The North Carolina Story

Well, I'm finally ready to blog about this...but it's not too funny yet. You see, 14 years ago, Mike got a speeding ticket in North Carolina. It was his senior year of college, and so, he just sent his payment off rather than contest it in court. According to the very nice county clerk in Statesville, NC, they never received his payment. So, now with late fees, court fees, etc., the amount owed is $241. Seeing as though a senior in college doesn't keep the best records (I know that I couldn't prove that I paid my speeding ticket in Tennessee coming back from visiting Laura at Ole Miss) and seeing as though his bank has since been acquired three times over, the chances of proving that he paid it are slim to none. But, the payments don't end there....

• $3 to obtain a receipt, since we had to send a money order rather than a personal check
• $0.42 cent stamp for the self-addressed envelope to send that receipt to us
• $50 to obtain a letter from the state of North Carolina to show to the State of Illinois that Mike is all cleared
• Grand Total of this fiasco: $294.42
• Learning to KEEP EVERYTHING, priceless

So, in the pouring rain and with Luke in tow, I ran the bank, to the post office at the grocery store only to find out their system was down, and then to the real post office to get everything sent off on Monday. Sure, we probably could have fought some of the fees by getting a lawyer, but we figured we better cut our losses (he does need a drivers license). Probably would have cost us more to get a lawyer involved anyway, but the one question I'm dying to ask is why they never tracked Mike down sooner. Oh well....I don't know about Mike, but I plan to open champagne once he finally has his license and toast to moving to Scotland someday where something this ridiculous couldn't possibly happen. Or at least, I'll think that. :-)