We Got It -- We Hope

It didn't happen like we thought it would, but hopefully we now have what we need to renew our truck license plates in Colorado. Our round-trip drive of 700 miles to get the emissions test in Austin was a complete failure--unless you factor in the wildflowers we saw along the way.

Tuesday, we woke up in San Antonio, had breakfast, and called an inspection station in Austin. Then we drove another 60 miles to get the emissions test. After taking our registration and insurance card, the Oriental gentleman walked out to our truck, only to return immediately and tell us in broken English that they don't do emissions tests on diesel trucks! "Don't tell me that," John said. But it was true. I called the state and they don't test diesel vehicles in Texas.

A call to the Arapahoe County, Colorado, Clerk's office gave us the information that our next option is a VIN verification, done by a police officer. Doesn't sound hard, does it? Think again.

We turned around and drove south, stopping in George West for a BBQ brisket sandwich at Vann's #2. It had rained hard for several hours overnight in San Antonio. A little ways to the south, several tornadoes were spotted. In George West we saw some of the damage.

This morning, we set out to get the VIN verified, after downloading the proper form from the county web site. First stop, Pharr PD. No, they don't do it. Go to this address.

Went to that address--in McAllen. That is where they issue driver's licenses. (Good news that we couldn't do it there because there must have been 30 people waiting to be helped.)

We drove across the street to the McAllen PD. No, they don't do it. Call this number. We did. They gave us their address, in Edinburg, but informed us they only do VIN verifications Monday through Friday between 8 and 10 am. By then it was 11 am and we are doing tram tours the next three days.

So, we did our grocery shopping and returned to the RV. Then John set out to accomplish something--getting the leak in the rear truck window fixed. On the way he saw 3 Pharr police cars at a Subway shop. He went in and asked for help. After one officer made a call to his sergeant, he filled out the form. Hallelujah! Hopefully, we can mail it tomorrow, everything will be in order, and they will mail our renewal stickers here in the next couple of weeks.

On a lighter note, here are some wildflower photos.





Some are sort of blurry--it is hard to get clear pictures when the truck is moving at 70 mph. At least you can see the colors.





I don't know what the yellow flowers are, but the orange flowers are on a Huisache tree. They were just covered with blooms.



Live Oak trees have such a beautiful shape.

Why?

At about 1 this afternoon, we loaded some things in the truck and started driving to San Antonio. Not what we planned when we woke up this morning. John took the truck to Ogden Chevrolet in McAllen for servicing. That was a fiasco. After being there two and a half hours, they had done nothing. Finally, he got a lube and oil change.

One big item on the list was an emissions test. Our Colorado license plates expire at the end of March. I sent in the renewal form and check, but they sent it back. We need an emissions test. The windshield sports a sticker that says the truck is exempt from those tests. Unfortunately, that is only true for the first four years. Now it needs the test. The good news was, we can get the test done in Texas. But today, the bad new was, it can only be done in one of the Texas counties that require emissions test. Hidalgo County, where we are staying, isn't one of those. As a matter of fact, Austin, Galveston or Houston are the closest places we can get the test--all over 300 miles away. And if we don't mail in the renewal form before the end of March, we can only renew the license plates in person. That would mean we would be driving with expired plates till some time in May.

So, here we are in San Antonio. We arrived about 5:30. We drove 300+ miles so we could be in the center of a severe thunderstorm warning area for the night. Tomorrow, we will drive to Austin for the test, then decide whether we want to be tourists there for another day, or drive back to the refuge.

Just one of those issues when we live on the road in our RV.