So, we arrived here in Hawaii March 8th 2013. We have been in a hotel ever since. We are on post at the Inn at Schofield Barracks, which means that we have access to everything that we need, and are close enough to my husbands work, and my oldest sons school. It was a lot of work when we first got here to get eveything established. I remember seeing people who are not married to the military say that it must be SOOO rough to have to move when they do everything for you. Truth is, there is a lot more than meets the eye when you have to move from place to place. We went 30 days without our car.When you think about it, it's not that bad since we are on post, and Dave can walk to work. We have to have a car obviously, so the options were rent one or take on a second car payment. So onto of the 410.00 a month that we pay on a car loan, we also payed 1600.00 for a rental for the month! Ya, it sucked, here is a few other tips that I have found in the last month that we have been here.
1. When you finally get that call that your car has arrived and you rush there because you are so excited, take your time looking it over. When I picked mine up, I looked at the basics of it. Who would have thought to check the tires and the tread. When I got it back to the base, and looked at the tires the tread was like shredded on it. Just on the front 2. No idea what would cause that, but it happened. There was also a nice lump in the side wall of the back tire. I know that this was not my fault as this car is not even 3 years old and the tires were new. So i brought it back after the weekend, and the man there said this is not the first time that he has seen this. No one knows how this happened, but since the damage was a little under a grand, we were able to settle it in the office, and they were able to cut me a check immediately. I had to go and get an estimate and bring it back, and they cut me a check for 877.00
2. When you pick the car up, they give you 30 days to get your vehicle registered with the state of Hawaii. Easy right?? In the state of Hawaii, you have to have a safety check done. This process sucks. You take your temp registration from the car port, the title to your car, and watermarked insurance card. That's a little harder to get if you have USAA because as you know they do not have watermarked ones. You have to call USAA and they will have one sent to you from Honolulu. You take all this somewhere where they will do a Safety inspection. I found a little mechanic place in Wahiawa, that had great customer reviews, and they were awesome. You will FAIL the safety inspection because you don't have registration in Hawaii. You take the failed slip and all the other papers to the DMV in Wahiawa and be prepared to stand in line for a long time. They will get you registered and than give you the plates. You take the plates back to the place you had your inspection and they will than pass you and give you the safety stickers. This was not all that easy for me and it took about all day!
3. The hotel here no longer does the promissory notes. If you are unsure what that is, it is something that you sign when you arrive at the hotel, that says when you get your hotel money from the army, you will pay them. Check with your hotel, but i KNOW this one no longer does them. You have to pay up front out of pocket for this. The hotel here is 1400.00 every 10 days. It took about a month for the army to start giving us our money. As an E5 with 3 dependents we get about 6000.00 a paycheck now with the TLA and food allowance. We were offered a home about a week after getting here, but can't move in till the end of this month. Pack accordingly.
4. Try to find as many meals that you can that you will want to eat in the hotel, and only need a microwave with. We bought a toaster and they told us we couldn't have it in here. The only things that we can have is what they have provided. A frige,a sink, and a microwave. You are getting paid to go out and eat everyday, and there are some wonderful places to eat here. We started just going out for dinner, and that got old fast. So now we try and get like a rotisserie chicken at the commi and eat at the park or in the hotel. We have all gained weight LOL.
5. It is hard to remember that you are in Paradise when you are stuck in this little hotel room. We spend a lot of time window shopping, and going to the parks and ocean.
6. If you have a license that is about to expire take care if before you come or right when you get here. If you get to the point that it expires while you are here, you have to take both a written and a behind the wheel test. (One of my friends is going through this now)
7. I learned real fast 2 important things to always have with you in the car, or near you. An umbrella, because you never know when you will get that 5minute super rain storm. Most likely when you out and about taking care of something important. Also sunscreen. The sun is different here and you will probably burn.
Hang in there,one you get your home and start "living" and getting back into a routine, things will seem more like Paradise, at least that's what I like to think anyways. It is hard to stay in touch with people because we are 5 hours behind our last duty station and home. We wake up and they are thinking about dinner. Make your calls in the morning. There is so much cool stuff here that its hard to not buy everything when you have all this TLA money. Keep in mind that you have to pay for the hotel, the rental, and you are going to be here for 3 years. This island is small you don't want to be bored for the next 2.5 years that you are here. Most things here are for compact cars and smaller ones, if you can downsize I suggest you do. The gas is only about 1.00 more but the parking spaces are not that big. We traded out trailblazer for a Fusion before we got here and I am glad that we did. You spend a lot of time in traffic and traveling!
Thats it for now, and I hope that you are all enjoying your day!!! I will write more now that I found a way to get this site to work on this hotels wifi!
MAHALO!!!!
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