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| "Hey Luke, eat some of these worms" |
Once or twice, Duck and I have sheepishly spoken of our regret at not staying in America longer, masking our nervousness about Mexico. Over the last eight days we've mentioned our destination to several Americans, yielding a variety of replies ranging from mortified to wildly enthusiastic. It's somewhat comforting that the enthusiastic endorsements come from those who have actually been, whereas all the negative ones come from those who haven't, but still - our worries lay within us, largely unspoken but plain on our faces.
In hindsight, I now view the naysayers as xenophobes... people with an acute fear of the unknown that has been fed by the media's portrayal of Mexico as a wild and lawless place. I have no doubt that Mexico contains some of the worst crime-stricken areas in the world, but most of the areas that we travelled to are as geographically and philosophically distant from the cartels as parts of Australia are from Indonesia.
Also in hindsight, I should never have googled the locations we were to visit and then crosschecked them against news stories. Bad idea.
Ho hum!
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| See ya Phoenix! |
The Duck has it in her head that we'll fit in a trip to Phoenix Zoo or the city's botanical gardens before we leave but I have far more realistic (and boring) ideas of what the morning will bring us.
Last night, Duck freaked out when she saw that the date was 7/1/14 - the same day we were to fly out. She thought we had missed our flight. I calmed her down by pointing out that it was past midnight and that we had simply just started the next day.
The morning brings us a rare sleep-in, some overdue showering, and some good old loungin' around.
Driving the rental car back to the airport is a hair-raising experience all on its own, but the Duck acquits herself with aplomb. As we get into our hire car one last time, track 14 of Josh Pyke plays softly and mournfully. It's the only CD we've listened to on our travels, over and over, and yet I will miss it in the days to come.
Most of today consists of sitting around at Phoenix airport, which is much smaller than I expected. We stress a bit when our domestic flight gets delayed - meaning we have less time to connect to our international flight at LAX. We make it just in time, but only after some wrangling with various flight attendants to confirm that our bag has been transferred from plane to plane.
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| View from the plane out of Phoenix |
As we finally settle down on the plane bound for Mexico City, I listen as the language around us transforms into Spanish. I try to pick words out but most people speak too fast and too soft. The plane climbs into the night air and Duck watches, enraptured, through the window as Los Angeles opens up underneath us like a vast blanket of Christmas lights.
She turns to me, her eyes as big as saucers, "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen".
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| Wendy's; one of America's many fast food chains |
Foods we ate in Ahhhhh!merica:
Breakfast
- Biscuits in sausage gravy
- Waffles (strawberry, blueberry, original)
- Bagels
- Bananas
- Whole egges
- Breakfast burrito
- Bacon (crunchier, thinner, oilier)
- Choc-chip and blueberry muffins
- Carls Jr.
- Denny's
- Hogan Restaurant
- Wendy's
- Jack-in-the-Box
- Blue Coffee Pot
- San Diego Pizza
- Mexican food at the Zoo
- Logan's Roadhouse
- Subway
- Cameron Trading Post
- Old Town Mexican restaurant in Sand Diego
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| For Real |
- Bugels
- Lays
- Jalapeno white chocolate
- Mexican stone/chili chocolate
- Cheese spice larvets
- Reese's Pieces
- Code Red
- Root Beer
- Ginger-Cola
- Frybread (lots of it)
- Cheese-chili pistachio nuts
- Peanut-filled cheddar crisps
- Cherry lollipop
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