License to Drive

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Not to brag or anything, but the first time I got a driver’s license, I did really really well. I got 100% on my permit test (though a lot of my friends did, too). A few of my friends also got 100% the driving portion of the in-car test, as did I. However, I was the ONLY person I knew who passed Ohio’s very weird maneuverability test (perfectly, no less) on the first try. (I’m not sure what good that actually did–today I can’t parallel park to save my life.)

Then I moved to California and almost failed the written test I had to take. I hadn’t bothered studying because, hey, how much different can the laws be? Different enough, as it turns out, although I did eke by with one question to spare. (Incidentally, I spent 17 years in California, and a couple weeks ago my husband and I got in an argument over how far you have to park from a fire hydrant. I thought it was 10 feet. He claimed 15. Since he’s a firefighter, I should have taken his word for it, but I had to google. Turns out he’s right. It’s 15 feet in California; 10 feet in Ohio.)

A couple years ago we moved to Texas, sort of, for a few months, and getting a license there was a snap. All we had to do was take a vision test, turn in our old license, and voila! Texas drivers!

Now we’ve moved to another state (Illinois), and it appears I have to take a written test again, which means learning a bunch of potentially new stuff. Not that that’s a bad thing. I’m sort of looking forward to it in a geeky way.

My husband and I had planned on reading the driver’s handbook and quizzing each other on the drive out to Illinois, but we wound up driving separate vehicles so that didn’t happen. (Just came up with a great idea: driver’s-handbook-on-tape!) Now we’re mired in making repairs to our new house, unpacking, trying not to freeze to death, etc., and haven’t had a chance to study yet. We’ll get to that one of these days. After all, I need to find out in which cases we can legally make a u-turn, and whether we can turn left into any lane or if we have to turn into the one closest. What’s the residential speed limit? Can we turn right on red? (Pretty sure the answer is yes…and I hope it is because we’ve been doing it.) And the burning question: How far do we have to park from a fire hydrant?

Wish me luck!

7 Comments

  1. Darren Qunell March 14, 2013
  2. UlrikeDG March 13, 2013
  3. Heather (murphydog77) March 13, 2013
  4. Jennie March 13, 2013
  5. Darren Qunell March 13, 2013
  6. Jools March 13, 2013
  7. Shauna March 13, 2013