I flew for fifteen hours before arriving at my destination. After three flights, I managed to land in a US territory even though I was hundreds of miles away from any other US territory and closer to Australia than the US mainland. My adventure had begun in Boulder, Colorado.
I descended the stairs onto the tarmac upon landing on the little island of Tutuila in American Samoa, the only inhabited US territory south of the equator that encompasses seven South Pacific islands and atolls. I arrived at a place I could not have found on a map and was immediately greeted by the pleasant island air.
Even though I was a US citizen traveling from the US mainland to a US territory, I had to go through passport control and customs. In this territory, US residents cannot travel without their passports; in other US territories, however, they must go through immigration and submit their documents.
