After 23 years of being Winter Texans, we decided it was time to actually become a resident of this great state of Texas. We thought it would be a simple road to the residency. We didn’t realize that the word road has many definitions.
On the day the decision was made, the first road was to gather the information we thought we would need to accomplish our change of residence.
We made sure we had our Michigan driver’s license, our proof of ownership of a home here, our vehicle registration and proof of insurance in Michigan. Even our water bill was tucked in our wallet.
The second road took us south on Highway 1015 to the Secretary of State office.We waited our turn to talk to the receptionist who was a very pleasant lady. In her pleasant manner, she surprised us by giving us four forms to fill out and informed us we needed to get our vehicle inspected to apply for a driver’s license.We also received directions to a business that could do this for us. It was just down the road.
So, our third road was to that business for a car inspection. We checked into the office there and were told they didn’t do it. Disappointed, we started to leave when we noticed a large logo on the outside of the shop that they did do the inspection. We then drove our van to one of the large doors to the shop and were told they could do it for us immediately.
We got out of the car and waited in the office and had a cup of coffee.
We received the test and results, paid the bill and left. Instructions were then to go further on the same road to get the car registered in Texas.
We weren’t sure which building to go to so we stopped at the first one that looked like an official Texas office. Wrong. We were told to go further down this road to the complex that was flying a U.S. and Texas flag. Now came the decision, which building was the right one.
We checked into the Precinct 1 office which sent us to the Tax Assessors office. While checking the VIN number of our vehicle, the clerk noticed an extra letter on it.
So, we backtracked on the road to the Inspection site where they corrected the number. Back on the same road to the tax office.
The line was very long again, so after a wait, we were called up and were informed that we needed Texas car insurance to complete the registration of the van and it would cost $199 to finalize the registration at that office.
The fifth road took us to the insurance company for an insurance quote, which was quite a bit higher than our current insurance, so we decided to talk it over and took the road to our home. We planned to try again tomorrow.
The next day at breakfast with our Winter Texan and resident friends, we asked for the pros and cons of residency. We weighed the information and our present situation and decided that the roads we traveled yesterday were only halfway to our destination.
We would encounter more unknown roads to Texas residency today. We decided to take the easy way out and continue to travel the familiar roads of Michigan and as Winter Texans also enjoy the roads of Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.
We will enjoy the best of our two worlds.
E. Meno Weslaco
