Across New Skies
Across New Skies captures the raw, funny, and unforgettable stories of Native travelers leaving home soil for the first time. From airports to oceans, each journey is a reflection of identity, memory, and bold first steps.
Across New Skies
Monte Goes to New Zealand
In this episode of Across New Skies, Monte shares the story of his first trip overseas to visit a friend in New Zealand. What starts as a simple journey quickly unfolds into something deeper—facing the fear of flying over the ocean, being welcomed into someone else’s home, and finding unexpected reminders of his own family and upbringing.
Outside of travel, Monte is known for his work in the film world. He’s served as the director of the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, which runs alongside the Phoenix Film Festival. He recently co-produced The Dead Thing, a horror feature that is now streaming on Shudder.
This episode is full of warmth, insight, and moments that might feel familiar to anyone who’s ever searched for pieces of home far from where they started.
Got thoughts or want to share your own story? Reach out!
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Episodes drop on Thursdays.
Skiktash, good day, and welcome back to Across New Skies, the podcast where Native stories take flight. I'm Jessica, your host, and here we are already at episode three. Who could believe it? So far, we've traveled to India, London, Dublin, through the voices of our guests. And today, we're heading somewhere completely new. But really quickly, before we get into the next conversation, if you've been listening closely the last couple episodes, you've probably heard me mention that I have a trip coming up. I haven't formally said anything, so I just want to address that really quickly. My mom and I were planning a trip together. It'll be her second time overseas. It'll be my third time. And this time we're doing it all on our own. You know, no group tours. The itinerary is made by us and we've been trying to figure it out as we go. It's going to be very exciting. And I've been trying to think about the best way to share that journey with all of you. Maybe a special segment, maybe a bonus episode. But honestly, I'm still trying to figure it out. There's a lot of moving parts and right now I'm a one woman band and I'm just trying to get these interviews out to you on time. And if you're not already following on social, now would be a good time to start. With all that said, let's get into today's conversation. Please welcome Monty. Let's go. Welcome, Monty. Hello, how are you doing?
Speaker 01:I am doing great. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 00:Absolutely. Thank you for agreeing to do this. I'm really, really excited. You know, we're getting the legs going for this new podcast. And yeah, thank you for taking time out to talk to me, to the audience.
Speaker 01:I'm excited to be here. As you mentioned before, my name is Monty. Monty Yazzie. I'm a registered member of the St. Carlos Apache tribe. On my mother's side, on my father's side, I am Navajo. I was born and raised here in Arizona, but I'm also from a military family, so I spend a lot of time away from Arizona, even though I call this my home.
Speaker 00:Okay. Do you consider yourself more an urban native or do you live on the reservation?
Speaker 01:I am definitely an urban native. I spent summers with my grandparents or with my grandmother on the Navajo reservation and a couple weekends here and there with my grandfather out in the Bilas, Arizona area. But more in my life, I've always lived in the city and grew up in hard concrete nation.
Speaker 00:There you go. There you go. Now, we're talking about your first time going overseas. What was that destination?
Speaker 01:So my first time overseas was going to New Zealand.
Speaker 00:New Zealand.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Now, was this business pleasure? At what age were you when you
Speaker 01:went? I was a senior in college and I was on my path to college. finishing up my degree and getting, you know, kind of started with my career. And I wanted to go and do something kind of crazy. And I had a friend that lived in New Zealand and they asked me if I wanted to come visit. It wasn't going to be very long. I think I was only going to be there for like four days. But I couldn't turn down the opportunity to go overseas and try to figure it out. And, you know, I am a much more experienced traveler now than I was then. But I remember it being a very... Interesting process of getting prepared to go overseas back in that time. And now it seems like it's so much harder to do anything. And back then it, you know, it felt like it was more free, you know, it was way free, even though it was post 9-11, you know, it was post 9-11. You know, the world had kind of tightened up on its security, but it still felt easier. I travel a lot now and it feels like it's harder to get here and there now than it was back then.
Speaker 00:What year was this specifically? Not to age you,
Speaker 01:but... It's okay. I don't mind being aged. This was like 2006. Okay. 2006, 2007. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 00:Now, previous to being asked by a friend to come and visit, had you had... The itch to travel, to experience new things, or was this something that was, it took a while for you to kind of accept that you wanted to like get, maybe get out of your comfort zone. Like, I just want to know if this was something like that was already on your list and you just had.
