Ok, so I had to take the Driver Improvement Final Exam. I thought I’d have to go to this DMV facility and reschedule my entire day around it. Luckily, I didn’t! There was a ‘testing facility’ at the Homewood Suites. Notice the quotes? The ‘testing facility’?

At the Homewood Suites.

Ok, this didn’t really register as too weird for me. I was just happy that there was a place that the DMV advertised as being a facility open for testing 24/7. I paid my testing fee after finishing my last quiz online and motored off to the Homewood Suites. And, yes, I got lost getting there. The Homewood Suites turned out to be a pretty big Embassy Suites complex.

When I finally got there, I was a little embarassed to tell the front desk people that I was looking for the online testing facility. They hurriedly pointed me down the corridor to the other building. I felt like the unwashed heathen. I ask the front desk person at the other building and he cheerfully goes through the process with me: go to the business center, sit in front of a computer, log in according to the program, print out the result page.

The guy pointed me to the business center which already had two men crowded around a PC. My front desk buddy asked me to move to the side so he could see them and motion them to open the door. They did and I entered…and was immediately smacked in the face with cheap cologne. Both men looked like good ol’ boys – big and burly, jeans, t-shirts with slogans and logos on it.

I sat at my PC and started to log in (which was an experience unto itself). I started taking my test. The business center was probably an 8′ X 12′ room and the computer stations were opposite each other – they were behind me, I was behind them. As I’m taking this test which means points off my driving record, Bo and Luke behind me are gabbering and I can’t help but find it distracting.

Bo: Maybe we should look up white tail in Canada. There should be some good white tail in Canada.

Luke: What about black bear? There’s some good bear hunting in Canada

Bo: Yeah, what about those magazines Jim brought? There should be some good shootin’ spots listed there. Maybe Mexico.

Luke: Yeah, we could kill some deer and some bear in Canada and then head south.

Bo: Hey, let’s look up Jim Shockey. Maybe they got videos of deer…

Yeah. I’m trying to answer questions about merging with traffic, blind spots and tire wear and these two guys spent the entire time I was in there talking about hunting and killing and playing videos of hunting expeditions.

Luckily, I got out of there with a 90% success completion of my test.