The desert heat and the world's largest sandwich

So, yesterday, Mom was feeling well enough to venture out for some sightseeing and a bit of a food adventure. (Food adventure, you say? I’ll get to that…) We took a little trek in the convertible, heading northwest towards a conservation area we’d visited before with breathtaking views of endless cacti and desert life from the top of a mountain. Unfortunately, we got a little turned around since we were approaching the area from a different direction and ended up just taking a mini scenic drive minus the intended destination. We decided it’d be wise to try again in the Escape anyway because it’d handle better on the hilly, gravel roads we would have encountered.

Sometimes we kept the top down because, after all, it is fun to feel the wind in our hair and the sun tanning our faces and arms (yes, we know that tanning is bad for us…). After about a half hour, though, we stuck to the closed-top and air conditioning because the thermometer in the car read this:

A quick pause about the heat. I’ll be honest: I’m kinda sick of people talking about how hot it is in Arizona in the summer. When folks in Wisconsin heard I was moving, they immediately seemed to fixate on the high temperatures in the summer. To that I say, yes, it may be in the triple digits for July, August, and part of September. But I will gladly take that over it being 32 degrees or colder in November, December, January, February, March, and even sometimes April. I dislike warming up cars, scraping the ice off my windshield in the pitch black at 4:30 PM (or worse yet, at 8:00 PM after the occasional late night working at school), feeling -20 degree wind chills whipping across my face, and trudging through wet, slushy, dirty snow. It’s a personal preference, I understand—many of my friends say they enjoy winter activities and would miss the change of seasons. I can respect that. If I miss snow in the winter, though, I can drive a few hours north to Flagstaff, one of the skiing attractions in Arizona.

Also, to say Arizona has a “dry heat” is cliché but truly, 95 degrees of dry heat is far more comfortable (almost “crisp” and energizing, actually) than 80 degrees with high humidity. I make the comparison of an oven versus a sauna to help people visualize the difference. The humidity makes such a difference that a 70-degree evening in the fall in Arizona actually feels a little chilly! Like, grab-a-sweatshirt chilly. Strange, I know. Finally, a note about temperatures over 100: Honestly, I don’t feel much of a difference between 105 and 115. They’re both hot, and I just deal with it. It doesn’t stop me from going shopping, going out to check the mail, taking a dip in the pool… Frigid cold winters stop me, though. :-)

Anyway, back to the food adventure. After our little jog north, we turned around to seek out a restaurant that was featured on the Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food program last year: Los Reyes de la Torta (that’s “The Kings of the Mexican Sandwich,” for you non-Spanish speakers). This sandwich, the highlighted entrée on the show, is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It might sound overwhelming—I mean, how many ingredients can you fit in one sandwich—but it was awesome. Check out “El Rey” or “The King”: A baguette-like bun topped with ham, melted mozzarella cheese, pork sirloin, breaded beef, hot dog, chorizo, eggs, lettuce, tomato, onions, and avocado. Now, when I saw the show, I thought, “Oh my, heart attack on a bun.” But we had to try it…and it was phenomenal. Nothing I would get more than once every six months or so, mind you—and it’s nothing that I could eat alone. Half a sandwich was enough to last me about 12 hours. But I’m glad I tried it! If you’re interested in seeing the inspiration for our visit, here is the link to the Man vs. Food clip: YouTube - Tackling "El Rey"

El Rey, nestled in the take-out container, oozing with goodness...

Hamming it up a bit as I take my first bite!

Ok, I’m off to make a smoothie and counteract whatever crazy calories I took in last night…

Random Observation #3: While you might not think about it, Wisconsin has tons of culverts, drainage grates, ditches, and other "water control" features in the streets.  Arizona has few to none because it doesn't rain often--and when it does, it's typically a quick 10-minute downpour and then done.  If there is more rain, though, flash flooding is a huge problem.  Mom and I laugh because we'll sometimes drive through the most barren, dusty, waterless areas and see signs about flood warnings.  Yesterday, we drove over a "dam," marked with a giant sign and everything.  That dam that wasn't holding back...well, a damn thing!  (Hee, hee...sorry, I had to.)