Some people travel with their spouses or their family, or friends. Susan Weese decided to travel the world with a full-sized medical model skeleton named Samantha (Sam for short).
It started when Susan's husband bought her a skeleton for her birthday (something she asked for). Having taken courses in medical illustration, Susan was fascinated by bones. She named her skeleton Sam and decided to do a 365 project in which she takes one photo per day of Sam and puts them on her blog. Susan had lots of travel planned, so that meant Sam was going to have to leave their Albuquerque home to travel around the world.
If you thought trying to get shampoo past airport security was tough, try getting a 42lb. human skeleton past the TSA. The Department of Agriculture in Newark had to make sure that Sam wasn't made of real bone (she's not). In Denver, the TSA took her skull apart (they found nothing). Delta said Sam was too heavy to fly to Berlin (she had to be shipped). Southwest lost her (she was eventually found, but came home in pieces).
In Texas, while posing Sam outside a bar, a drunk man stumbled out and thought his drinking had led to hallucinations. They were asked to leave Trocadero Plaza in Paris. Outside the American embassy in Berlin, Sam dropped her leg and the guards went for their guns. Sam danced with a pirate in Chicago - and was then kicked out of a Cubs game. She was ignored by locals in New York City, but an attraction to tourists. A California park ranger asked them to leave lest they give people "the wrong idea about my park." She photobombed newlyweds. She has ridden in hot air balloons, baby strollers, Venice gondolas (by way of Las Vegas), bicycle rickshaws, a carousel, a fishing boat, and a party van.
I want to be Sam when I grow up.
View the entire 365 project on Susan's blog, The Knife Wife