11/21 The Forlorn Midwest November Weather

Even though it's gray outside, there's something comforting about returning to the Midwest in November. Not to be completely cliche, but there's the reminder of sipping pumpkin lattes and eating chili while curled up under a blanket watching When Harry Met Sally forty times in a row. Now I sure Sam would probably choose another movie, but you get the drift...
Last night was our last night in Monty for awhile. He did right by us and kept us warm and toasty during snowstorms and gusty winds, but oddly enough, he was not tested during a thunderstorm. We'll probably have to wait for April for that. We've decided to store Monty in Michigan for the season at Krenek's RV Superstore (!) in Coloma, Michigan near South Haven. We'll probably be doing some RVin' on the west coast of Michigan, so heads up to all our peeps over there.
It's always strange to come to the end of an adventure like this. I am excited to be with our families for the holidays, but I also wonder when we will have a chance to travel like we did. I want to head back to Arizona to visit Tucson and Canyon de Chelley. I want to go back to New Mexico to see Las Cruces and Carlesbad, and then zip down to Texas to hang out in San Antonio. I want to drink more wine, and hike more red rocks. I want my clothing to dry superfast. I want to eat more green chile, and see more tumbleweeds. I want to play in more dogparks and practice making more diesel noises. But I also want to go home.
We want to thank everyone who made our trip so unique. It's been incredible.
Love,
Sam, Juliette, and Nora Woofington Swett

11/19 Mike Loebl has a Doppelganger

Last night we stayed at the Will Rogers Downs "Racino" KOA near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Without a doubt, that combination of concepts brings multiple levels of confusion, but that's not the main purpose of this post so I'll ignore such words like, "racino" and "Tulsa." 
Anyway, everything was going fine last night until the mere mention of the dreaded "Celebration Roast." Those who know me might know that I love those damn things, but every time I've prepared one, someone breaks down, gets weepy, or just plain has a life crisis...

11/18 Ode to Sam and His Royal Fifth Wheel Drivin' Badarsness

On the road yesterday from Albuquerque to Amarillo, Sam really began to strut his stuff while driving Monty. Let's just say that it has been fairly, uh, gusty, while driving through the Texas Panhandle. Like so breezy that when we stopped for a quick Veggie Delight with Avocado! (tm) at Subway, I couldn't shut my car door without rolling down the window first. I'm pretty sure Sam's gonna come back from this trip looking like he's all 'roided up like Hulk Hogan or something. It's hard work pullin' this rig in the wind.
Also worth mentioning was the smooth move yesterday when Sam manuvered Larry and Monty nonchalantly into a tight diesel spot-- like he was driving a Mini Cooper or something.
I'm sure there will be more to come, and let's keep prayin' that I don't take the wheel!

11/16 How Not to Tow!

Since Sam discovered RVing on Youtube this evening, he's pulled up a couple of videos that have us cracking up.  I thought I would share at least this one (I think it could be us soon). And this one.

11/16 Rollin' to a Close

As Sam sits on the recliner comparing prices on RV sewer hoses (The Viper, for example, is apparently much more money than The Dominator), we realize that our Southwest journey is coming to an end. For the past two days we hung out in Albuquerque doing things like going to the Art Museum, driving up to Sandia Crest (the tram is closed for maintenance, grrrr), and taking Nora to two more dog parks. As much as we would like to head south to Las Cruces, or west to Canyon de Chelley, after seven weeks of being on the road, I think it's time to get our real life back on track. Tomorrow we will be heading out of Albuquerque and heading east. It will take us a few days to get back north, and then we plan on harassing Clare and Dave in Michigan for Thanksgiving, and possibly Larney Otis in Maine (if she allows us!) for Christmas (since we LOVE winter in Maine!)

11/15 Yesterday, Santa Fe... Sing it!

