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...when we had to head home. We drove from Sedona to Phoenix just a week ago but not before we finished seeing some of the sights in Sedona.
Lucille Ball had a vacation home in Sedona, very high on a hill top just down the street from where we stayed in Sedona. Lucille is long gone but her daughter apparently still comes to Sedona on occasion and she has installed a mannequin of Lucille on one of the porches. So if you peak thru the trees, you can see her waving.
Of course, we had to check out the Olde UFO Store where the lady who owns the store swears the Martian behind the glass was one of the originals from Roswell, New Mexico. The Roswell UFO Incident involves the recovery of materials near Roswell in July 1947. This incident has become the subject of intense speculation, rumor, and questioning. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States military maintains that what was actually recovered was debris from an experimental high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to a classified program named "Mogul." Many UFO proponents maintain that a
crashed alien craft and bodies were recovered, and that the military engaged in a cover-up. The incident has turned into a widely known pop culture phenomenon, making Roswell synonymous with UFOs. It ranks as one of the most publicized and controversial UFO incidents ever.
If you remember from earlier blogs, Gail had taken a real interest in the Hopi Indians. Along the way we had purchased some Piki and Hopi Hummus and we finally got a chance to try them. Corn is the central food of daily life for the Hopi Indians and piki - paper thin bread made from corn and ash--is the dominant food at ceremonies. Corn relies on the farmer to survive, and the Hopi relies on the corn - all life is designed to be interrelated. Piki (or piki bread) is a thin dry rolled bread made by the Hopi out of corn meal, obtaining its dark grayish-blue color and unique flavor due to the use of blue corn and culinary ash. The light, thin sheets are dry to the point of brittleness, melt in the mouth, and have a delicate corn flavor.
Blue corn, a staple grain of the Hopi, is first reduced
to a fine powder rocks. It is then mixed with water, and burnt ashes of native bushes or juniper trees for purposes of "nixtamalization"--nutritional modification of corn by means of lime or other alkali. The thin batter is then smeared by hand over a large flat baking stone that has been heated over a fire and coated with oil made from pounded squash, watermelon, or sunflower seeds. The bread bakes almost instantaneously and is peeled from the rock in sheets so thin they are translucent. Several sheets of the bread are often rolled up loosely into flattened scrolls. Piki takes several days to make from scratch. Piki is prepared by women in various phases of courtship and marriage ritual. It is eaten by the couple on the morning of the marriage ceremony but we ate it on the eve of leaving Arizona. Of course, the young Hopi man we met in Tuba City had never heard of hummus or garbanzo beans. The "Hopi hummus" had been made by a British chef using a pinto bean that the Hopi do cultivate so I guess he felt it was OK to call it Hopi hummus. Of course, we might want to try
some of the real Hopi foods and you can too. [url=http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/hopi.html
On Monday, June 1st, we flew back to Detroit. We visited the Frank family in Brighton MI on Tuesday then Wednesday, we hit the road again. We crossed back into Canada at Port Huron and drove to Hamilton where we had lunch with Gail's step-daughter Lauren and grandson Nathan. Of course, Gail could not pass up the Daniel Boone hat somewhere along the road and it suited Nathan to a T.
Later that day, we had supper with Jacob and Barb in Barrie as we celebrated Jacob's 31st birthday.
And then we drove to North Bay as Chris was anxious to show off his new house. Of course, there is no snow there now...but I didn't get a chance to take a new pic. Meg did take us to the North Bay market on Saturday morning. There were a couple of guys playing some random songs but Gail decided she wanted to join them and they were willing. Gail will be learing to play the Hopi flute she bought and we hope to go back to the market soon to make some money.
We didn't
get a chance to blog our trip to the Grand Canyon and hope to be able to share those pics with you in the next few days.
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MARTY
non-member comment
Playing the drums
Oh Gail must bring some music to the 5K walk with her this summer we all want to hear this.....at the before party.....so we can all sing along...hugs Marty