved and able to spend the remaining days in Bali with our minds free of some big responsibilities other than taking good care of ourselves and continuing to enjoy the balmy breezes, sunshine and exquisite scenery before us.

Take good care of YOURSELF and have a good day!

Photo from one year ago today, September 8, 2015:

We shot this photo from the air on our way to Savusavu. Fiji is comprised of approximately 330 islands, of which one third are inhabited. The two major islands are Viti Levu, the most commonly visited and Vanua Levu where we are staying for the next three months. When boarding this flight we had to be publicly weighed along with our baggage, an experience we’d had in the past.  For more details, please click here.