Speaker 01:Yeah. You know, I grew up with parents that love to go places and we were a car, a car ride family, car trip family. So we were always going somewhere.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:And I think growing up, my parents always had it as this idea of they love national parks. So we would drive to a national park. And then the next year, we'd do some kind of amusement park or something. But we did that growing up a lot when I was younger. But we really got to see a lot of America on road trips. And I think from doing that, it got me really interested in trying to So I ended up, you know, I have a great story about going to Mexico for the first time and getting in trouble for sneaking back fireworks. And, you know, at my parents, you know, recommendation to like, you know, put these in your sock, put these in your pockets and all of that. So, but, you know, it wasn't so scary to travel back then. I mean, this is, you know. mid-2000s. And it wasn't so scary to travel. I think now, I think twice a little bit about going to Mexico and crossing the border now. That's a little bit more dangerous than it was back then. But yeah, definitely you learn as you go with it. And traveling for me is quite honestly, the greatest joy that you can do in the world. There's so much to see. And I think for tribal community members, people who grow up in these small communities, You know, going out and seeing the world is scary sometimes, but I do think it's so important, especially if you're just visiting another tribe, like just to see how they live.
Speaker 00:Absolutely. I completely agree with you. And I think that one of the reasons that I wanted to start this podcast was because it's not easy for everybody. Nobody knows where to start. And it's kind of difficult. Now, you came from a household that... You traveled at least within the U.S., but how did that experience help you in trying to get to New Zealand? Like, if you think about it, you have to, you know, have a passport, I'm assuming.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:And what was that process like?
Speaker 01:Yeah. So the passports at the time, you know, it's not as easy as it is now. So I remember we had to go to a passport station. You go to this passport facility. I think ours was at a post office. And you go inside there and they take your picture and they take your fingerprints and they do this whole thing. Almost feels like you're getting arrested. Way back then it did. And you sit down and they do like a background check. And I was still in college, so it wasn't really like a huge thing. I wasn't really scared about any of that kind of stuff. But it felt like... It felt like in the movies when you see the guy take a picture, then he turns sideways and does the profile. That's what it kind of felt like. It was a little cold and it wasn't so comforting to be inside there. The passport process was surprisingly pretty simple when I think back on it, because it didn't require a whole lot of steps. And you just walked in, filled out some paperwork and gave your IDs and you had to bring your birth certificate as well too. And you handed it forward and that was kind of it. And I know now it's almost the same thing. Now they do it at like Staples or OfficeMax. You can go into a passport station there. And you just bring two forms of ID. I know that they were accepting tribal IDs for a little bit as well, too. Oh,
Speaker 00:wow.
Speaker 01:But you just bring two forms of ID. They do a quick background check for you right there. And you usually have to wait anywhere between, I don't know, I think it was two weeks to six weeks.
Speaker 00:Okay. Yeah. I was going to ask. So how long did you have to wait? So you knew that you had enough time before your trip to get a passport?
Speaker 01:Yes. Yes. But it was the very last time. probably the last day that I could do it. So you're waiting by the post office. In college, I was a procrastinator to the highest degree. So it wasn't, it's not surprising for anybody who knew me way back then that Monty would wait to the very last minute to do anything because that's what I did for everything. I remember being, you know, people would be prepping for exams in college and I'd be like, they'd be like, when are you going to study? When are you going to study? I'm like, I don't know, probably 11 o'clock the night before the test. That's cramming, Monty. You're not going to get a good grade. I'm like, I'll be fine. I'll be fine.
Speaker 00:It works out. Yeah. It worked out for you.
Speaker 01:Now, let me tell you, though, I do want to be very clear that my procrastination only got better because I failed at many, many, many things that made me realize procrastination is not great. And one of them was because of travel. Oh. One of them was because of travel. I was traveling to Orange County. And I was going for a wedding. And I had to be at this wedding like at 3 o'clock on a Saturday. And I was leaving Arizona at 7 a.m. in the morning. And I was like, I got lots of time. It's only an hour there. I'll be fine. Well, at the time, they said you have to be at the airport two hours before your arrival. Yeah. I was like, I'm not checking any bags. I'm just bringing backpacks, clothes inside it. We'll be fine. We'll walk right through. It'll be okay.
Speaker 00:Okay.
