Because street racers have taken over Portland streets as you will soon hear. One of them fatally shot another at 50th and Division and nobody has been charged but that intersection is now a memorial spot to do all the above activities.

Good to know, but I’ll bite. How do you know this?

If I could get my VIN inspection done at the DEQ I'd be well on my way to ending this debacle but the DEQ can't do VIN inspections on cars that are electric! The logic in this escapes me.

I sure wouldn't worry too much about any of this if I were you, Scott. If you don't get it registered and with new plates before you leave it will be no big deal. It seems the police have disappeared from Portland. The plates on my new car expired in Jan. '19! I bet I won't get pulled over for such a trifle.

Welcome to Oregon. You will not get pulled over for expired/no plates or your expired temporary registration. You could be spinning brodies, roaling coal and brandishing a gun in the middle of Division Street and you will not get pulled over. Ask me how I know this.

Oh, wow, I had no idea that bridge was so recent.

Thanks for the suggestion about getting an extension on the temp plates, Marilyn. It’s an idea that hadn’t occurred to me. I’ll call up the dealership to ask about it.

Scott - We've recently had to go through the licensing of both a trailer (September) and a new truck this last month. At least we had purchased the vehicles in-state and didn't have to go through your issues. Plus our DMV in CO had opened back up for appointments for plates. We did have to get an extension for our temp plates on the trailer through the dealer we bought it from. You might request that from the AZ dealer as it buys you time. We had no problems getting plates on the truck before the temp plates expired. I know this is frustrating - I regularly see temp plates from last summer around Denver. Hope it can be resolved before you leave on your next trip.

I saw a pick up truck here in town a few days ago with a hand printed paper taped in the back window next to the expired paper tags that said "Waiting on the DMV" in giant black letters. I'm sure the local constables are well aware of the issue . . .

We've purchased a new car since COVID. In state, small town. It took a phone call and a few photos emailed back and forth. In a couple of days the new plates arrived in the mail. We recently sold our old Audi to a former employee. She was happy because our local DMV has just opened up for in person appointments. There was no mention of long wait times . . . .

My sympathies . . .

Hey, that looks promising! The scale seems right - it really seems too small for an oriole, which of course you can’t really tell from the photo. I’m glad I asked. I never would have guessed these tiny birds would build a nest like that.

bushtit nest?

Well, now that is a good follow-up. I did notice that the DMV site advises you to send in the paperwork but don’t even bother contacting them again unless it’s been 17 weeks because they’re so backed up on paperwork. I thought I really needed to talk to a person first before going that route.

I bought a car with out-of-state plates/registration at the end of October. I sent in all the paperwork thinking I had done it right. Fifteen weeks later!! I got it all returned to me with a note that I had to take my new car to the DMV to have the VIN inspection. That was three weeks ago. Since then I have been trying to get an appointment for the VIN inspection because the DEQ won't do it because the car is electric. I don't know how that makes sense at all but here it is April and I figure I'm still three months away from getting new plates. I once stood in line at a bank in India for an entire day simply cashing a traveler's check. I thought that was inefficient but apparently that was nothing.

Oh! Correct on both points.

I think you swapped your dish descriptions here but they both look awesome.

Nope. The jump was in 1974, and the bridge opened in 1976. My assumption is that they built the bridge after seeing that rocket powered motorcycles were a no go.