Our little motorhome is now registered in Idaho sporting generic Idaho plates. It would have been nice if the process was as easy as writing that last sentence! The Colorado plates on the RV expired last October which was just fine — the vehicle was parked beside the house and wasn’t going to be used until the nice weather arrived in the Spring. Our original plan was to go somewhere on Memorial Day. Then Nina and I were asked to teach the combined Relief Society – Priesthood meeting on that Sunday. We bagged the camping trip. That turned out to be just as well since we’ll be having a couple of grandkids stay the week following while our daughter is chaperoning a group of school kids on a trip to Spain. So we’ve decided to take a long weekend in the middle of June and go somewhere in the motorhome. It was time to get plates on the vehicle. I first called the Westmark Credit Union to ask them what I needed to do since they’ve got the title and are financing the vehicle. The lady there had not a clue about titles or anything related to them. Her suggestion was that I call the Department of Motor Vehicles and ask them.

The pleasant lady at the DMV was very firm: “We won’t give you plates until the vehicle is titled in Idaho.” They had a form that I could use to send to the financing company. I hustled down to the DMV and picked up the form. The instructions were to mail the form to the financing company. They would send the title to the DMV. Then the DMV would send me a letter and I would then go to the DMV, pay the fee to title the vehicle and pay the fee for plates. The DMV would then send the new Idaho title back to the financing company. Since the credit union was still open for the day, I drove to their branch office in Pocatello.

The pleasant girl at the credit union read the letter three or four times. She wasn’t the same person I had talked to earlier, but the response was still the same. She didn’t know what I was supposed to do. None of the loan officers were there, so they couldn’t be consulted. I asked her where to send the form — “where is the office where titles are kept?” I asked. She didn’t know. She read the form again and suggested that I send the form to the address on the form. That was dumb!! The address on the form was the address of the DMV. They didn’t have the title! Finally she suggested that I return to the credit union the next day when a loan officer would be there. I left and returned the next day during my lunch hour.

I met with the main loan officer at the branch. She read the form letter from the DMV through a couple of times and then said she didn’t know what I was supposed to do with the form. I suggested that she call the main office and find out. She got out her company phone book and dialed a couple of numbers before she reached someone. Finally she was talking to someone that actually knew something. According to the lady on the phone, the credit union had already titled the motor home in Idaho. She faxed to the branch a piece of paper with the title information on it and told me that I’d have to take the RV to the DMV office so that a VIN inspection could be done and the DMV would then issue the plates.

Since I was out of time that day, I went back to work and this morning blocked out a couple of hours to get the plates. I left work, went home, fired up the motor home, cleaned the windshield and mirrors, and drove downtown Pocatello to the DMV office. I parked in the spaces reserved for VIN checks and went inside. Now, getting into the county court house where the DMV is located requires going through security like at an airport. After getting mostly undressed I was finally able to get through the metal detector and was delightfully surprised to see no lines at the DMV counter. The pleasant lady there looked at the paper from the credit union and told me that she had to have the title. This paper wasn’t sufficient. She tried to give me another copy of the form letter to send to my lending institution. I did manage to hold my temper and be reasonably pleasant. I pointed out to her that this was a “Perfected Title”, which I’m pretty sure means that the title is electronic and this paper provides the information about how to look up the electronic title. She was very skeptical but agreed to ask her supervisor. Again, we were finally talking with someone who knew something. The supervisor asked, “Did you look up the title on the computer?” The clerk hadn’t. “Why not?” asked the supervisor. The clerk didn’t know — she just assumed that the title was always on paper. “Go look it up!” directed the supervisor. Viola! The title info was in the computer. The RV was indeed already titled in Idaho. A few computer entries and mouse clicks later I was given a bill for $109 and, after paying the fees, was given the plates. And, since the vehicle was already titled, the DMV didn’t have to do a VIN check. I could have left the vehicle parked at home! However, the vehicle is now legal until the end of December 2005. What a hassle, but it at least ended well. We can now go camping and I’m right ready for a long weekend break!