Speaker 01:Oh, it was, I showed up at the very last minute and I didn't get through security and I missed my flight and I had to redo it. And the next flight out was at noon. And of course that flight was delayed until one. I arrived in Orange County at like 3.30 and arrived to the event at five. And I have never seen a woman more mad at me ever in my entire life than that bride for being two hours late. I was the best man.
Speaker 00:Oh, no.
Speaker 01:I wasn't late to the wedding. I was late to like the rehearsal dinner and all that stuff. But like, oh, man, I felt it when I walked inside that room. And after that moment, I was like, OK, never again. I can't do this ever again. Something changed. Yeah, something changed. Yeah, something changed. So now I try really hard to be on time to things. But I still tell people I don't like to spend a lot of time at airports. Yeah. I don't like that. So I think it's because I travel so much now. I travel probably once every three months. By airline. And I don't like to wait at airports. So I have the TSA PreCheck. Oh, okay. TSA PreCheck, which you can purchase. I think it's like 80 bucks and it's good for five years. And whenever you schedule a flight for an airline, they have already done the background check. So you get TSA PreCheck. You get to bypass the normal security line and you don't have to take your shoes off. You don't have to unpack your backpack. You just put it through and you go.
Speaker 00:Walk on through.
Speaker 01:Yeah. And you can... Decreased the time that it spends in an airport by a lot of time.
Speaker 00:Taking off your shoes, taking off your belt.
Speaker 01:So as I've gotten more busy, I think I'm going back to that. idea of like, oh, I can procrastinate a little bit more, but I'm trying really hard not to.
Speaker 00:It's going to
Speaker 01:bite you. Yeah, it's going to bite me. It's going to catch up to me. I know it.
Speaker 00:Now, going back to this first trip, okay, so you are now a person who kind of is annoyed with sitting in an airport waiting for your flight to take off. Take us back to this first trip. How were you feeling? Were you excited? Could you sleep the night before? What was it like in your life at that moment?
Speaker 01:Yeah, I overpacked. I remember thinking to myself, I'm overpacking. I'm only going to be here for like a few days. But I felt like I had 10 outfits ready to go. And I was so excited to go because I'd never gone. And my friend had talked about it so much over the course of college. And this was kind of she was going back to college at that time. And I was so excited to go out there and visit and have a fun time. I was so excited. I remember staying up really late. I had to be at the airport super early. My flight left at like, I don't know, 6 a.m., 7 a.m. in the morning. So I had to be at the airport at like 3 a.m. And I remember I asked my mom to come and pick me up and she picked me up at my college or I went to her house and I stayed at her house and she drove me the next morning to the airport. And I got to the airport at like 3.30 in the morning. And I was so excited to like get prepared and go through security, all these things. And you realize pretty quickly that when you fly internationally, it's a little different. Like you have to do a little bit more steps. You have to be a little bit more prepared. You have to show up a little bit earlier because they have to go through all those little pieces, you know, going through customs and being prepared for all those things when you arrive over there. And the pre-pieces that go into it as well too are just, it's a lot.
Speaker 00:So did that jar you at all? Did that get you nervous because you're like, oh, I'm just going to go get on a flight. I know what I'm doing. And then, uh-oh, I've got these other steps that I got to do. What was that feeling
Speaker 01:like? Yeah, it was so confusing. Because you're on your own now. Yeah, it was so confusing. At this time, I travel a few times, short distances to Vegas, to San Diego by airfare. But I'd never gone anywhere this far before. And when you start looking at that kind of travel, there was no directs. that were there. So these, I think we went to Hawaii first. We stayed in Hawaii for a couple hours and I had to change planes. So I changed planes and had to go from Hawaii to New Zealand after that. And I remember talking to somebody who said, oh yeah, sometimes you fly here, then you fly to Japan, then you go to New Zealand. I was like, that seems like a long ways. Like I don't, and then you get this idea of like, oh my goodness, like the maps don't do it justice. Like when you look at like a globe or you look at a map, you realize, oh, That little distance of blue there is actually like an entire state of the United States. It's the entire United States to get across that big thing. It's just water. And then that's what freaked me out. That's what freaked me out when I started to think about I'm going to be over water for a long time. And I don't think I'm a strong swimmer.
Speaker 00:Oh my goodness. I can swim. So you're kind of already thinking like, what if something happens?
