It was a bit further than expected. Here comes a testimonial! Hertz rental, particularly Tami and Megan of the SkyHarbor location, came through well for us. We had reserved a Chevy Suburban, as the only vehicle that would accomodate eight of us with luggage. We were so nervous about getting the car that I called Hertz reservations three times after the initial reservation, confirming the car. At one point we "guaranteed" the Suburban rental as well.

Well, you guessed it... they had the reservation, but no guarantee, and there were some anxious moments after they said there was no Suburban available. Tami, and her manager Megan, got on the phone and called around and wrangled up a Suburban for us, finally, after about an hour of panic about it.

The Suburban was perfect for our crew...

Mom and Dad's luggage had apparently been left outside in the rain by the Amtrak folks in San Antonio -- all of their clothes were soaked. So Judy and I, wide awake, got all their clothes together and drove off to a laundromat. Found one that advertised "free dryers after washing". All we needed was a dryer... but to be legal, I put four quarters into an empty washer and ran it anyway. A semi-literate attendant came up and started yelling at us about how he was going to call the police and have us arrested for doing the load of clothes. I kept telling him about the empty washer, showed him the machine cycling with no clothes in it, and he kept yelling about police -- "I call the poleeeeece, I call the poleeece, it's not for me, man, my boss sez" -- so I gave him $2 and we bundled up the clothes and left before he could change his mind! You know it's a successful trip when you are threatened with arrest in the first 48 hours.

It's theorized that the Sinagua adopted the Anasazi culture's method of above-ground cliff dwellings, seen here.

Montezuma Castle was named erroneously by early white discoverers who assumed it was Aztec in origin. The dwelling shown here was originally a five-story 20-room building.