I got a little lazy yesterday and didn't post anything, so I'll try to cover it today.
Yesterday, we did a road trip to Santa Fe since it is only an hour north of Albuquerque. Like a lot of our sight seeing, it was a mix of eating Mexican food, taking Nora to a dog park, and wandering through the city. Now I know Santa Fe is SANTA FE(!) but we didn't do anything too differently there. We ate lunch at a local favorite, The Pantry, and MAN, that was good.  I'm telling you, we get the best food in New Mexico! Super yum. My spinach and tomato enchiladas (with green sauce) were incredible, and Sam dined on a chile rellenos omelet (with red sauce) with hash browns. The reason we keep talking about food is because we keep sitting at the counter at these local places and getting the most delicious food ever! Hands down, these beat the ritzy places we've been to in Chicago. In fact, every time we eat at Monroe's in Albuquerque (uh, we've been there for three meals LOL), we try to convince the owner to open up a place in Chicago.
Anyway, I digress...

After we ate, we took Nora to the Frank Ortiz Dog Park in Santa Fe. Like everything in Santa Fe, there was even art in the dog park! And a rubber tire, too, but hey, who's complaining?
So then we decided to explore Old Town Santa Fe. Now, I don't want to surprise anyone, but Santa Fe is really an artsy city. I just wanted to make that clear. You know, like LOTS of art... Like galleries, murals, artistic clothing, fake doughnuts, I mean, even the parking structure is adobe-style artistic! We both enjoyed wandering around Old Town, but since we weren't in the market to purchase anything, we stopped wandering a bit and visited El Burro Alley Cafe. At that point, it was getting dark, so we decided to head back to Albuquerque. We got on the road just in time for the sunset.
We know we missed a ton of stuff, but we know that we'll be back in good time.

11/13 Mr. Salsa at Applebees

First of all, don't hate on the Applebees. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. Today that flow took us to an Applebees in a strip mall. Rocking. I had a really large beer and some not-so-vegan talapia while Sam chowed down on his burger. Our bartender was a Bears fan who was really excited by their win. That was pretty cool until I found out that apparently the Bear's win came at a very personal loss (i.e. over the Detroit Lions). Sigh.
I soon got over my sadness for the Lions, and finished up my talapia. As we were getting ready to leave, we started talking to the bartender. He started pointing out the regulars to us, and as he nodded across to the senior gentleman drinking White Zinfandel on the other side of the bar.
Mike, the bartender said, "Yeah, that's Mr. Salsa."
I said, "Oh, as in salsa dancing???"
I guess I spoke too soon because just then, I noticed that Mr. Salsa was wearing a chili pepper tie (which turned out to be a stealth cell phone holder). Before Mike could add anything more, Mr. Salsa's ears perked up and he lept up from his side of the bar and power walked over to us. He threw his arm around my shoulders and started explaining how he started making salsa from scratch.
Sam and I listened intently to his overview of salsa making (lot's of peppers!), and before we knew it he had run out to his car to get a jar!
No name, no label. We think his name was Mike, too, but that could be just a lucky guess. Thanks, Mr. Salsa.  Have another White Zin on us!

11/12 Stop Wining!

It's been another day of zooming from place to place, and it's still not over.  We started the day by tiring Woofington out at the dog park. Then we headed on over to a local Albuquerque favorite, the Flying Star Cafe. It's a local cafe that LOOKs "all corporate and stuff" yet, it isn't. We both had really yummy food, and we'll probably go back before we leave. (Sam gives it a check-plus LOL).  After that, I designated Sam as my private wine tour driver.  We got a chance to go a bit north to three very different wineries. We started at Gruet Winery which was conveniently located next to an RV Dealership, amusingly enough for some classy sparkling wine. The classy ladies who served us even let us keep one of wine glasses. After that, we headed north to the desert town of Placitas to try some wine at the very original Anasazi Fields Winery owned by poet, Jim Fish. As was expected, his wines were as creative as his poetry. I have to admit, the Apricot wine was a bit too different for me, but we walked away with a bottle of American Cranberry wine that is simply delicious. I'm sure it will mix well with Mike Loebl's award-winning tofurkey. After checking out the smaller wineries, we classed it up again with tasting at Casa Rondena Winery. The place was packed, and we were lucky enough to be standing next to one of the most personable MLM guys I've ever met. He was in a travel business called WorldVentures, and MAN, was he a talker! I told Sam that if he sold some knives or something tangible, I would have bought all of them from him. Too bad he was just selling membership into a traveling club. He was the kind of dude you just want to have over to a dinner party because he's so fun and outgoing. Too bad, no knives. Tonight, we are headed over to the National Hispanic Cultural Center to see Yjastros: American Flamenco Repertory Company. I'll report about that tomorrow. To see the complete set of pics, go to our SW Trip: Albuquerque page.

