We've got Wheels!

Although it seems to have taken FOREVER, we've been back to the boat for less than three weeks and we've got a car.

Before we could even shop for a car we had to get a South Dakota address, which took about a week. Then we had to get money out of Malcolm's retirement account to purchase it. Then we spent a whole exhausting day running around Jacksonville looking at every Odyssey within our year and price parameters. Then it took another five days to get the title because the seller had to wait until our check cleared.

On that long day in Jacksonville, we eventually went back to the first one we looked at and bought it. It was the cleanest one and that's what won us over. Honestly, some of these soccer mom cars were filthy, but this one looked like it was owned by a single woman and regularly garaged, and the title proved that. Look, here it is in Nancy's driveway:

 

So life has gotten a little easier here in St. Marys, Georgia. We can run to the store, or the barbershop, or the propane place whenever we feel like it instead of bumming a ride or renting a car. If we need to, we can just run on down to St. Augustine to buy paint at Marine Supply and Oil Co. and go to Ann O'Malley's for Cruisers' Happy Hour like we did Wednesday.

 

With the title finally in hand, this morning I scanned and emailed all the paperwork to our mail forwarding service in South Dakota to get the car registered. Hopefully in about two weeks we will be legally registered and have South Dakota plates. Thank goodness for our scanner/printer to email all the paperwork back and forth. It hasn't been easy, but I think we're almost there!

Never Ending Bureaucracy

I've always been a law abiding citizen; paid my taxes, maintained proper licenses, registered my cars. We were in business in California for over 30 years, so trust me, I know about bureaucracy, but I've recently run up against something I just can't solve.

We have been bobbing around on the ocean, footloose and fancy free, for over three years, but now we have decided we'd like to buy a car to use here on the East Coast. The problem is California is our mailing address and we are not in California. Here is just a short list of the roadblocks before us:

• Generally speaking, when you purchase a car out of state, you have 30 days to get it to your home state and registered. Any time beyond that usually incurs large penalties. We don't want to drive right home; we want to use the car here for a few months before we drive home.

• We can't register the vehicle in California anyway because the car must actually be in California to get an emissions/smog certificate.

• To register a car in Georgia you need to have proof of residency (electric bill, lease agreement), and a Georgia drivers license. So Georgia won't work.

• I'd been told you can use St. Brendan's Isle (a mail forwarding service) to help establish Florida residency. A lady named Anna there told me we could register a car in Florida without a Florida drivers license, but a call to the DMV quickly corrected that falsehood. However, we could still get "domicile" in Florida through St. Brendan's Isle, and get a Florida drivers license, but you still have to register your boat there (and pay a big tax). Not impossible, but expensive. And after Anna's whopper, I don't really want to deal with them.

Friends have told us that South Dakota is more lenient and will register vehicles there without a South Dakota drivers license. You need to use a mail forwarding service to get a South Dakota address, then provide clear title, and proof of your identity via your social security card. All this can be accomplished via Notaries and the United State Postal Service, so there is no need to even travel to South Dakota.

• At first I thought I would do this, but my wallet was stolen years ago and I don't have my social security card any more. I was self employed so I never replaced it. Yesterday I sat at the Social Security Office for two hours and was finally told that I can't get a card because I'm not at home. They will not mail a replacement card to my home address in California. And the woman behind the thick plastic screen had no ideas or solutions for me. (I think I know why those plastic screens are there now, because I wanted to strangle her!) Seriously, I am so tired of banging my head against the walls of bureaucracy! It's no wonder that people in difficult situations sometimes just give up and end up jobless and homeless. Even when you try to do the right thing, various government agencies make it impossible to do.

Thankfully, the Captain has his social security card. So, guess who's moving to South Dakota?

California's Gold

A man named Huell Howser used to have TV show called California's Gold. We watched it often and my favorite part was when Huell would say, "That's amazing!"

Well, California is kind of amazing and we certainly enjoyed our two months there. Our last day was spent in and around the Presidio in San Francisco. By driving out to the Golden Gate Overlook near Battery Godfrey, we were able to get this view of the bridge.

Nearby is the Palace of Fine Arts, on the site of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. This beautiful pavilion is surrounded by the fine art buildings and is still a popular attraction for visitors.

At Disney's Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, find the Yoda statue we did.

Here are the "Painted Ladies" a famous row of Victorian houses, and our transportation for the last two months: our daughter's 1971 VW bug. She never drives it and it's really nice to have a garaged car in San Francisco for our use. Thanks Katie.

And last but not least is a sunset from our sailing club parking lot, out across the channel with Mt. Diablo in the distance. We managed to attend a few Friday Night Dinners there and enjoyed catching up with old friends.

Just a few examples of California's Gold for you to enjoy.

E. Charlton Fortune Exhibition

We recently had the pleasure of seeing an exhibition of E. Charlton Fortune's paintings at the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento,  California. The Captain is a first cousin twice removed of the artist. He remembers meeting her as a child, but she passed away in 1969, so I never got to meet her. What a pity; I hear she was quite a character and had a great sense of humor.

When Effie was 21, she and her mother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. For several years she traveled, studied, painted, and exhibited her work in New York, Scotland, and France.

Returning to California in 1912, she divided her time between Carmel, Monterey, and San Francisco. This painting, "Afternoon (Waters Off Monterey)" was painted in 1912.

"The Pier (Late Afternoon, Monterey)" 1914

"Wharf, Monterey" 1915

"El Rancho del Carmelo (Hatton Ranch)" 1920

In 1921 Effie again went to Europe to paint and exhibit her work.

"Conversation Piece" Cromwell House, Scotland, started in 1921, finished in 1962

In St. Ives, Cornwall, UK she did several 12"x16" plein air studies of the harbor. Above is "Scavengers" 1922.

This one is called "Mackerel Season: Bidding on the Catch" 1922.

From these and other studies she did this large studio painting "Summer Morning, St. Ives" in 1923. This painting won a Silver Medal Certificate at the Société de Artistes Français Salon in 1924 in Paris.

"Wine Cargoes"  St. Tropez, France 1925

"Drying Sails"  St. Tropez, France 1926

"The Old Port"  St. Tropez, France 1925

Effie is recognized as one of the great California Impressionist painters. We saw a retrospective of her work at the Carmel Art Institute back in the 1990s, but there are more pieces here. I love her work and sure wish I could afford one of her paintings.

This is just a small sampling of the exhibition. It runs through April 22, 2018 at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento, California.

From there it moves to the Monterey Museum of Art from May 24 to August 27, 2018.