Not long after we got here we went to the local DMV office to pick up info on getting a driver’s licenses and registering a car in the Beaver State. We both studied the driver’s manual so we would be ready to take the knowledge test. Of course there would be a quick vision test, but what worried us was on the website one of the listed items said: Pass the drive test;. And on the back side of the application PDF was the Driver Test Score Sheet. But, when looking at the requirements for taking a drive test, near the bottom was this caveat: You may not have to take a drive test if you’re new to Oregon and give us your out-of-state license. It can be expired up to 1 year. The words may not were still slightly ominous…
To get a license we needed a permanent address, so we had to wait at least until we closed on the house. By then it was the holidays, so we waited until January. Then we had a big snowstorm. Then pretty soon it was the end of January. By this time we were pretty sure we wouldn’t have to do Drive Test and vowed to go get our licenses in February. Early this week we read through the driver knowledge test booklet again figuring on going Wednesday. We found another excuse not to go then, but today was the day.
Donna was worried about the knowledge test, she was confident she knew the stuff, but she is terrible test taker. Me, I was not worried at all, most of it is common sense and you could miss seven out of the 35 total questions. When Donna came out of the booth she wasn’t sure she passed. She lost track of how many she missed, but the machine didn’t throw any red X’s on the screen. Well, she did pass and got her driver’s license. Me, I had my confidence shaken from the git go, I missed the first two questions! Then I aced a few sign recognition ones, before missing another one. I had now used up almost half my allowed misses in the first 6 questions, yikes. I tiptoed through the rest of the test and I passed missing 5 questions. Comparing notes afterwards we both had the same sort of experience, acing the signs and lane marking stuff, missing questions we were sure we knew and getting lucky on ones we guessed at.
Sixty-five dollars each later, we are proud owners of a gray scale temporary paper Oregon driver’s license. The real one comes in the mail in about a week.