11/11 Quick Touring in ABQ

Awesome taco salad at Monroe's

This was when we split up to cover lots of distance:

Sam worked hard on biking the Paseo del Bosque Bike Trail while I headed to the ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden. Since I had taken Nora on a marathon training walk this morning ("Leave it! I said, LEAVE IT!") I decided to let her snooze in the car for a bit. This bit of multi-purposing worked well for us, as I really enjoyed my stroll through the gardens, and Sam zoomed off on his mountain bike. After our separate journeys, we came together for all things good: Yummy Mexican Food and a Dos Equis Amber. We decided that we were going to be a bit smarter today about where we were eating, so we used the power of YELP to find Monroe's.  Yum. Yum. Yum. We sat at the counter and were joined by a couple of characters. Sam had the tamales and I had a taco salad. Oh. Also, Sam seems to have a SLIGHT sopapilla problem.  He LOVES them. Before I could say, "Holy Guacamole!" he had DEVOURED two sopapillas with honey.

After that, we headed to Old Town again to check out some more stores, and we made another great discovery: Nora likes pumpkin ice cream. Wow. We are always learning something new.

11/10 ABQ Rapid Drive

Albuquerque Fun
We headed on over to a new shwanky-danky dog park, North Domingo Baca this morning so our poor, neglected, shelter dog had a chance to romp with some buddies. She, of course, made a lot of new friends, and played "steal-the-half-bitten-off-frisbee" for as long as another dog would chase her.
After that, we decided it was time for a little human fun. We left pooch back at the rig so she could catch  a dog siesta, then we decided it was time to take Larry to Old Town. We decided to take the long way there, down Central Avenue (Route 66), because it passes through several other neighborhoods. We got to see hipster cool Nob Hill, the University Area, as well as the appealing Downtown neighborhood. We also saw Albuquerque's own version of Bus Rapid Transit, with their ABQ Rapid Ride. Don't get us started about why this really isn't BRT (let's just say, there are NO designated bus lanes, and we think you still have to pay on board this puppy). Don't make me nerd out and compare this ABQ nonsense with our ultra-cool BRT in Bogota, Colombia. I'll do it you know....
So anyway, we had a mediocre lunch (I think Sam's chili relleno was good) at a touristy spot in Old Town, and then we headed to the Visitor Center. We started talking to these two awesome volunteers (perhaps from the AARP clan) who filled us in on goings-on in ABQ and the surrounding area. We thanked them, and before Sam knew what hit him, I had dragged him into a jewelry store and spent $80.00.
Whoops.
At least it wasn't an art gallery.

More tomorrow as our journey continues...

11/09 Made it to 'Querque

If you haven't seen the Jeremy Piven movie, The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. then unfortunately, you've missed my little reference above. That's not really a problem because the movie was pretty darn horrible except for some randomly funny stuff that happened when we least expected it.

Uhhh....

Now that I'm thinking about it, that movie had some good stuff...

Like Will Farrell in the Abe Lincoln costume...

And some really bad humor about Pearl Harbor...

Maybe some stuff about paying in unmarked bills...

Maybe I need to review that movie again..

That being said, I think we're going to call it a night. I'm fading fast, and we've got a big day tomorrow of dog park fun.

11/08 Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour

Guest-blogger Sam here. Today we did a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon with Maverick Helicopters. This is something I've been thinking about doing for years, and was one of only three (!) must-have items that I wanted to do on this trip. I took a helicopter tour of downtown Chicago back in the 1980s -- my only previous helicopter experience. None of the other passengers today had been up in a helicopter before. Unlike my Chicago experience, our pilot today did not leave his door open (although I did ask him if I could roll down a window)…

This very cold morning started at 9F but the clear, sunny skies promised a nice day for flying. And the 6.0L PowerStroke fired up on the first try (after about 15 seconds of glowing). Having accidentally left my snow brush and ice scraper in California, I had to send Juliette to the kitchen to get a spatula so I could scrape off the ice-covered windshield. At 8:15 we pulled out of the Williams KOA en route to the Grand Canyon Airport 60 miles away in Tusayan for our 9:30 rollcall. We arrived in plenty of time and grabbed some extra breakfast.

