Here at last

After 4 long days on the road and over 1500 miles, yesterday afternoon I arrived here in Redmond, WA safe and sound (and exhausted) and after a brief bit of vegetation and unloading my vehicle of a number of things I made friends with the bed for the night.

Come morning I decided I needed a few adventures in town so embarked on a quest for groceries, mail a couple of things, check my PO box and get the process started on titling and registering my vehicle in Washington... something I needed to do quick as my South Dakota registration was expiring in a week.

I was thrilled to learn upon finding the emission testing station that because my vehicle was built during an even year... I don't have to get it tested this year and even was directed to a local licensing place (privately run as it turns out) to go title and license my vehicle... so I was off.

Currently I'm staying in the central side of Redmond and after getting lost in the nice town that is Woodinville I found my target (it took a couple of phone calls) and now... these beauties:

Have been replaced with this:

Dakota State University Represent!

<Imagine a picture of me in DSU garb while waving gang signs>

A nifty thing about South Dakota is that license plates are assigned based on the county of vehicle registration (43 being Lake County where Madison is located) and while I cannot say the official reason it is done today... it's always been a nice thing so that if someone is (aside from the obvious folks from Minnesota and Iowa)... so it's going to be a shame not to have that if/when I return to SD in the fall for deer hunting... instead I'll be another one of those damn out-of-staters paying a small fortune for a hunting license (grrr).