Annie's registration expired a week before the end of July.
However.... the plate itself simply said July. So, we figured if we didn't break too many rules we might be good until the end of the month instead.
Back in April we had re-signed up with the same PMB service we had the last time we were full-timing and hadn't thought much about it since then. The town it is located in, Madison, S.D., is a small town. Small in the way that their Driver's License place is only open on day a week (Tuesday) for a few hours.
So, we made sure we arrived on Monday night, the 30th in preparation to take care of everything on Tuesday.
We pulled into our chosen campground and began a conversation with the host that went something like this...
Us: "Just one night."
Him: "Just one night?"
Us: "Yes, we are just staying our required one night to change our residency."
Him: "You weren't planning on using My Dakota Address were you?"
Us: "Yes, we will stop in to see Teri tomorrow."
Him: "Um... Teri went out of business and tomorrow is her last day before she closes the doors."
Us: "What?"
Him: "Yes. Don't know what happened, it all went down very quickly but they are done and closing up shop."
Us: "Well, that's a bummer. Guess we need to make other plans since our tag expires / technically is already expired."
Him: "Why don't I put you right here next to me so you can get internet."
Us: "That sounds great! We cannot however pay you until we have an address to put on our receipt as that is required."
Him: "No problem. Just wait until the office opens in the morning and pay then."
After we parked and ensured that we could indeed get internet we decided to eat dinner and then take a walk around. We discussed our options and then went back and started searching the web. We were not interested in driving across the state to Rapid City as we had plans to stay on the eastern side of S.D. There were a few options in Sioux Falls. However, after speaking with Teri herself and realizing that she was referring everyone to one particular location we opted to speak with them first. They were indeed taking over the majority of her clients and provided us an address immediately over the phone. The next morning, we paid forour campsite using our new address and then headed down to Sioux Falls with our receipt to complete everything. With the exception of the extra two hours of driving, the process was seamless and we were in and out just as quickly as we would have been in Madison.
The company we chose was Dakota Post and despite essentially tripling their business overnight they were extremely friendly, courteous and organized had all of our paperwork ready for us to sign the minute we walked in the door.
So, we still managed to put our new tags on Aug 1 and we belong to the state of South Dakota once again!
Ah.... and what's with the title of this blog post?
Well, did you know that for decades South Dakota used The Sunshine State as their motto? That ended in 1992 though and left Florida as the only 'Sunshine State'. South Dakota now uses the motto The Mount Rushmore State and are also affectionately known as The Blizzard State. We aren't too fond of blizzards so happy that we were there when we were!