As our names were called, we met our pilot and headed out to the waiting American Eurocopter ECO-Star EC-130. Our fellow passengers included a couple from Michigan and a mother and daughter from New York. After a brief safety and equipment overview we strapped on inflatable yellow PFDs, climbed aboard, and fastened our four-point harnesses. We were seated in a configuration of the pilot's choosing, based on our bodyweights as measured beforehand. Juliette sat in a forward middle seat and I was in the slightly raised aft row on the right. We all wore headsets with mics so we could all hear and be heard at any time.

The pilot fired up the Turbomeca Arriel 2B1 turbine engine and in a moment we lifted off smoothly (video) and headed out from Grand Canyon Airport. We flew 400 feet above the snow-covered treetops of the Kaibab National Forest for a few minutes. The pilot did a bit of narration and answered questions. We approached the 5,000-foot deep Canyon and then, with obvious excitement in his voice, the pilot said "this is going to be cool!" and… it was, indeed. The ground dropped away and we were past the edge of the South Rim. Magic!

A relatively rare full coat of snow covered the highest mesas, and some puffy clouds hung below the Canyon's rims. As the Colorado River came into view, we could see rafters. Yes, that's a year-round activity.

During the rest of the flight, I took pictures and just enjoyed the smooth ride and the amazing view. Juliette and I both agree that this was an awesome way to see and appreciate the Grand Canyon. Words don't do it justice. Watch some in-flight video here to get a sense....

Here's our whole photo album from today.

11/07 Pancakes and Potato Chowder

As Mike Loebl would say, HRHRHRHR!

Well, we were planning on heading out to Flagstaff today, but KOWABUNGA, folks--we've been hit with another winter storm. I really wish Sam loved Christmas decorations, because Monty would look Saah-WEEEET(!) in some festive lights, an inflatable Santa, and a nativity scene out front. It's actually a shame we don't have it because it would sure make me feel better about this whole snowstorm in Arizona thing. Accuweather PROMISES us it's supposed to be clear tomorrow. We'll see. I've been known to seriously want to lay the smack down on Accuweather as I have spent many stormy nights while tent camping in Wisconsin.
Nora loves this crazy snow, and of course, is snoozing on her towel after her third romp of the day. We, on the other hand, got to spend the day doing laundry, eating pancakes, and making potato chowder in the slow cooker. Pretty soon, I'm about to crack open the Sutter Home, and we'll have to call it a party.

11/06 Day Trippin' Out

Before
With the weather still cold and Christmassy in Williams, Sam and I have decided not to dig our big rig out until it clears a bit more. Since everything is about an hour drive from our campsite, we've decided head south to Sedona for the day.
The road to Sedona is absolutely incredible, by the way. The elevation drops quite a bit, so in a one hour time frame, the climate dials back from winter back to fall...
After
We are heading back from Sedona on Route 89, and WOW. I feel like we have taken in a lot today. I actually had low expectations of Sedona because of its overly touristy vibe, but we both ended up liking it. Nora, on the other hand, LOVED it. We spent a good part of the afternoon in Tlaquepaque, a faux village built in colonial Mexican style. It housed restaurants, shops, galleries and more. We went out to lunch then I did a bit of wine tasting (while Sam helped me out by eating the chocolate wafers that were served to us). At this point, Senorita Woofington was hanging out in the car because we really didn't want to be the jerks who brings their bull-in-the-china-shop dog to a plaza filled with GLASS ART STORES. Cough Cough.
After awhile, we began to feel guilty, so I asked the wine saleswoman if dogs were allowed to wander through the plaza. She nodded enthusiastically and said that all of Sedona is extremely dog friendly. We decided to test the waters with this theory, so we went back to get Nora.
Well, normally people like to say hi to her since she looks like a goofus stuffed animal, but I don't think we've ever experienced anything like this. As we walked her from the car to the plaza, she was surrounded by new age-y dog lovers. One woman was waving people over for dog petting, while another came out of her shop to say hi. Pretty soon, I was thinkin' that we could fund our trip this way... After Nora Berner bumped, snuggled, and ate some sticks, we decided to move on to the next area. The same thing happened! In fact, we couldn't round a corner without someone else coming up to get free doggy hugs and kisses. I'm pretty sure she was happy, although she might have snuck in some demands for better dog treats.
Our time in Tlaquepaque ended as I rounded a corner and saw a really amazing mosaic project. I realized that the artist, Trish Metzner-Lynch was right there working on it.  Her stuff is really amazing, and I would highly recommend checking out her website. She says she is powered by wine and potato chips, so she can't be half bad :-)
After we left Tlaquepaque, Sam decided in his head that he wanted to drive the Schnebly Hill Road i.e., the same road that is used for 4X4 jeep tours. Our pictures don't look that crazy, but I swear Larry might never be the same.
Let's just say that Nora and I will both be doning our whiplash collars and gulping down dramamine this evening.

