The winding road to a drivers license

Having completed the online drivers education course (http://taff-to-texas.blogspot.com/2014/09/texas-adult-drivers-education-course.html) the next steps in getting a drivers license were to apply for a drivers license in person at a driver license office and then take the road test, simple enough.

My car is big, a 'minivan' (or MPV if you're in the UK) and I love it. It's great to drive, smooth, comfortable and it has lots of 'cheating' devices, like a parking camera and blind spot sensors that help you see out of it, because with the seats up visibility is limited out of the back. Not sure if I could use a reversing camera in a road test, I decided it was probably best to do the test in Rob's car, which is much smaller and easy to see out of.  However, when you buy a car here they give you temporary registration plates (or rather a laminated computer printout) to put in the metal frame that holds the plates until your car is registered with the Texas DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). The DMV send you official plates with a registration number, which can take several weeks. You can't take a road test on temporary plates, drum fingers and wait (OK, I didn't literally sit and wait) for Rob's official plates to arrive...

First attempt.
I decided to apply for my license at the Fort Worth Mega Center as there are some road test slots available on the day. You can book a road test online, but not until you have already applied for the license. So a couple of weeks ago, capitalising on Rob's car being available as he was away with work, I thought I'd get it done. I filled out the form, gathered the necessary documents (passport, visa & I94 form, SSN card, two proofs of address/residence, car insurance details, then I always chuck in birth and marriage certificates for good measure, no such thing as too much ID in this country) and set off for the Mega center, which is half an hour drive from our house. Ten minutes into my journey I had to stop at a red light. Unfortunately the driver behind me didn't realise in time that he also needed to stop at the red light, a glance in my mirror gave me the split second knowledge that he was going to hit me.

Tools? Yes, a big mallet.

I was that behind that white line at the bottom of the
picture. I guess I can't do a road test in this.

The truck driver took care of the situation, calling the police and clearing the debris from the road. Two Policemen on motorbikes arrived after a few minutes, they reminded me of "CHiPs" (if you aren't old enough to have been watching TV in the early 80's, you'll have to Google it). They asked me to drive the car into a supermarket car park just off the junction, and when I parked and rolled down the window he said "Excuse me ma'am, do you know you're driving with your trunk open?", ha, funny officer, funny. The two officers took down and exchanged our information, strangely enough I had every piece of ID and car documentation possible sat on my front passenger seat. Then they tried to wedge my boot (or 'trunk', depending on your side of the pond) closed and I had to drive it home. It popped back up after a few minutes. This car has only 2000 miles on the clock.

Second attempt.
Not to be put off, I headed down to the test center again the following day, but in my car this time.  When you enter the drivers license center, you have to log in on a computer with with your phone number. The last 4 digits of your number are then displayed on screens in the waiting room, and you wait for your 'waiting time' to decrease which is simultaneous with crawling up the queue line, something akin to waiting for your stuff in Argos, but without the added excitement of getting a new iron or storage boxes. Except today the 'waiting times' are getting longer, apologies, there's an IT issue - argh!

Waiting... what did people do without smart phones?

After an hour or so, my number comes up. Documents are scrutinised and scanned, information tapped into database, they take my photo and fingerprints and I have to read a specific line on a sight test. I get all this for $25, and three goes at the road test. There are no road tests available today though, so one is booked for 10 days time. Halfway there at least.

Third time lucky
Rob's car still not being fixed, I took the test in my car. I arrived 20 minutes before my test, as directed, and was sent around to the back of the building to join a car queue.

I'm the only person sitting behind a steering wheel who a) doesn't
have a Mum or Dad sitting next to them, and b) witnessed the 1980's.

The tester checks over your car registration and insurance documents, then you have to flash your indicators, press your brake lights and honk your horn before she gets into the passenger seat. You then have to drive forward, stop and slowly reverse for 15 feet before pulling forward to parallel park in a space marked by yellow posts. Halfway through my parallel park I knew it wasn't right so I asked if I could start again, she let me and it went in perfectly. Then we set off to drive on some real roads, allegedly. Over half the test was on back roads where there were no road markings, or on quiet 2-way roads. We did a few right and left turns, went through two sets of traffic lights and a 4-way stop. She said she she could tell I'd been driving for a few years, and that was it, my license will be sent in the post. So out I drive, back into the real world, where I won't have to parallel park until I go back to the UK, and roads look mainly like this.

Dallas driving.