Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolls into Bozeman

“We were driving by, and his eyes kind of bulged out of his head, in a cartoony style fashion,” said Bozeman resident Connor Boggs, gesturing to his friend Abram Wilson. “He said, ‘I want a hot dog,’ and then we pulled in.”

The pair encountered the Wienermobile at the South 11th Avenue Town & Country in Bozeman. Upon reaching the vehicle, Boggs and Wilson quickly realized that the Wienermobile does not serve hot dogs.

“We just focus on our wienermorabilia,” said “Lucky Dog” Lauren Trippeer, one of the Wienermobile’s copilots. “So that’s our wiener whistles, postcards, stickers, playing games and taking photos.”

With hot dog whistles in hand, both Boggs and Wilson said that, for the most part, the memorabilia made up for the lack of hot dogs.

For Trippeer and her fellow driver — or “hotdogger” — "All-Beef" Aiden Jaffe, the Bozeman stop was just one on a year-long tour across the “hot dog highways.”

The pair picked up their Wienermobile in Oklahoma in June before driving west through New Mexico and Arizona. They then stopped in Trippeer’s home state of California before making their way north to Montana.

“Montana and the city of Bozeman have been so receptive to the Wienermobile. We get people stopping us all the time,” Trippeer said.

For Trippeer, becoming an Oscar Mayer hotdogger is a lifelong dream fulfilled.

“I grew up with an ornament of the Wienermobile on my Christmas tree every year. In my junior year of college, I was at the Indy 500 with my dad, and I saw the Wienermobile for the first time,” Trippeer said. “It was an excitement that I can't even describe.”

By the time she reached her final semester of undergrad, Trippeer said there was nothing she wanted to do more than drive the Wienermobile.

With job postings opening in November, Jaffe said the position received nearly 6,000 applicants. Following an hour-and-a-half online interview, 26 finalists were selected and flown to the Oscar Mayer headquarters in Chicago. There, the finalists completed a day’s worth of interviews before 12 “lucky dogs” were selected for the position.

Six teams of two hotdoggers drive across the country, handing out wienermorabilia, dropping hot dog puns and sharing Wienermobile facts and history with the communities they pass through.

During her time on the road, Trippeer has been collecting the stories of the people she has met, which she hopes to weave into a cohesive narrative, drawing on her background in film.

“We’ve got to meet so many interesting people, and we’ve heard interesting stories and seen beautiful places in America that otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it to,” Trippeer said.

Before last month, Jaffe, a New Jersey native, said he had never been out West.

“Seeing this whole part of the country has just blown my mind,” Jaffe said. “We’ve learned a lot, and there’s a sense of growth that happens when you're on your own for the most part, always moving around.”

With a degree in communications, Jaffe said his experience interacting with communities across the country aligns with the work he hopes to do once the stint ends next June. Additionally, the transient nature of the job has made him comfortable with the unknown.

Jaffee and Trippeer tour the “Wild Weenie West” until December, before being assigned new partners and a new region.

The next stop on the pair’s tour is Boise, Idaho.