11/06 When Good Imax Goes Bad

Yesterday, after the weather cleared a bit, Sam and I decided to be hip and go to the IMAX show at the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GRAND CANYON VISITORS' CENTER.
Now, I love IMAX. I mean who doesn't? To feel like you are flying/floating/running/driving/jumping/doing drugs... etc. is an amazing experience. I mean, I STILL have fond memories of almost vomiting on the guy in front of me during a showing of To Be an Astronaut at the Detroit Science Center. Anyway, we thought, hey, since we both had a hard time conceptualizing the Grand Canyon, we thought we'd get another perspective. Not to mention, we also had a bit of cabin fever after hanging out in Monty most of the day.
After driving an hour to Tusayan near the Grand Canyon, we realized that the next showing of the film wasn't for another forty minutes. To pass the time, I nearly purchased a "Hug me, I'm a Little Chili!!!" onesie for Harper (Jess and Donnie's little one), and a terrifying rattlesnake mug to cure me of ANY desire to ingest caffeine in the morning. After this brush with shopping doom, we decided to hang out by the burnt popcorn and the Sierra Mist (which I, of course, demanded).
At 5:25 pm, the excitement began to build. Folks were lining up, and in just moments, the doors to the theater would be opened. In a minute, the whoosh of cool theater air greeted us, as we followed the mobs of tour-bused-in-visitors. We sat in our perfect middle-to-back seats, and tuned into the sadly low-resolution previews...
Thirty-five minutes later, we walked out of the show and looked at each other. It took about three and a half minutes for Sam to immediately began mimicking the narrator (think really deep, important-sounding voice): "WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL BECOME OF MAN IN THE SHADOW OF THE GRRRRAHHHND CANYON! ONLY THE PAHWERS OF NATURE HOLD THE TRUTH!!!!"
Oh geez...
First of all, I just found out that this movie was actually released in 1984. Uh, yeah. I didn't make that up. Can I repeat that? 1984. Like George Orwell. To make matters worse, apparently this is the longest running IMAX film ever. At least that's what we were led to believe. Now, we're both pretty sure that it's not because of the content. Yeah, I know, I was pretty much on the edge of my seat during the river scenes, but did we really need the bad Spanish-speaking conquistor in the previous sequence, or the side-boob shot at the beginning?
I really think the guys from National Geographic who filmed it (over 20 years ago!) were like, "Yeah man, awesome ultralight shot man! Yeah, let's run that rowboat down the river just for the f*&^$#k of it... It will look awesome!"
To make matters worse, there is a REALLY COOL Grand Canyon Imax movie narrated by Robert Redford, and with music by DAVE MATTHEWS. Did the NGCGVC offer that movie?
NOPE.

11/05 Snow Patrol!

We woke up this morning to four inches of snow on the ground. Little Miss Snow Speed Demon, Nora Woofington Swett, was in HEAVEN. She tore around the campground looking for lost hikers and the remains of campfires past.  This dog is just plain, FUNNY in the snow. She all of a sudden turns very, well, Swiss! She puts her working dog cap on, and just starts PATROLLING! Running beside us, she makes sure we haven't fallen in a deep snowbank, then she gallops ahead to check out any other dangers that await--you know--like avalanches, hot doggin' telemark skiers, unruly snowshoers, or lost Iditarod participants. She might not let us leave!

