As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels the globe, the reporters who join her can observe a small group of staff crafting foreign policy on the move - often after little or no sleep.
The Cadillac stops by the nose of the plane. Diplomatic security agents spill out of three vans. Hillary Clinton emerges from the car and walks up the steps.
After dropping off her handbag in her private cabin at the front of the plane, the US Secretary of State walks back to chat with the dozen reporters on the plane.
Sitting on an arm rest, she tells us about her evening in the Rose Garden at the State Dinner for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was past 11pm on a recent June night, and Special Air Mission 883 was about to embark on a 30,000-mile journey to the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia, starting off with an Air Force catered meal of chicken wings and crudites.
For the next eight days I would be in "the bubble" - "a caravan going from place to place", as Mrs Clinton describes it.
"Sometimes the dogs bark but we still move on. It is for me, a movable adventure," she says.
This was my 16th trip with this American Secretary of State, but being part of that bubble remains a special experience.
The proximity to Mrs Clinton, the access to senior American officials and the unguarded moments on the road, provide a rare insight into diplomacy in action and the real people devising American foreign policy.
Economy seats
Watching them try - and sometimes fail - to control the messy world around them is a reminder of the limits of American power.
On this trip I was given rare access to the preparations in Washington, the plane and pilots, and even to the "secure floor" set up in every hotel on the tour, with its guards, cameras and mobile offices.
It is an impressive operation run by an army of often earnest staffers with a keen eye for detail who say they feel part of history, even when they are sorting out mundane practicalities.
It can also be an unwieldy, invasive machine with diplomatic security agents, sniffer dogs and motorcades blocking off traffic in cities and disrupting people's lives.
We spend long hours in confined spaces, going from motorcade to hotel to presidential palace and back to the plane.
The journalists at the back of the plane get the same food as the Secretary and her staff at the front
The journalists are crammed in the back, in economy seats. There are no boarding passes, so before the trip starts we draw lots to assign seats.
We are separated from the front of the plane by a lavatory that marks an invisible barrier called "the line of death". Beyond it are all the senior officials accompanying Clinton, usually poring over classified documents.
The plane is not fancy, nothing like Air Force One. The 13-year-old Boeing 757 is part of a fleet of four which is at the disposal of Mrs Clinton and others like the Vice President and the First Lady.
The private cabin is modest - a fold-out couch, two seats, a desk, a lavatory but no shower, a tall mirror, a map of the world and communications equipment so Mrs Clinton can speak to President Obama or other world leaders while in the air.
'Evergreen'
In the belly of the plane, there is a metal trunk on wheels packed with gifts.
David Solomon and Katie Jack from the protocol office in Washington will not reveal what Mrs Clinton is taking with her for the presidents and prime ministers she will be meeting. It could cause tension if one leader felt his neighbour got a nicer gift.
They do reveal that the lower level gifts include cufflinks, paperweights and key chains. Mrs Clinton's autobiography, Living History, is apparently a favourite, and always comes with a personal handwritten note.
America is still a superpower, so Secretaries of State get to see presidents and kings, unlike most other foreign ministers, who only meet their direct counterparts.
But Mrs Clinton also has personal relations with world leaders dating back to her days as First Lady, so they "would see me under any circumstances," says says.
In the White House, the Secret Service called her "Evergreen", and several incarnations later, the code name remains.
The great advantage of travelling with the Secretary is never having to go through passport control or wait by the luggage belt. State Department staffers stamp us in and out of countries, and our suitcases are delivered directly to the hotel.
The downside is that while we pay for our seat, we do not get air miles. And while we may go to a lot of exotic, interesting destinations, we cannot fully experience or understand a country while in the bubble.
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