I got the postcard reminding me that my driver's license was up for renewal the afternoon we left Fernley for Tempe. Had I been reading it (and the Nevada DMV website) closely enough, I would have realized that I could have renewed at the Tonopah DMV office — which is in the same building as the Tonopah Station Hotel where we spent that night. But I misread it as saying that I must bring a bunch of documents I do not carry around with me casually (birth certificate, house deed, social security card, tax records, etc.). That's only if I wanted a REAL-ID Act-compliant driver's license. Although I do have all of those documents (but it's a right hassle to pull them all together), I don't see the need for such an ID, because my US passport does just as well for all of the reasons stated for needing the super-duper ID card. Anyway, I skipped renewing at Tonopah, and after I got home, I read more closely and realized that I could just do a standard renewal without having to provide a dozen different additional documents.
This afternoon after my normal-these-days end of work (3 PM PT; an advantage of working Central Time Zone hours), I drove over to Fallon. Fernley doesn't have a DMV office; either you drive to Sparks or Fallon. We discovered by experimentation (apologies to Lisa, who was the experimental test subject) that waiting times at little Fallon are generally much shorter than those at the large office in Sparks. Sure enough, I had a five minute wait to pay my fee, hand over the form, and have my photo re-taken.
A sign of age: I now have the "must wear corrective lenses" endorsement, for I can no longer read the line of text without my glasses. Well, 51 years was a pretty good run, I guess.
I may have my new license before we leave for Europe, but it doesn't matter that much because I do have my passport (which I will of course need to even board the plane since the airlines sensibly won't let you on if they think they'd just have to carry you back on the next available flight), and we get back to the USA a week before my existing driving license expires. And I don't have any plans to drive a vehicle while in Germany/Finland/Iceland anyway.
