Tim and Eileen's Excellent DMV Adventure

This is the DMV in Middletown on Valley Rd. My son Tim lost his learners' permit one week before the test for his regular license. The good news is that he was doing his own laundry. The bad news is that his permit was in this laundry & disintegrated. So begins the excellent adventure.

Friday. Go to DMV after lunch. There are no signs giving any directions. So we stood in the nearest line that had some young people in it hoping that it was for licenses. There is no place to sit unless you have someone to hold your place in line for you. I did but there still were no seats. Only hard wooden benches with no backs and no room. Waitied for about 20 min. Then we noticed a small sign about AAA doing voter renewals. So I said let's ditch this place & try AAA. After all, this sounds like a small thing. We did have his Social Security card & a passport.

Friday later. No luck at AAA. They used to do it until after 9/11. Advice was to go there Tues. between 2-2:30. The doors are locked at 3. They then finish everyone who is inside. NEVER go on Mon. or Fri.

Tues. Busy. Forgot to go.

Wed. Got there about 2. LONG line (longer than before). 3 workers. Two up front doing registrations. You're supposed to take a ticket here but probably won't realize it for awhile as there are no directions & you can't see the ticket machine from the back. Each transaction seems to take at least 15 min. (I had plenty of time to observe).

My son stood in line while I sat on the hard bench. An hour and 15 min. later Tim was first. Very nice gentleman said that we were lucky we could account for the permit. Done in 5 min. & $10.

This is the best we can do? Chinese take out has done better than this for the last 40 yrs. Our guv wanted to close it. Thought that going to Cranston would work much better. Our Sen. Gibbs & Rep. Long had no serious objections. If it hadn't been for the Dems whose district this building isn't even in, we would have had all this fun in Cranston.

Fri. is the road test. I'm sure my son would have much more fun driving for his test there. And an 1 1/2 hr. drive would have make my day!

I think that the Guv, our Sen. & Rep. should have to stand in line for each one of us when we have business that MUST be done there. And do it for us in CRANSTON. With no seating. On a Friday. With a baby crying. And no cell phone. Naked. Well, maybe not the latter. GR-R-R-R!