AuthorVictoria

Active Duty Service Members and Dependents

How many people do I know that are Active Duty in the military or know someone who is?
Your going to want to read this.
Have you ever heard of something called the Military Lending Act? Or Service Members Civil Relief Act?
I called Chase and they confirmed Active Duty gets all annual fees for credit cards WAIVED!So then I called Bank of America about my Alaska Airlines card. They asked would I like a statement credit or a check for my annual fee I paid in August when opening the card.And now the crown jewel … American Express my love who I have paid a $550 annual fee to this year. I believe $250 last year and possibly $199 the year before. They are now processing my request and I will be notified with a decision. Fingers crossed, that all the amounts are in the form of a check in my mailbox in 2021!
Do you have a credit card that you paid an annual fee to while active duty? You might want to call them and ask them about MLA and SCRA. You could also have a check coming to you in 2021!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS

For more information on what it’s like to travel in 2020 check out my latest post https://torsadventures.com/2020/12/14/traveling-in-2020/here.

Traveling in 2020

As someone who started this year out on a trip in a foreign country I couldn’t have imagined that while I was enjoying New Years Eve in Quebec, Canada less than 3 months later a pandemic would take over the world. This pandemic also known as the Corona Virus, COVID – 19 or to some just the Rona now is still full steam ahead. In the past few days they have released a vaccine but most have yet to receive it. Above is me making a quick stop at the Crowne Plaza in Seattle to park my car before flying to Chicago in December 2020.

New Year’s Eve’s Eve in downtown Quebec, Canada.

Last year I went to London and Paris in January and then back again with my Mom in October. I had so many plans like others to see new parts of the world. Thailand was very high on my list. Now I don’t know when I will be able to visit a country like that again. There are quite a few options on my list but all will have to wait until 2021 and beyond. I have spent all of 2020 in the United States. January, February and March were spent flying to Seattle from Chicago and then back in quick trips. April was a 14 day quarantine with my husband Scott who finally came home from deployment. May I packed all my stuff into a Uhual UBOX and headed out West to live on Whidbey Island. June, July and leading into August was my longest stretch without a flight. I flew back to Chicago in August to have surgery and 5 days later came back to Whidbey Island. At some point I needed my car that was still at my parents house so I hopped on another flight to Chicago, drove south to St. Louis where I picked up my friend Melissa. We then took a wonderful road trip across parts of the United States I had never seen or heard of. Badlands National Park is hands down my favorite stop on the trip. When you Google where that’s located you will see it’s very close to a Corona Virus hotspot known as Stergis.

Badlands National Park

After being home for a few weeks I felt like I wanted to travel somewhere else. With my options limiting me to the United States I decided to visit a friend in Dallas, Texas for the weekend. And finally my last trip of 2020 was back to Chicago to help my parents decorate for Christmas since I won’t be traveling there for Christmas. With all that traveling most would assume that I contracted the Corona Virus at some point along the road. I’m happy to report that I have been lucky enough to stay healthy this whole time. That could only happen

Red Oxx

I don’t normally write posts for a company but Red Oxx is doing all of the right things! Reasons include hand making all their products right here in the United States.  They make sure that their community is majorly involved by throwing awesome community events like Oxx Fest. And they treat their employees well and are family friendly.  I was attending TBEX or Travel Blog Exchange for those of you not in my travel blogger circle. This was a local company that decided to join a global conference that just happened to be stopping in their home town. I went to the factory the first day I was in town and they were really busy getting ready for the big conference!  Then I went back later in the week and started talking to some of the employees.

The smallest employee is my favorite …. but I think she steals everyone’s heart. Being a photographer I tend to find other photographers and Karen’s assistant was the best! Karen is the in house photographer for Red Oxx and she gets to bring her baby girl with her to work everyday!

Here she is helping photograph their newest bag “The Hound” which I picked up while I was there and I will be carrying all around London and Paris. I also picked up “The CPA”  for all my carry on    needs and It holds my 15 inch Macbook Pro, iPad, 2 camera bodies and 3 lenses – all with a drink on the side. Then, depending on if it is a day where I’m giving a tour at the prison or taking a 4 day quick trip to Seattle I also picked up “The Roadster Mini”. I stuffed everything I needed for a 4 day trip and carried both on the plane without an issue. Depending on the airline sometimes its better to know that your bags will fit into that small little space above the seat on a regional jet.