I made the mistake of moving to of all places California about four years ago to get married to a gal out there.  Well, now we're divorced and I've moved back to MO.  I had originally driven my F-150 out there with MO plates on it and they expired about two years ago.  I then discovered that the truck didn't have California emissions equipment on it, so I never got it licensed with CA plates.

 When I moved back to MO I drove a rental truck back here in May and I had to leave the F-150 in CA since there are no trailers or dollies large enough to haul it on back here to MO behind the box truck.

 So now the problem is that with the expired MO plates on it, I can't legally drive it back here to MO in order to get it inspected and have legal plates put back on it.

 Is there any kind of 10 day pass or something that I can get that will allow me to legally drive it back to MO from CA?  Or am I going to just have to take my chances with getting caught with expired plates by driving it back?  I can't have a car hauler company ship it back her to MO since I have a bunch of belongings in the back of the bed that I obviously don't want to get stolen.

Any ideas?

Go through the process of getting it licensed in MO. Take the new tags to Cali and drive back? Thats the only thing I can think of other than driving it back as is.

Call the MO State Police (non emergency number), and ask if there's a temp tag you can get. Once you explain the situation, they'll be able to tell you the answer for sure.

I ended up going to the license office in Ofallon and spoke with someone who told me that if I just go get a receipt showing that I don't owe any property taxes, that I can simply get a new set of plates and tags.  In my mind I was wondering about having to get it inspected, but I kept my mouth shut for fear of opening a can of worms with that.  So I plan on doing what they advised me today.

I'm not sure what the cutoff is but I think if a vehicle isn't too old you don't have to get an inspection on it to get tags.

I believe the cut off for inspections is 10  years old or less as well as less than 150,000 miles. If the vehicle is older than 10 years, it's supposed to be inspected bi-annually. When I still had a home in another state, one of my Missouri tagged vehicles was at my out of state residence. When it came time to renew tags, I took my tax form to the license office and explained that the vehicle wan not available for inspection. I got my tags and was told to get it inspected as soon as the vehicle was back in Missouri as I would likely be ticketed without an inspection sticker on it.

I would think you could do something similar, but I would also recommend calling highway patrol and getting their opinion.

I definitely would call the Highway Patrol.  Local license offices are normally ran by contract and the workers are not state employees. They don't always know the correct laws and regulations. Plus the DOR regulations are not always clear and easy to understand either.

I ran into problems in 2016 when I bought my Honda Pioneer 500 UTV and went to register it per DOR/MOHP regulations. The local license office said that UTVs did not have to be registered. I tried pointing out that UTVs 50" in width and under do have to be registered. Needless to say, I got a nasty gram from the state telling me I had 6 months worth of fines for not registering my UTV. I called Jeff City and explained my situation and was able to get the fines waived and then went back to the local license office and registered in and to let them know.

I got a nasty postcard in the mail from the DOR too when I didn't register mine.  Fortunately I was able to email them a scan of the manufacturer's statement of origin and that went away.

UTVs over 50" in width don't have to be registered. Any UTV with a 50" width or less does have to be registered just like an ATV. The Honda Pioneer 500 is 50" wide per manufacturer specs. One thing I can say is that the lady from the DOR office in Jeff City was very nice to deal with and very helpful once I explained my situation.

That's what I was able to do actually.

I ended up just going to the license office with my property receipts and simply got new plates with tags on them.  They said I could do it since the truck hadn't been in Missouri for over 60 days.  No inspections required until next year.  I then flew out to Orange County, Commiefornia, stuck the plates on my truck, got new tires put on it and then drove it back to MO!  :)

I took I-40 to Tucumcari, New Mexico where I then took Hwy-54 up across the Texas panhandle, across the Oklahoma panhandle then into southern Kansas.  Wow, that is such a scenic drive, just amazing.

Nice! I've made that dame drive. It is very scenic!