Last Saturday night Jett and I were playing cards (Hand, Knee and Foot, of course) with neighbors.  Showers were expected, but it was a nice evening and so we were playing outdoors, on the picnic table, under the RV awning in case of rain. Just before 7pm we all received weather alerts on our cell phones warning of a possible tornado.  But we have been through this drill before and knew that if it was serious then 1) the campground would send someone through with a bullhorn advising us to take cover (in the bath house or laundry – the only rigid structures around) and 2) there would be urgent advisories on TV.  I turned on the TV and, yes, the local stations were having special weather coverage but I noted that the warning was to expire in about 15 minutes and no reports of an actual tornado sighting had been received.  There was also an observation that the “storm was weakening.” And it wasn’t very windy and the rain was light.  So I wasn’t unduly concerned.

We continued to play cards.

The rain did soon become quite heavy, but that is pretty common here.  We did finally move into the RV and watched the TV for another 15 minutes before deciding to give up the game.  The rain lasted another 30 minutes.

The next morning I awoke to news of an F2 tornado in Cape Coral the night before. While we were blithely playing cards, a twister was steamrolling nearly 200 homes just 15 miles to the southwest of us. As more information arrived it became apparent that not only was a real tornado on the ground at 7pm the night before, as we played cards, but that its path would have taken it directly over us, had it stayed on the ground.

The last time we had a tornado warning our strategy was to pile the dogs into the truck and take to the roads, figuring that we could outrun any funnel cloud that we sighted. That might be a decent defense in the daytime, but at 7pm, in a storm, I doubt that I could have spotted it coming at me. Heading to the bath house probably would have been the wisest move.

Continuing to play cards in that situation is not going to get me into Mensa.

I think I mentioned that Jett and I are becoming Florida residents. We have both been residents of MA for a LONG time – 48 years for me and Jett’s entire life.  It is, like selling the house, another big life transition.  We knew it would take some work – we need to establish a “permanent” Florida address, get FL driver licenses and insure all of our vehicles in FL.  But we underestimated the task.  It has been an adventure.

Getting the address was the easy part.  The Escapees club provides mailing addresses in Texas, Florida and South Dakota that may be used to establish residency in those state.  They have worked out all the legal issues and have the support of the cities and counties in those locales.  And why not?  As a “permanent” resident of Bushnell, Florida, we will inflate their population and bring a larger share of federal and state revenues to the city and county.  And we won’t use any public resources.  Seems like a pretty sweet deal for them.

But to establish residency we needed to provide 2 “proofs of address” – utility bills, tax bills, mortgage bills or similar (which, of course, we did not have) – that proves we really “live” at that address.  Even though everyone is aware that we don’t really live there, we still need proof that it is a valid mailing address.  Escapees provides a certificate which the county accepts as one proof.  And, at the urging of Escapees, I had the Social Security Administration mail me a letter at that address, which we could use as a second proof.

So, with these documents in hand, we found our way to the Sumter County Tax Collector’s office on our Monday in Bushnell.  In Florida, the county tax collector office doubles as a DMV office.  Establishing residency, registering to vote and getting a Florida license is all done together.  Very convenient.

As long as you can pass the driver vision test.

I had no problem, but Jett had left her glasses in the Yaris, which was still in Massachusetts.  She failed the vision test miserably.  And since we couldn’t get the vehicles registered without both of us having FL licenses, our big plan to get it all done in Bushnell was thwarted.

I did get all 3 vehicles – the truck, the car and the RV – insured that day.  It was done very efficiently and conveniently online with Geico.  I did have to call to work out the RV insurance details, but overall that went very smoothly.  But because we couldn’t get the vehicles registered in Bushnell, we had to finish the STS with dual coverage.  That was money that I didn’t enjoy spending.

Fast forward to Ft Myers.  The Yaris arrived on Tuesday Nov 17 and on Wednesday we went down to the Lee county tax collector office to get Jett’s driver’s license.  But she failed the eye test again (she has had poor eyesight since she had her cataract surgery two years ago – yes, cataract surgery is supposed to improve your eyesight but that was not the case for her). So we had to go to an optometrist on Thursday to get her eyesight certified as safe, then back to the DMV.  She got her license.

Whew!

Back to the DMV on Thursday to register the vehicles.   And was completely thwarted.  I could not get ANY of the vehicles registered that day, for the following reasons:

• The RV has a lien and in Florida it is the owner’s responsibility to get the title (held by the lienholder) to the DMV.  I had to complete a form, provided by Florida, to the lienholder, requesting that the title be sent to the Florida DMV.  I mailed the form, but the registration of the RV is on hold until Florida gets the title.  Could be a couple of weeks.
• The truck could not be registered because we drove the Yaris to the optometrist and DMV.  The vehicle being registered must be present so that the VIN can be verified.
• The Yaris could not be registered because it was still listed in the national database as having a lien.  I had to call the original lienholder to clear the lien.  This was complicated by the puzzling fact that it was also listed as being registered in BOTH Florida and Massachusetts.  I am not sure how this happened and am amazed that this didn’t cause a problem before, but it had the strange effect of reducing the cost of getting the Florida plates: since it was already registered in Florida I would save the $85 “registration transfer” fee.  I just had to get the lien cleared.

Getting the lien cleared was a nightmare.  I called the lienholder, who insisted that the documents I had in hand (which included a very strange “non-negotiable” MA title which no one seemed to know much about) were sufficient to get the vehicle registered in Florida – a position which the DMV had already refuted.  Then I called the MA RMV who could at least explain the title (it was a “courtesy” document which was provided because the lienholder had, they said, never responded to their request for the title).  Another very painful call to the lienholder finally resulted in them promising to clear the lien in the state database.

I was able to register the truck on Monday this week.  Now, on Friday, the lien on the Yaris has been cleared and I think it can be registered.  The RV title has not yet arrived.

We will try to get the Yaris registered before Jett leaves (she is going back to MA for 10 days), but the RV registration will have to wait until she returns.

Barring further impediments, we will be full-fledged FL residents before the end of 2015.

It has been an adventure. And not a fun one.