Things I’ve learned about Monroe, NY and Orange County NY – Week One

Things I’ve learned about Monroe, NY and Orange County NY

I recently moved to the beautiful town of Monroe, NY in Orange County.  I have been here an entire week, and I thought it would be fun to share my impressions.

So far, I’ve learned that:

1) The Department of Motor Vehicles can provide a vastly different experience in different locations!!  I had to visit the Orange County DMV in Goshen, NY.  What an extremely positive improvement from the area I came from.

First, let me describe my previous experience.  There were 2 different DMV locations I could utilize in my old area and I tried them both. The experience was similar.  You would enter the DMV, and wait on the first line.  This is the line to provide you with a letter/number ticket which would be what would identify you for the rest of your visit.  This first line could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes to get through, depending on the number of people on line and the speed and number of DMV employees.  You’d wait on the line for a while, hopefully with all your paperwork in order so you wouldn’t have to come up again. The employee would give you a letter & number and tell you to go wait in the seats.  There were probably 40 or so benches. You’d have to sit with 50-100 other people and wait for your number to be called in a seemingly random way. The other people rarely spoke to anyone not in their party.  A trip to DMV would take at LEAST 2 hours, if not longer. Of course it would be boring and frustrating, and you’d have to allow extra time to find and then pay for parking.

Now, the new experience.  I parked for free in the huge parking lot, and then walked into the Goshen DMV. I went up to a machine, selected the type of transaction I was there to complete (I selected License), pressed a button, and a ticket printed out with my alpha numeric DMV number.  There was NO LINE!!!   I wandered over to the 15 or so benches, and I took a seat.  Various other customers chatted with me, so the time passed quickly.  Employees came out from time to time and would call, for example, “anyone with a simple license renewal, come with me” and they’d take care of people in expedited fashion.  When I went up to the window, the DMV employee was extremely friendly and took care of me in wonderful fashion.  My entire visit took about 45 minutes, which to me, was AWESOME!!!  I understand from neighbors that sometimes there is NO WAIT!!!!

2) People are so friendly!!!  From the customer in DMV who chatted with me for about 20 minutes and happened to be related to a nearby residential appraiser (yes, I took the number!), to the customer in Rite Aid who talked with me, to the employee in DMV, and the neighbors I passed on the street.  In fact, I sent materials to about 70 homes in my new neighborhood before I got here. I notified neighbors that I was coming, and I let them know what I could do for them. One of the neighbors invited us to a neighborhood party our first week in the neighborhood!  Talk about a wonderful area to live in!

3) There are a lot of hills!  You might not notice this when driving around since some of the inclines are very gradual, but I’ve been running/walking the local streets.  Wow, there are a lot of hills.  My legs are going to be soooo strong!

4) The Best of Little Italy deli in the Shoprite plaza in Monroe makes DELICIOUS homemade sausages!!!!  We purchased a hunk of broccoli rabe sausage and threw it on the barbeque.  YUMMO!   I’m planning on featuring this deli in a future post.

So far, Monroe NY ROCKS.