There's not a lot to see on that drive, although yesterday the wind was buffeting my car so strongly that I had to hold on tightly with two hands almost the whole way there to avoid being blown off the road and into a tumblebush patch. I felt like Granny Apples.
I always enjoy getting close to Phoenix because you start seeing these signs...
OMG! L.A.!
I think because I grew up on the East Coast, I am always taken aback a little to see signs for California cities. I always feel kind of cool when I drive under them. Like, oooo, I could go to L.A. if I wanted... but I won't.
Anyway, I had a great time in Phoenix at my cousin Ardith's house. She cooked up chicken curry salad with a tasty assortment of side dishes, and my other cousin, Mali, brought deviled eggs, which just might have been the most delicious deviled eggs I have ever eaten (and I'm a huge deviled egg fan... sometimes I will just boil one egg to make a single tasty treat for myself, but mine never taste as good as Mali's did... her secret appears to be ranch dressing.)
Here are the chefs...
... my second cousin Mali (in the center), Ardy on the right, and Mali's daughter Laura on the left (who I guess is also my cousin in a more distant sort of way).
Laura's a senior at ASU and plans to teach middle school. She's also a ballroom dancer so of course, I quizzed her to death about it, especially anything related to "Dancing With the Stars."
Here was the rest of the party crew...
... Joanne, Ardy, and Gene (all my mom's cousins... their parents were my grandmother's brother and sister) -- and Gene's wife Gail, who is from Alabama originally and has the world's cutest Southern accent.
Gene is the perfect name for him because he's taken an active role in being our family genealogist. He has gotten in touch with all of my great-grandfather's relatives in Austria, travels there every year, and hosts them at his home in Phoenix annually as well.
They're from a village in the Alps on the border of southern Germany...
... and this is the southernmost town in Germany (Sonthofen) that my great grandfather's family left behind to come to the US in the 1840s.
All I had to ask was... what in the hell were those people thinking? They left that glorious place for central Michigan? Were they crazy? Sorry, Michiganders, but even you have to agree.
The answer: There was a potato famine, and they had no choice. Hmmm... and I thought that only affected the Irish. I guess not.
My opinion? I'd have to seriously be starving to leave that place for the midwestern U.S. Like bloated stomach starving.
5 comments:
Aha! Precisely my views on the midwestern US as well. Although you may replace "a lovely bucolic German town" with "anywhere," in my case.
maybe there was too much yodeling and it drove them out. that town looks, although beautiful, like a place full of yodelers. (is yodeling even a German thing? no matter--why should accuracy effect my comments...)
As Ashwin will attest to - that is exactly how I drive. Do not be ashamed.
You're so wrong. Very wrong.
Lovey,
I can't believe you said that b/c Gene and his wife said the Austrian relatives yodel like crazy (seriously)... and especially after a few beers. That could drive a person to leave. Yes, perhaps you're right.
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