DAY 63
Week 9
AUSTIN (Texas, USA)
Tuesday August 22nd, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 53 miles or 85 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 7900 miles or 12714 kilometres
Time to do the government shuffle ... Oh Joy!
Wherever you may live in the world just remember one thing about dealing with government bureaucracies, is that you know they all want to mess with you and make whatever dealings you have with them, as difficult as humanly possible.
My three rules of business are as follows:
• If someone else can make money off you - they will, regardless if they deserve it or not.
• If you want something thoroughly tested - give it to a kid. Likewise if you want to know how to work it.
• If you want a level of frustration bordering on arguing with several small children, try and get a simple task or a straight answer, out of any government entity. Symptoms include major stress, headaches and rapid reversal of financial worth and it all usually starts with these five small words "How may we help you?"
The reason for raising such a subject, was the simple act of purchasing my Harley. That was the easy part, trying to get it registered in my name is was a totally different matter.
Texas has a 6.5% Sales Tax on vehicles, plus a $90.00 "Service Charge" on a all out of state registration transfers. Idaho charges only 5%, so guess where I'll be registering it? Idaho will allow you to register vehicles via mail, as long as you have a couple of items:
• Vehicle Title
• Bill of Sale
• Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) inspection by a law enforcement officer
• Power Of Attorney allowing the state to send you your documentation without your signature
As it turns out, the hardest part of the entire exercise was getting the VIN inspection done by a cop. I must have spent over an hour and a half on the phone being sent from one department to another to another. No one had any idea or what form to use for the VIN check and as such they just kept fobbing me off.
I was thinking it would be a lot simpler to head over to the Texas Department of Transportation. Nope, the sent me all over Austin which only had the effect of me wanting to climb a clock tower with a rifle.
Funny that, Austin is known for that - remember the Boomtown Rats' hit I Don't Like Monday's??? unlike popular belief, it had nothing to do with Charles Whitman's actions on August 1, 1966 in which he killed 14 people on that fateful day. Not making light of those who perished, but maybe he was another satisfied government customer???
In the end, I pulled up at the front of the Austin Police headquarters and asked if someone could do the VIN inspection there and then. A phone call to the vehicle theft unit brought out a detective who checked out my credentials, then the bike and handed me a form with his autograph on it that said the VIN and engine number were legit. I was rolling after on 10 minutes.
Fair dinkum, the government could fuck up a wet dream badly enough to where you'd blow dust.
Hopefully that's the last of the hassles in registering my Hog - ya think???? 