Alien Romance, the daily comic strip

[gs_silva]

moth2fic, I found the answer to your question! It turns out that in the US, licence requirements are handled state by state. So I picked a state in the Midwest and followed the guidelines on its website. I chose Illinois - my spouse is convinced this story takes place in Illinois, even though I've only ever been there once and I'm mostly drawing from my experiences in Ohio and upstate New York. The saga originally took place in upstate New York, and the 'rural township' Ren and Maurice hailed from was originally New Hampshire, where some of my greats and grands owned a store in a farming community. I moved it all westward for some reasons.


Maurice: "Ella, I called the DMV, and it turns out Cathy's license isn't valid here. But she can get a state license for visa holders."

Ella: "That's inconvenient. How long will the new license take to get?"

Maurice: "She'll have to pass both the written and the driving exam. Which means..."

Ella: "She has to study. In English."

Maurice: "You like teaching, right?"

Ella: "Uh, sure."

Maurice is using Ella's manipulation trick back on her! He's learning!

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I remember playing with phone cords like that! I miss hardline phones, they were so much better.

Re: Thoughts

[gs_silva]

Me too! They were wonderfully tactile. Having an extra long cord like Ella's meant you could pace while talking, AND play with the cord, all at once!

[moth2fic]

Oh well - all over the world people have different rules and regulations!! Makes life interesting, at any rate! And causes authors to spend time down the rabbit holes of research...

[gs_silva]

Yeah, it's endlessly frustrating! Some states do accept the international license. But imagine wanting to take a road trip across the US while you're here and having to research the policy in each individual state to find out where it's legal, and drawing an itinerary from that! Probably one of the reasons why the US never gets very high on the "Tourist-friendly countries" lists.

[moth2fic]

Yeah - I can't imagine risking a driving tour. Europe is fine, same rules everywhere both inside and outside EU. Same with Australia, same rules in all states. I suppose they do that at least partly for tourists. There are minor differences like how many high Viz vests you have to carry so most people just make sure they have the maximum.