You Could Say That

Back to Missoula!!! I left my house dark and early this morning for the airport to return to Montana. Part of the reason I hate packing to go to Missoula is because there are quite a few things that I need to pack away in a suitcase that will never see a suitcase again once I get there, like my GPS. It doesn’t belong in a suitcase, it will live in the truck for the duration of the tour, but getting it to Missoula means finding a way to pack it and this bothers me, so I feel like everything is all over the place at the moment, even though everything I want/need is compactly tucked away into one of the deep dark corners of my bright pink luggage.

I got my final Dunkin run for the foreseeable future this morning on my way to the airport. Dunkin Donuts really needs to work on their slogan because although “America runs on Dunkin – except for Montana” isn’t catchy, it is honest. There is not a singular Dunkin Donuts in the entire state of Montana, not even a Dunkin/gas station hybrid! I checked. Also, Bank of America should be called the Bank of 49 States, not Montana because they don’t have any branches there either.

I have a smart phone – I think most people do these day – and my smart phone keeps track of certain things, even if I don’t want it to. I get a lot of updates on Taylor Swift because I googled her ONCE… Moving on. It keeps track of my flights and hotel reservations which is very thoughtful (almost too thoughtful, I’m on to you, Google!). Now, my smart phone will ask me if the updates it is giving me are useful (and sometimes it ignores me when I say that they aren’t *cough cough Taylor Swift cough cough*) or if I want it to add something to my calendar, etc. Well, this morning, it didn’t just show me my flight confirmation, it had another card that said “Get updates for commuting to work?” *Deadpan* You could say that. I screenshot it because I thought it was so ridiculous. So yes, I guess my work commute is technically 2,000+ miles…

Now when you spend five or more hours on an airplane (Boston to Salt Lake City and then a quick trip from Salt Lake to Montana), a lot of things happen. For me, these things typically include cheating on the Sudoku that comes in the airline magazine (I’m getting better! I cheat a lot less now), cheating on the crossword puzzle in the airline magazine (I’m not getting better, I still cheat a lot), worrying about getting blood clots from sitting too long, and getting bumped into as people get up to go to the bathroom (I swear this happens even if I have a window seat!) and after I’ve finished my cheating, I’ll just start coloring in the magazine. Well, today, I picked a page at random and started coloring the letters at random and when I got bored, I realized that I’d entirely, accidentally changed the meaning of the ad “There’s more to Iowa than just cornfields.” I guess my subconscious remembers driving through there back in June on the way to Alabama. Oops, sorry Iowa. I also typically pull my laptop out at some point and write about whatever has happened, which is why I feel like flight travel day posts are more detailed than other, more interesting days…

Tiny plane!

Upon arriving in Salt Lake, I didn't search for geotags (I was just there a few weeks ago, remember?) but instead had to search for my airplane because it was teeny-tiny. Just a little puddle jumper! I was sitting in row 11 out of 12. No joke.

Guess where I am?

I landed in Missoula without too much trouble and managed to collect a new geotag! Priorities. In Missoula, I was reunited with Marcus, otherwise known as the little red truck, otherwise known as MCT78. He isn't quite as young as he was when I last saw him (other people drive him besides me, ya know) and we're starting the fall together at 64642.9 miles. I also got to meet my new temporary partners. Unfortunately, the first few weeks of this tour will be Melissa-less but a few other TADs were available to step in. Katrina will be my partner in Lander, WY next week and I'll have two partners in Lyman, WY -- Taylor Ann and Kayla. None of them know that I have a blog yet, I wonder how they would feel about me blogging about them before I've ever told them that I have a blog... Oh well, it looks like the fall tour is off to an exciting start!!

MARCUS!