First, it was working out how to get her to the embarkation port with just the right amount of charge.
Then it was waiting patiently while she sailed across the Pacific.
Then it was dealing with the shipper (Matson) sending her back to an intermediate port because her battery was dead.
Then it was getting her towed around the intermediate island and checked out by Tesla (turns out it’s likely that Matson opened her door which caused the climate control system to run and discharge the battery).
Then it was dealing with Matson losing the key.
Then it was discovering that Matson lost the car.
Then it was us finding Joulee in Matson’s lot when Matson insisted she was on a different island. At least another driver had found and returned Joulee’s key when they picked up their Prius on our island.
Then it was discovering that you can’t get insurance here until the car is registered, and you can’t get it registered until you have insurance. And a safety inspection. And you can’t pass a safety inspection until the car is registered. Fortunately, the insurance was able to give us provisional coverage and you can register with a “failed due to no registration” safety inspection.
Then it was waiting for our solar power to be installed so we could charge the car to get her to town for the safety inspection and DMV.
The DMV was empty except for two clerks at windows, I walked up to one (“window #2”); she asked me what I needed, I told her “registration,” and she told me I needed to check in at the kiosk. (I’d been there before and they just had a conventional line.) At the kiosk, I entered some information and it spit out a ticket. Before I could take the ticket, a mechanical voice announced “Number 509, please proceed to window #2.” All was in order except the car needed to be weighed. They wouldn’t accept the weight on the door pillar.
The clerk gave me a sheet with three phone numbers for scales in our area. The first said “oh, we no doing weights today; call back next week.” The second said “we’re set up to weigh tons, not pounds — try calling back in a week and a half.” The third number was disconnected. By now we had only a few days to register within the 30-day deadline.
HA to the rescue again: she called a place much farther away, and it turns out they had a scale that wasn’t too far from us, but they had already closed. So the next day I sandwiched Joulee between cement trucks and got weighed for $80. Went back to the DMV, still empty, still had to use the kiosk. Got registered and got cool new plates. Went back to the mechanic who mounted the plates, checked the registration, and gave me a passing inspection. Sent the registration to the insurance agent. Joulee is legal!
Now there’s just the little issue of dealing with body shops and insurance agents to get the damage Matson did fixed.
—2p