Speaker 01:We're going down. That's like a thing. We're going down and I'm going to have to swim back to California. And I don't know if I can make it. I'm not a really strong swimmer.
Speaker 00:But I love that you knew that you were going to survive the crash
Speaker 01:landing. Yeah, I was going to survive. You knew you were going to survive that. It's the drowning that's going to take you out. It's the drowning. I totally survived the crash. That would be my fate. I'd have to swim and it'd be the worst experience ever. And now when you look at TikToks, I love getting lost in travel TikToks now. But my favorite ones are the ones where they show like, you think a cruise line is awesome until you go out at nighttime. And then you look out and you're like, it's dark.
Speaker 00:Black.
Speaker 01:It's just black. There's nothing out there. And I'm like, I don't know how I'd feel about that. I'd feel like I'm losing my mind. Because not only is it black everywhere you look at nighttime, but then you get the scarier part that- It's way deeper. It's way, way deeper than you think that you could ever imagine. And then I just started thinking about sharks and octopus and all these things. And I'm like, oh, I don't know if I can, I don't, I just probably give up. I just give up and be like, I'm meant to go back to creator now. I'm just going to cross, I'm just going to slowly. You're like, how does
Speaker 00:one
Speaker 01:befriend a shark? I don't know. How do I ride a shark back to California? I'm sure this can happen. In Pinocchio, he goes inside the whale. Maybe I can go inside the whale and get back. Maybe, I don't know. Mermaids. That's what I started thinking too, because I like, you know, I often tell people like, you know, when I grew up in the church. So in the church, they always used to say, you know, when you die and you go to heaven, right? All your answers or your questions to everything in life will be answered, right?
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:And I used to always think about that. I'm like, oh man, what would I ask? What am I going to ask? What do I want to know? And it's never like, what's the meaning of life? Or like, you know, why did this happen to me when I was this age? Right. It's never that. It's always like, my first thing is show me aliens. And then the second thing is like, I want to know Bigfoot. Like show me Bigfoot. I know he's out there.
Speaker 00:There
Speaker 01:you go. And then the third thing would be, show me like what's at the bottom of the ocean. Oh
Speaker 00:man. I
Speaker 01:want to see it. Like, that'd be crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 00:So.
Speaker 01:Yeah. So, yeah, that was the part that was the scariest for me was realizing, oh, I'm going to have to be over water for a long, long time. And you realize, oh, I'm over water for longer than I'm over land. Yeah. While I'm on this trip. And then you realize, oh, like New Zealand isn't that big. Right. It's not like compared to other land masses. It's not big.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:So it is like really just an island.
Speaker 00:So I use before, like, cause I've been out of the country quite a few times, but when you look at a map and it's interesting, cause you brought this up and you think about islands, like take Hawaii, you know, New Zealand, exactly. Like. I used to think is how they're so small on a map. They're so small. How on earth do they even have room for an airport? And that was, I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's what I would think when I would see a map of like, what if they don't do it right and we just land in the ocean? But tiny islands have... They have the means to land, take off and everything like that. And I think that was weirdly, strangely mind boggling to me.
Speaker 01:Well, yeah. And once you once you get there as well, too, there's only like, you know, you can do a lot of research, but you only have like these. Well, at least I do. Maybe I have a wild imagination, but you have these preconceived ideas of like what the area look like. And I'm a movie guy. Right. I love movies. So growing up, the Lord of the Rings were a big thing. And all of the movies were produced and shot in New
Speaker 00:Zealand. Right. Yes.
Speaker 01:And I remember thinking, I'm like, oh man, like it's going to look like this and it's going to look like that. And In my head, I had to actually tell myself, I'm like, are you ridiculous? You're talking about a fantasy book with special effects. And I'm like, where's the giant mountain with the eye on top of it?
Speaker 00:You're like, did I bring my cloak?
Speaker 01:Did I bring my cloak? Do I have enough bread? I'm going to have to walk a long ways. I don't have hobbit feet. How am I going to get there? That's hilarious. But let me tell you, New Zealand is quite honestly one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. They have four different exotic places. They have a jungle, they have a desert, they have a mountainous region. Then they got a beach city and it's just beautiful. And the culture is just so rich. The Maori people that are out there, indigenous people in that community, proud. Their history, very similar to what Native Americans, American Indians had to go through as well too, the genocide and the injustice and all those pieces. And even though I didn't actively look for that, it is funny being connected to indigenous people that no matter what, somebody will say something. I remember being in the airport, walking around the airport and an indigenous person from New Zealand walked up to me and they're like, hey, where are you from, bruh? Where are you from, right? And I was like, oh, like, oh.
