The Ohio BMV

We figured that one of the most important ‘first’ things we should do is to get our Ohio driver’s licenses.  We’d applied for new social security cards the week of the wedding, and we had all of our legal documentation in tow.  JR. had even called the Dayton DMV (which is not what it’s called; see below) to see what we needed.

So Monday morning, August 3, we set out for the nearest Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which is conveniently located across the street from our soon-to-be-bank (we were planning to open a new, joint account just as soon as we had our all-important NEW IDs).

We arrive around 8:30 to find quite a long line; we passed the time by making small-talk with other patrons.  After about ten minutes, our turn came, and we explained our situation to the kind man helping us.  He informed us that, because we held out-of-state licenses, we’d have to take the Ohio Written Driving Exam (the same test you would take to obtain a learner’s permit).

He then informed us that the testing centers are not open on Mondays.  Of course not.

(Fortunately, we were able to get our bank accounts opened up with no problem despite not having valid Ohio identification.  Unfortunately, the woman who opened our accounts for us left JR.’s legal name-change documentation on the copy machine, so unbeknownst to us, we left without it.  They mailed it to us, and it didn’t show up until Thursday.)

I had staff meeting on Tuesday, and we had a pretty full day of appointments on Wednesday, so we didn’t get to trek down to the Xenia testing facility until Thursday morning.  We got up around 8:30 and I called the center three times, getting a busy signal each time.  We took that as a good sign, so we loaded up with all of our important documentation (minus my legal name-change paper) and drove to Xenia, about a twenty minute drive.

We arrived and entered the testing facility, only to discover that the BMV Testing Computers were down across the state.  We were told that we could wait, but that the computers were to have been restored by 9:00 (it was now after 10:00) and they had no idea when they would finally be ready.

We elected to leave and head to AT&T to get our new cell phones.  So we used GoogleText to find the nearest AT&T and plugged the address into our TomTom.  TomTom said it was 20 miles away (?!), so we headed off.

Into the Ohio countryside.

Further and further from any sort of discernable civilization (paved road notwithstanding).

We made our final turn and TomTom told us we’d arrived.  We looked to the right and saw nothing but a corn field.  We looked to the left and saw this:

   Behold, for your viewing pleasure, an AT&T tower station.

Needless to say, they were all out of phones, so we trekked thirty minutes back into Beavercreek for our first visit to the Fairfield Commons mall.  We finally managed to locate the AT&T store (the mall map divides the mall into quadrants, and tells you only vaguely in which quadrant stores are), and we got our new phones and numbers (and the rumors are true… thanks to Amanda’s unending generosity, JR. is now the proud owner of an iPhone).

That feat accomplished, we called the BMV back and found out that their computers were back up, so we drove back out to Xenia and took our tests.  We both passed, and we were rewarded with shiny new pink joys.  Behold:

 
Beautiful, isn’t she?

 
Not as well-cropped, but still quite a sight, no?

Moral of the story?  I’m not sure there is one.  We got new bank accounts and phones without valid Ohio driver’s licenses, so maybe we didn’t need them THAT badly.  We can get paid now, so that’s good.  And all’s well that ends well.

Now we just have to renew our passports.