Airborn, I had the same crap happen at dick's sporting goods. At the store I went to, they moved the process from the hunting "lodge" to the front counter check out part of the store. There was some young girl there who would not know know a driver's license from a hunting license.... she was no help... the store manager came.... he was no help... I told him that Dicks was listed as an official license agent for the special permit hunting areas.... you would have thought I was speaking greek to him. He just told me to call back next week.
The deadline to apply is 9-10-06 I went home and was able to do it online and pay $2.00 for the application fee.
Good luck,
They really need to have a better way to sell the licenses.
DW