Back in April the tags expired on my car.  A lot of things were going on in my life at that time (like there isn't always a lot of things going on in everyone's life at all times... *grin*) and there were a number of reasons for me not to rush to get that taken care of.  One of the biggest reasons is because the tags on my truck wouldn't expire until September.

Every state does things differently when it comes to registration and vehicle tag expiration dates...  In Tennessee its always a year from when you registered the vehicle.  In Alabama its based on your first letter of your last name.  And for some reason I want to say that I've heard that somewhere in the U.S. its based on your birthdate, but for the moment can't recollect which state that was.

So instead of driving my nice little fuel efficient car with the working airconditioner, I spent the entire summer driving my big green gas guzzlin' no freon for the air conditioner redneckmobile.  (To quote a certain queen I know, "It's so butch!")

And gas prices steadily continued to rise...

I keep thinking about the fact that it would be a good idea to be able to drive my car again and always finding convenient excuses to put it off.

That and several other details like being able to find a copy of my birth certificate that I would need to register and get a Driver's License in Georgia (requirement to get a Georgia tag for the car) as well as not having seen my copy of my car title, really not sure if I ever did.  I know where the title for the truck was hiding but don't honestly remember what happened to the car title or if I ever received it.

So I order some extra copies of my birth certificate from North Dakota for a couple bucks (and fairly promptly find my errant copies a little bit later)...

I take off a day of work to drive to Tennessee to get copies of the titles for my vehicles (also a definite requirement in any state you go to in order to get vehicle tags) which was much more painless than I expected and suprisingly little drama.

And with business trips and other kinds of drama suddenly September is here.

Deadline! 

well all my paperwork is in place but by now I have decided that I really don't want to register my vehicles in Georgia.  Because of most of my business interests are in Alabama my primary address is still located there. 

Since my car has expired tags I decide to drive the truck to alabama and pick up both tags while in a vehicle that was still legal.

The next morning my mother drives me in her truck to the courthouse as we talk and plan and generally enjoy each others company while allowing me the privelege of not having to drive having spent so much time behind the wheel already.

Did you know that you have to have the vehicle present for inspection in order to register in ALabama?

So we drove my truck up to the courthouse the next day to get at least the truck registered and tagged in 'Bama...

What am I going to do about the car?

Do I be sneaky and put the tag from the truck on the car and drive it?

Well the whole decision got delayed since I spent most of October in Texas and I had to get the battery recharged for the car anyways (after seven months the battery can get a bit drained by the alarm system) not to mention the flat tire  *grin*

Finally another opportunity arises for me to go visit my mamacita and it doesn't get cancelled by last minute "work stuff"!

I get the battery charged, I buy an inexpensive air compressor and get the tire filled with air...

And I drive a vehicle with tags that are seven months expired across state lines.

I don't think I've properly framed this to truly share just how nervous this prospect made me.

I did ultimately make the decision not to use the tags from the truck because if for some reason I did end up getting pulled over I can easily imagine the excitement that would ensue when the officer realized that the vehicle tag did not belong to the vehicle that it was on.

I felt better about the idea of being more honest and straight forward.  Why try to hide the fact that I was driving a vehicle with expired tags?  It was the truth.  The only reason why I was even driving it was in the process of trying to resolve that particular issue.  If events had made it such that I would have ended up getting a ticket then I would have accepted the situation and considered it part of the process necessary to grow and move on.

Which is why it was kind of strange that I had all of this paranoia and panic leading up to the trip, but once I set forth upon the road I was calm and collected and never even spared a twinge of worry about what might be.  Just travelled forward and did what I had to do to get where I needed to be.

And part of me knows that I will be repeating that lesson several times until I can truly own that wisdom.