Waiting Adventure

Adventure story! My friend's driver license "expired" back in May, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic whatevers, at the time, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, or MVC, was not open. Bureaucrats decided to extend the expiration through July... and then later through September. We've been hearing horror stories about line-waits and thought it was a good idea to not wait until the last minute to go. So... let's get some pictures and share the experience.

We showed up at 7:05am, the website claimed you were not supposed to queue up on the property before 7. We were expecting a traffic jam of sorts, if they were going to open the parking lot at 7, but there was already a huge line there and no traffic jam. So feel free to show up earlier if you want. And you're going to want... We managed to find a parking spot but honestly there was only a couple left, I think we got lucky.

Hooo doggy, look at that line! With the social distancing between people, I'm sure this looks a lot longer than it had to be. But still, that's a lot of people! The MVC locations were separated into "vehicle" matters and "license" matters. We made sure we went to a "license" place. Which was over next to the mall, and not the one we normally go to.

Here we start, way down the road. With a backpack full of documents, snacks, and gaming entertainment options. The website mentioned they would prioritize "new" drivers over renewals, since people with expired licenses could still drive while new drivers actually needed to get one.

It wasn't long before somebody came along and removed all of the "need a new license" people from the line, and even so, the line did seem to move along at a good pace. We can see the building over there!

I'm not sure if the grey skies had anything to do with the line length, if a sunny day would have seen a longer line... After waiting under the dark clouds for an hour, it finally started raining. A few people left the line to go grab umbrellas, we were all cool enough to let them return to their spots. It was a mix of steady rain, and POURING!

We noticed the sky when we parked, and had brought an umbrella to the line. There were a few people who had hoodies that were obviously still uncomfortable, and a few who had nothing and ran to the cover of some nearby trees. The line was steadily moving forward so the people who left it were increasingly awkward trying to mentally mark their spots around the umbrella have-ers.

An hour and forty minutes later, we reached the front of the building, and the rain-safety of this overhanging roof. Several MVC employees were up here directing people what to do.

They gave us a ticket! This for sure means we are going to get seen today! The website mentioned they "knew" how many people they could get through each day, and once they ran out of tickets, you gotta try again some other day. So just getting this ticket is a relief.

They were letting people into the building 15 at a time. You know, to keep the crowding down. I took a picture of this cart because we have like, the exact same carts at work. And familiarity is sometimes amusing. 

The reason the line was moving along at a good pace, is because they are only getting cell phone numbers at this point. You give them your number, and they immediately send you a text message, and confirm you got it. That's all for now! You can walk away!

Here's the instructions in case you weren't paying attention. You can wait in your car, at the mall, whatever. They will send you a text message when they are ready for you. It's like a Disney Fast-Pass type of thing. Who would have thought cell phones would have the benefit of eliminating line-waits?

When we gave them our number, we asked about how long the wait would be, and were told one to two hours. With the rain keeping the temperature down, and Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch, the time flew by. It was nice and sunny at Fort Pillow that morning. At around 10:30 we took a port-a-potty break and overheard them turning away someone who had just shown up. The security guard said they only have 200 tickets each day and somebody who showed up at 5:30am was number 90! So that let us know people were wating here since before they told us you could on the website.

We started our "car wait" at about 9 and finally got the text message at 11:40. So it was longer than expected. But again, a lot more comfortable thanks to modern technology. Our first stop was at the check-in desk to make sure we had all the paperwork documents and stuff, and to tell them we wanted to renew the license. That went very smoothly.

All set, and in the social-distanced chairs waiting for our number to show up on the screen. There was a bit of drama when we were finally called up. In order to get the "Real ID Star" you needed to bring specific documents, and she didn't like the utility bill how the name was on the top and the address was in the middle of the page. It needed to be all together like a mailing label. Good thing we brought backup document points. Failed again with a paycheck stub because our workplace doesn't do matching picture-IDs, we ran out to the car to get our Toy Fair badge but that wasn't good enough... She finally accepted a copy of our lease that had the name and address on the same page. 

So yay! The stress is over! Left the parking lot at about 12:40 for those keeping track. Now who wants to board an airplane?! I'm sure sometime in the future we'll be happy we got this Star. And yes, it kind of bothers my friend that it's not in the corner, but below the corner. Hahaha... slackers! Couldn't they get that part right?