I’m really glad I made it to Montana. It was definitely
one of the more challenging states for me to visit because my preferred airline
only has one flight in and one flight out of Billings each day. So that means a
Montana adventure has to be planned accordingly. Here’s how mine played out.
My flight out of Albany left first thing in the morning
and got me as far as Philadelphia where I had to change planes and get on a
second flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. From there I would make the connection to a
third flight that would arrive in Billings, Montana. That’s approximately eight
hours of time in the air, but layovers add to the total travel time, so I
arrived in Billings around 3:00 mountain time in the afternoon. From there I
had to rent a car to drive the two and a half hours that it would take to get
to Bozeman, MT where the closest of Montana’s only two laser tag sites is
located. I would have loved to get to the second site also, but unfortunately
it was three hours beyond Bozeman and would be closed by the time I could get
there at this point. So I drove to Bozeman and arrived at Laserdash.
I entered the location and it was a quiet night (which I
was forewarned would likely be the case on a Thursday evening), but I met up
with Mateo and staff member Sky who hooked me up with a fun card and welcomed
me to tour the arena before enjoying a game of Fun Blast.
The arena is hand painted in neon colors. It appears that
someone built it for them in a manner similar to how I used to build sets for my
stage productions. Meaning the construction was likely a local creation and not
an imported arena design.
One base was located in a room on the first level.
The arena is built on two levels that can be accessed by
one of two staircases. I’ve said this before…I HATE to see staircases in an
arena. I think they are dangerous even for the most careful players. Case in
point…while stepping down I felt my own foot slide and nearly took a tumble
while I was on the top level. I can’t imagine this being a good idea with a
larger group or really active kids.
So after that I relegated myself to a downstairs game.
Partially because I didn’t need to risk anything so early in this trip and
partially because I was a bit under the weather, had travelled all day and had
not yet had any food, so to be honest I was tired and my heart was barely in
this game. But I did enjoy that I got to experience it nonetheless.
And when that single game was done I decided I needed to
find some sustenance more than tag, so I ended up at a restaurant called Dave’s
Sushi. I ordered a locally named roll and some calamari to take back to my
hotel for the night knowing that I had to be up early to make the two and a
half hour drive back to Billings the next morning.
I had straight highway driving for most of the trip back
to the airport, however it had snowed hard in Montana since the night before and
the conditions of this road would have likely caused schools in NY to call a
snow day (which I understand is a real rarity in Montana). So (since I didn’t
have any choice) I carefully drove back to the airport, glad I had allowed
plenty of extra time.
Remember I mentioned that the airline I fly only has one
flight in and one flight out of Billings each day? I was sitting in the
terminal in plenty of time to board that one flight that would fly me back to
Dallas where I had planned to catch a connecting flight to Denver and from
there drive north to Cheyenne to play tag in Wyoming. Well, that didn’t happen
because there was a tornado watch happening in Dallas area which impacted every
flight trying to go in or out of Dallas. There was a delay and enough of a
disruption in schedule that I knew it was highly unlikely that even when the
flight got to Dallas that I would be able to keep my schedule and visit all the
places I wanted. So I shifted gears from there. I decide it would be better to
rent a car in Montana and just drive south into Wyoming and keep driving from
there into Colorado. So that’s exactly what I did! :)
It’s a 6 ½ hour drive from Billings to Cheyenne, which is
roughly the same amount of travel time I would have had by plane. So I divided
the drive into two parts and got myself as far as Casper, WY that night, found
a hotel and then got up bright and early to continue my journey to Cheyenne. So
essentially I had put in two very long days of travel and had only yet played
one game of laser tag. Well, this is proof that in the case of Montana getting
there was MORE than half the battle, but it’s all good. That was my 41st
state that I was happy just to check off and you know I was going to make up
for lost time on the rest of the journey. And I had a little adventure to share…and
I don’t just mean the sushi!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
and www.photonforever.com
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