2016

Happy New Year from the Jaffe girls! 

I’d like to start by saying “Welcome to 2016, dear readers!” 

I haven’t been blogging recently because I haven’t had anything to blog about – this is, of course a travel blog and I have not been traveling! My voyage from Missoula to Massachusetts in December did include some fun – like when I missed my connecting flight and my phone died and I stood out on the curb of Logan airport crying because I was just that exhausted – but that’s so 2015. Today, however, not only marks the earth’s complete revolution around the sun again but also my triumphant return to Montana. What’s so triumphant about it? Well, nothing, I just like being dramatic and feeling self-important (two things I obviously excel at). I’m getting geared up for another five months on the road and therefore must revive this digital diary of mine.

One thing I recently did in an attempt to improve life as a vagabond was register for TSA Pre-Check, which is this thing that can be yours for $85 and a criminal background check!!! It basically means you get to go through security without taking off your shoes and having to take your laptop out of your bag. I counted and I flew over two dozen times in 2015 alone!!! 

That means a lot of times in an airport security line. I was literally approved for this less than 48 hours ago so I wasn’t expecting that I’d get to use it today, although when I got to the airport, I discovered that no one was going to be pre-checked today because of the holiday. I can already see that I will have the same grievance that everyone else with TSA Pre-Check has and that is while we pay for the privilege of not having to get a foot fungus from whatever the person in front of us left on the floor, sometimes random people just get to enjoy the same perks. This was illustrated by the very loud woman across the aisle from me who was telling everyone who’d listen that she was going home to Maui and that she wasn’t sure what she’d done when she came here but they let her go through a shorter security line with her shoes on for no reason. First of all, if I wanted to hear your life story, I would have asked, secondly, your life story is awful and third, take your shoes off, lady, until you’ve paid that $85!!! 

Long live the scarf!

Horrible row mate aside, my early morning flight was pretty easy. This probably has something to do with my big scarf! I recently procured what might be the world’s greatest scarf. This scarf is basically a blanket. It is the exact width and length of me and no, I’m not joking. This makes it perfect for both keeping warm and shielding my eyes from the blinding light streaming in through Ms. Maui’s open window so I could get another hour’s worth of sleep. 

One silly, strange thing that happened on that first flight was that when I opened Hemisphere, aka United’s magazine, they had like a nine page spread on Wisconsin – one page for every week I’ll be there, I guess! (I was going to take the magazine with me, but decided against it, assuming that the puddle jumper I’d be taking from Denver to Missoula would have the same magazine – I was wrong, they only had the December issue). After reading that, I worked diligently on my little Sudoku book and cheated far less than I normally do! 

My flight from Denver to Missoula was pretty painless which officially means that I had the least dramatic travel day of all of the TADs! I did have some drama with some missing t-shirts that has yet to be resolved, but, this is a travel blog and not a t-shirt blog. 

1. A fellow TAD missed his flight after he was pulled out for a "random" security check. We're all putting quotations around the word random because his name is Arabic.

2. Our friend's suitcase was absolutely destroyed -- her luggage came out in plastic bags.

3. My tour partner, Jas, had the most dramatic day of all and isn't even getting to Missoula tonight! He's now in Helena because after getting to JFK and going through security, he missed his flight and was shuttled to LaGuardia where he flew to Denver. When he got to Denver, his flight was cancelled because there wasn't a crew! He has now flown into Helena, which is where I will be driving to pick him up in the morning. His luggage, however, flew to Missoula, so I drove to the airport to pick it up. It's pretty tragic, especially considering that he never got to say a real goodbye to his girlfriend with all the insanity.

MCT88

So, anyways, I'll be driving to North Dakota tomorrow with a stop in Helena to pick up Jas and a stop in Bozeman to meet up with our friends, Molly and Whitney who we were planning on caravaning with until it became clear that I would be taking a two hour detour!

P.S. I met my new truck, MCT 88. It is literally a child. Ryan Lind and I have sent more text messages to each other than this car has miles on it! It also has remote control lock and unlock buttons and automatic windows!