11/04 Hunkering Down

Nora and Sam "hunkering" on the couch

Oh Monty, I love you more and more each day... The weather has gotten nasty here. They're expecting a rain/snow mix tonight, and well, just plain yucky weather. After we went to the Grand Canyon, we headed on over to Safeway to pick up a bunch of helpful supplies like guacamole, beer, red wine, pancake mix, and refried beans. Oh yeah! Looks like this is gonna be a fun one!

11/04 Rim Trail from Powell Point to Hopi Point

We're sitting on a rock overlooking the canyon. Unlike other parks on the Colorado Plateau, the Grand Canyon has not blown us away. In all honesty, it's so huge that seems like a painted movie backdrop. Unlike Dead Horse Point State Park, Arches, and even Canyonlands, we can't touch it, we can't even see much of it, and our photographs hardly have any impact. The biggest awareness I have of its VAAHSTNESS is that each gust of wind causes vibrations of sheer terror in my stomach as I try to anchor my ass as firmly as possible to the rock. As I hesitantly sneak a peak at the canyon below, it's only the closeness of the ledges underneath me that hint at the steepness and power that this canyon holds.

11/04 Tofu Skillet?!

OK. Who cares about the view?! We have stopped for breakfast at Bright Angel Lodge, and THEY HAVE TOFU!!! Who knew?!!!!! I can go home to Chicago now and say that I have experienced the best the GC has to offer.

11/03 Back on Track

All empty here except for a few big rigs

After a few days of adjusting to haulin' the big rig, we decided to put in some miles and get this puppy back on track. After all, we were darn sick of California and we were ready to head on out to 'Zona and Grand Canyon Country. Well, we made it. We're here for three nights, and I hope we can "get our sight-seeing on" after lots of quick overnights. We are sittin' at almost 7,000 feet again at the pretty darn cool (literally) Circle Pines KOA.  It think we are some of the last campers here for the season as the expected highs are in the twenties tonight.

It seems like every day we learn something new about Monty. Today realized that we needed to take on fresh water, turn on the water pump, and disconnect the sewer--otherwise, everything will freeze overnight. Supposedly, our internal systems will be fine as long as we keep the furnace on. Apparently we have a ritzy system so everything is all insulated. I hope this is the case, or else we'll find out the hard way that we should have been camping in Miami. 

So this is to Rob, Megan, and Deuce--it's not warm here, and there might be snow on the way. Yep, we've got a fireplace, but we might also be kickin' up our space heater! 

11/02 Back in the Desert!

Who knew that we would love the desert so much? We are in Barstow, California for the night and we are right near the Mojave Desert. Sam, once again, is/was my hero. He is a great driver--even in the windy conditions we had today. That being said, we've decided to do something drastic.

I mean REALLY drastic.

Not like buy a huge RV or something...

We have decided to ignore (cancel) our existing itinerary, and just see where the road takes us. It's different driving Monty and Larry-- to have a set schedule makes things more complicated. When we started this trip, we had only a few places we wanted to go: Moab, Santa Fe, Sedona, and Albuquerque. When we started to plan, it became harder and harder to limit things. All of a sudden, our route changed so we could see both northern and southern Arizona and New Mexico. We wanted to go east and west, to see the White Sands, Carlsbad, Tucson and more. But we are realizing that there's still time for us to return someday. Now, we have reverted back to our original plan. Depending on the wind, we'll see our original locations, but maybe we'll just have to come back later to see even more. We promise to keep you all in the loop.  Save some turkey for Sam!

11/01 Do You Want to Store Our Truck?

So I KNOW that my Chicago friends out there are excited to store a HUGE diesel truck in their parking spot right? Oh, I forgot. It won't fit in YOUR parking spot, either! And did you know there are street regs about parking a pickup on the street in Chicago? Oh yeah, I know you can get a special permit from your alderman, but guess what? Larry is STILL over the weight limit for that special privilege. LOL So maybe We can buy this for the city and then keep Larry in Schaumburg or better yet, I'm thinkin' it will go well in Clare and Dave's driveway.