Phoenix, Arizona to LAX, California (Day 10 - 7/1/14)

"Hey Luke, eat some of these worms"

After numerous days of American travels, the day of our departure is now upon us. The little anxious butterflies have been kept at bay by the wonders of Arizona but now they erupt in my stomach like big squirming caterpillars - a lifecycle in reverse, a queasy feeling that reflects the strangeness and uncertainty with which I face two weeks in a non-Western country for the first time in my life.

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!

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.

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".

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

Lunch and Dinner

• 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

For Real

Snacks

• 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

Camp Verde to Phoenix, Arizona (Day 9 - 6/1/14)

Williams, a town on old Route 66

Another day in the South-West, another set of ruins. Duck's foot isn't great but she's resolute in her determination to avoid a trip to the doctor's, so we limp our way to Montezuma's Castle - Camp Verde's most well-known attraction. It's an impressive pueblo, but is neither a castle nor connected to the historical Aztec emperor Montezuma. Unlike previous pueblos we've visited, this complex still retains its outer mud casing - looking much more as it would have at the height of its occupation by medieval Native Americans. While observing the pueblo we sight two large hawks wheeling over and over in the sky above us, their high cries echoing against the cliff face as they scout for prey.

Montezuma's Castle

With some time to kill we decide to head back north to the town of Williams. It's a 'historic Route 66' town, with nearly every shop, diner and trading post adorned with the famous double-digits and 1950s nostalgia. I almost buy some leather suspenders but then realise that it's something I could buy at home and is therefore something I don't actually need (NOTE: Three years later, I have still not bought any such item, thereby confirming that I did indeed not need them). The real purpose of our visit is to check out Bearizona, a small cage-free drive-through animal park. It turns out to be a real winner, and as it's a Monday in America (and school is in session) we pretty much have the place to ourselves - with wolves, bison and black bears all strutting their stuff around our car. I'm a self-confessed animal nut, and as we're in the United States I really wanted to see the local wildlife. So I was excited to get up close with active and cage-free beavers, river otters, badgers, ringtail civet-cats, and peccaries. Animals I've never gotten to see before (partially because most people just aren't interested in seeing them, so zoos don't bother with them). It's a real box-ticker of an experience for me.

Williams

Up close and personal with a wolf

Beaver!

A rare white bison

An awesome tarantula

A Bighorn Sheep

A few hours drive back south and we finally hit Phoenix. I can't really say much as we get into the city pretty late. There was a decent amount of traffic, and we decide we need to eat a steak as it's our last night in America and we haven't partaken in a steakhouse yet. Before getting to Phoenix we call into Black Canyon City to see if we can find a feed. A chance encounter in a gas station leads to a hearty recommendation for a Phoenix steakhouse called Logan's Roadhouse. What did I say earlier in these journal entries? Americans are so friendly and helpful! The gas station clerk laughed and asked us to take her with us and even talked the Duck out of buying an ice cream off her so that our appetite for steak wasn't ruined.

Logan's Roadhouse really hits the spot. The steak is easily in my Top 3 Steaks of All Time. Every bite is a juicy taste of bovine heaven.

[Incidentally, the other two best steaks I've ever had were a steak from a surf club in Gosford, and a filet mignon from Osso's in Penrith].

The Roadhouse itself (whilst probably a chain) has a great American atmosphere - complete with loud country music and tin buckets full of unshelled peanuts. The place also makes me feel tough in my Australian-ness - of the four beers they have on tap, only one isn't a light beer!

Steak house yo!

It's almost about 9:30 PM when we finally reach our hotel (a delay partially caused by an impromptu visit to a Barnes and Noble bookstore... it's fitting that we check out a huge bookstore on our honeymoon as the Duck and I first met while working for a bookstore back home in Western Sydney). The desk jockey in the hotel is quite stern and unhelpful, and all they have left is a room with two double beds. Not the most romantic of rooms, but I can't say I expected much from Phoenix.

This chocolate was great

In our visit to America we saw somewhere between 10-15 towns and cities, and the most memorable and real places were often the smallest and least showy. The big cities, whilst famous, are impersonal, crass and tacky in their commercialism - a thousand bright billboards pushing a thousand fast food chains. It's places like Tuba City and the highway trading posts that I'll remember as the 'real' America - places where people were just happy to chat to us, places where we could experience the country's rich history firsthand; see man-made structures three to four times older than Australia's oldest buildings and get lost in the eye of God while connecting with Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Meteor Crater.

A glimpse of the car's odometer reveals that we've traversed over 1000 miles despite remaining mostly in Arizona. I think I really like that, it's like we've only sunk our teeth into this part of America, but we've also chewed it enough to swallow it. I just hope we don't poop it all out in Mexico.

American :)

A peccary, a relative of the pig, also known as the Javelina in Arizona