Speaker 00:This
Speaker 01:was immediately while you- I was only there for maybe 20 minutes. And somebody came up and asked me. And they're like, you from America? You from America? I'm like, yeah. Yeah, I'm from America. I said, he goes, where are you from? And he had all these questions. And I was like, it was so weird. Like, I was only there for 20 minutes. And it was like, I always tell people when I'm in some place, and it's going to be offensive, but oh, well. I used to tell people, if I'm in a public place, I'll go- I can smell my people. They're here somewhere, right? I know they're somewhere, right? And I just make that joke because I'm like, we always find each other.
Speaker 00:We do. I know this is a little bit unrelated, but this happened in the States. This was my first time going to New York City. I was staying with an old college professor. I was staying at her apartment in New York City. While she was on vacation, I was going to go and just house sit for her. And the Yeah. I was like, are you Native? He's like, I'm Navajo. I'm like, I'm from Arizona. He's like, I'm from Arizona too. And I was like, I've been here for like 0.5 seconds and already I found my people. And he lived in that building. It was really interesting. I mean, we're everywhere.
Speaker 01:Yeah, definitely. And I felt that everywhere I've gone, I think. Everywhere I've gone. Maybe it's because, you know, I think maybe it's because Indigenous people look so unlike other cultures, right? You might look like I've told this before. We are like, oh, maybe some look a little Asian, right? Or maybe some look a little Mexican or maybe some look a little bit like these different populations. But there's something so unique about native skin, native voice, all those pieces. I just think that it just people can identify it. They're like, oh, you're we know you're not from here. Right. But where are you from? Right. And and that that comment I get a lot, which I never take it offensively. People come up to me. Hey, where where where? And it almost was like they want to say, what are you? Right. But yeah, I just like I'm like, I'm OK with it because it gives me an opportunity to share a little bit about, you know, where I'm from. And I'll never forget when I was in the airport in New Zealand that the the person that came up to me and talked to me and asked me where I was from said, he was so engaged. He was like, he was so excited to learn about stuff. And I remember asking him, I'm like, well, tell me a little bit about here. This random encounter ended up being like almost probably 45 minutes. I remember going to my, to the carousel where my, my luggage was at. My luggage was the only one still on there. Cause I talked to this guy for so long. Wow. And like thinking about that as well too, where I'm like, I wasn't even nervous. Like I should have been nervous that my luggage would have been gone. Like, but I wasn't, I was just so excited that I, met someone who was like me right like that's the connection instantly yeah so it was it was really like a very like a very interesting first few minutes in a new country to have that interaction and have that connection and then like really be introduced because he of course like was local and he was like oh well you gotta where are you staying at you gotta go here and you gotta go here and you gotta go here and you gotta go here and he had all these recommendations before I even saw my friend who is from there and she had her own places that she wanted to show me and stuff. So it was like, It was great. And I remember writing it down and telling him, okay, like, yeah, let's, I'm going to go to all these places. And then like, you know, didn't make many of them, but I made one of them. And the place that he recommended me for food was amazing.
Speaker 00:Wow.
Speaker 01:I'll never forget the food. I was like, that's the best place I've been for food anywhere. Do
Speaker 00:you know, do you know what he ate? Do you know what
Speaker 01:it was called? Well, it was a, it was local food that they had there. And it was mostly like a fish based, fish based, um, local catches that they had that day, um, Made over rice, made over veggies as well too. Very authentic to the land, to the community. And it was this hole in the wall kind of place. I didn't even know really where to find it until I walked up to somebody. I said, hey, this local told me about this place where they do fresh catch. And the guy said, oh, right there. That's the place you're talking about, right there. And I walked in and me and my friend went there and she had never been there before. And she... Has lived in New Zealand now for the last like maybe 15 years. She said that place is still operated.
Speaker 00:Wow.
Speaker 01:By the same people in that area. It's pretty crazy. That's
Speaker 00:really
Speaker 01:cool. And it's pretty nuts.
