I’m toying with the idea of heading north to South Dakota.
I’ve established my residency there already. The PTV and my new Casita (as yet unnamed) can be registered in South Dakota by mail through America’s Mailbox. However, in order to obtain a SD driver’s license, I have to present proof that I’ve spent at least one night in that state.
Why pay $225 for the annual New Mexico State Parks camping pass and then leave the state within that year?
Why not pick up my trailer, head north out of Texas, cross over into Colorado, and keep going north to Rapid City, South Dakota?
Sound like a plan?
I like to tie up loose ends.
And it sounds like fun! The crew and I could explore southwestern South Dakota. Then make a leisurely loop through some gorgeous country in Wyoming and Colorado, camping on public lands, as we meander back to New Mexico before getting snowed in!
Warning! Precipitous change of tone and subject ahead . . .
Will someone explain to me why it takes so long to search a title? (I warned you.) I’ve owned this house for sixteen years, the title was “searched” when I purchased it, and my credit history is pristine and verifiable. Nothing’s changed. What do these people do? Why does it take weeks?
I don’t get it.
Surely they have phones and fax machines and COMPUTERS. It’s not like we have to wait for some bespectacled old lady in the bowels of the county courthouse to work her way through a mountainous pile of dusty tomes, perusing hundreds of worm-eaten pages of hand-written records and fading documents . . . Or do we?
I grab my cell and call the attorney.
The receptionist tells me she’s out for the day. Oh no. Another day lost. I relay my concern that I have not been notified of a date for closing. I need to leave on an extended trip (there’s an understatement!) this weekend. I need to make several reservations for spots that are disappearing quickly. For emphasis I add that people are rearranging their lives based on my departure from Georgia this weekend.
She says she will look into it and call me back.
I see. Real estate law offices and title companies regularly handle transactions and title searches for banks and mortgage companies. These entities are their meal ticket . . . lots of repeat business. Whereas little ol’ Felix (the buyer) and I are private individuals, small potatoes . . . here today, gone tomorrow. I wonder whose title search is lowest priority?
Getting a little paranoid, are we?
The receptionist calls back and says as best they can tell the closing with be this week or next. Those last two words sting. “Thank you. Please have Ms. Morang (the attorney) call me first thing tomorrow morning.” Sigh.
Another thing weighing heavily on my mind . . .
When should Janie move to her new home? She needs to leave us today or tomorrow if the crew and I are hitting the road on Saturday. On the other hand, if the closing delays us another week — please, God, don’t let that happen – – I don’t want to let her go so soon!
rvsue
rvsue and her canine crew 