Speaker 00:Let's kind of go back to what you were talking about with the water just being so massive. Yeah. Did you have a window or aisle seat? Like what did you see the sky from up there and what did you think happened? Did your anxiety increase or were you calm or how was that?
Speaker 01:So there is at one point in time, you see clouds when you're close to land. And then when you're over top of the ocean on this trip that I was on, just see blue and it's just ocean. It's just water, no matter where you look. I had an aisle seat. I'm sorry, I had a window seat. So I had looking right out over the wing. And it's so funny you say that too, because I remember- talking to somebody i worked at the casino at a casino at the time um and You know, you talk to people. I remember telling everybody I was going and there was this older guy that worked there and he had traveled a lot. He worked at the casino because he just needed the job, but all he did was travel. This was his whole career was traveling. And he told me, I'll never forget. He told me, he goes, you want to sit right here because the likelihood that there is a crash, this is where you're going to survive. Statistics say that you're going to survive if you're close to the wing. And I remember thinking, I'm like, I don't know if that's true or not, but like, I'm going to do it because he's obviously more experienced than I am. But I remember looking for like this spot and the airline I went on I remember he told me like he said numbers or something like that and there's this number that I had in mind he goes you want to be between like 25 and 30 or something like that on the seating arrangement and I was like It's letters. It's not numbers. I don't know. I'm not good at this. I was all counting it. So I remember sitting pretty close and just being like, oh, I guess this is the safest spot. But yeah, after a certain time when you're in the air, it just turns to blue. Yeah. And no matter where you look, you can't see an edge. It's just blue forever. Clouds maybe here and there. But, you know, I left early in the morning. But there is that time change as well, too. Right. Which was so confusing.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:It was so weird to like arrive and then be like, oh, it's not the same day anymore. This is weird. Like it was like, so. You're
Speaker 00:going into the past. You're going into
Speaker 01:the future. It was like you're going into the future. It's crazy. Yeah. I remember like thinking to myself, this is wild. I don't know how this, I don't know how this works. And then like, you know. We didn't have fancy at the time. No one had fancy smartphone that would do all this stuff for you. I remember I was I've always been a watch guy. I've always been like a mechanical watch or digital watch guy. And I remember looking at my watch and I had this really nice watch that my dad gave me that had world time on it. So you can set time zones. So I remember clicking the little button and finding the time zone. If I didn't have that, I don't know what I would have done. You
Speaker 00:would have been so confused.
Speaker 01:I would have been so confused. And I remember looking at it when it finally told me what time zone I was in. I was like, that can't be right. That can't be right. You're like, is it Monday though? Is it
Speaker 00:Tuesday?
Speaker 01:It was so confusing. And then you get off and it's just like, you know, it does feel like you've been pulled from the pages of one book and then put in pages of another book.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Well, let's talk about that. I mean, growing up in... In Arizona, you have this experience of traveling throughout the United States. And then as soon as you get there, it seems like instantly you made a connection not only to the land but the people. And then what was it like afterwards? Because if you ask me, you started off– that's an amazing start to an amazing trip visiting your friend. How does it get better than that?
Speaker 01:Yeah. You know, when I met up with my friend, she– She picked me up. Her and her family picked me up and we started driving. And I remember the car that she was in was like older, older than what I expected. I had thought that it was going to be a newer vehicle, but it was definitely older family vehicle. And it felt like it was from like the early 90s. And it was really loud. It was really loud. And it reminded me of my grandma's pickup truck. That's what it reminded me of. And my grandma used to have this pickup truck that used to have a column shifter. It's a five speed. And the five speed wasn't on your side. It was on the column. So you had to like clutch it. And when you push the clutch in, you had to stomp on it. Like there was no like soft clutch. You had to like, you had to have a really strong left leg. So you had to work that left leg out to get that clutch in. That's how hard it was. And I remember this car sounded just like that, like it was barely being held together or had run on res roads for years, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was barely hanging on. And the roads out there were very nice. Everything was very, very nice. It wasn't like it was bad, but she lived on the outskirts of town on like a little farm. Oh, okay. Like after a certain time, you're like, oh, like that was quick. We were in the city. Now we're not in the city anymore. Now we're outside of the city. And it didn't feel like how we are in Arizona, right? We're like, from wherever you're at, it's going to take you a little bit to get away from the city, right? Especially when you grow up in a city, but not there. It was like, oh, city's here. Oh, now it's like kind of not a city. It's like just a little town. And then, oh, kind of a city again. And now it's the town again. And then next thing you know, we're in this farming area. And her farm had all kinds of animals, like sheep and
Speaker 00:all
Speaker 01:kinds of stuff out there. And it was just so weird to like have that because that's how my grandma kind of grew up, you know, in Navajo reservation. She lived out on the outskirts for a little bit in the Hogan and had, you know, sheep and we'd herd sheep and do all that kind of stuff. So getting to that. Getting to my friend's house, a little farm that they had, it just felt like going to my grandma's house.
Speaker 00:That's so awesome.
Speaker 01:Yeah, it's so crazy. Except for the weather was really different because it was really windy. It was really, really windy and it was really humid and wet. It was really humid and wet. Navajo Reservation doesn't get that way. But it was very strange to feel like, oh, this is a farm, but it feels like a beach. Oh. Like you're near the beach. And we were near the beach, but it was like, you've really felt it. You're like, it's a farm, but it's like the beach. And I don't know why you don't feel like, I guess at the time I didn't think that a farm could be a beach. Right. I don't know. Yeah. So, but that was a really interesting experience. And then from there, you know, it was just like kind of sightseeing. Again, I was only there for a short period of time and it kind of disappeared real fast. And when you start to talk about things like jet lag, right? Real thing. Right.
Speaker 00:Because did you sleep on the
Speaker 01:plane? it felt very familiar to how I grew up. It didn't seem so, I don't know what I was expecting. I guess maybe because you're going to someplace new, you think, oh, everybody's going to be speaking a different language or like signs are going to look different or the toilets are going to be funny or something. And that is the case in some other cultures, but not here. Everything was very familiar. And yeah, it was, it's pretty, pretty, pretty wild experience to like have that like happen. And it's so funny. And I, I, It's so many years away from me now in terms of my memory. I still remember really strong things like smells and the feeling of sand, how cold the water was in the area that we're in, just how different the beaches kind of looked and how beautiful they were, the way the weather patterns move through because you're on an island. It doesn't feel like how it is here in Arizona anymore. where you can almost feel the weather coming, right? On this little island, it was like, oh, the weather's here and it's gone. Weather's here and it's gone. And just to feel all those things. And then the crazy part too is when you look at the stars, you get a different star pattern.
Speaker 00:That's true.
Speaker 01:So I remember feeling like that was really weird too. I'm like, oh, this sky doesn't look the same. That was wild to me. I remember thinking, I'm like, oh, it's like, Some, it's not the same. It's a little different. Yeah. And so it's so funny. And I even wonder that too, as well, too. I remember I've gone back and looked at that. I'm like, is that different? Like it is different. You're in a different location.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:On the other side of the equator. Right.
Speaker 00:Right.
Speaker 01:So it's a different star pattern that you're going to have in that area, but I wasn't ready for it. It was very strange. Yeah.
Speaker 00:Well, they also say, and I don't know if this is true, but like when you run running water down a sink or a toilet, you flush a toilet, it spins in the opposite direction than it does up here.
Speaker 01:Is that true? I never took notice of it. It wasn't until I came back and I started to think. Somebody asked me that when I came back.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:And I don't remember. I was like. Is that true? I
Speaker 00:don't know
Speaker 01:if it's true. Is that true? I don't know. And it is funny. I've never asked anybody. I should ask my friend. She still lives there.
Speaker 00:Well, you know what's funny? I couldn't tell you the direction it spins now. I don't know.
Speaker 01:You're right. We're going to take a pause in the podcast
Speaker 00:right now to go flush the toilet. Okay. We'll be back. Cue the music. Cue the music. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 01:I've always wanted to go back. It's actually been a goal for within the next couple years. It's my goal to go back, take my family, take everybody back there. And by that time, my son will be in his later teens as well too. So my kids are at the ripe age for traveling. So we try to do a lot of traveling now with them, but that's one of the ones I'd love to go back to. I'd love to go back to New Zealand. I adore Canada. I've been to a few places in Canada. I'd love to take them there. But for New Zealand, it's definitely a place where I know it would be different because I'm seeing it through different eyes now. Right. And I think that's what age does to you. You start to see things differently. And in my early 20s, no relationship, girlfriend, but nothing serious. You're just all about the experience and you're feeling all of the things on a very superficial wavelength. That's how I describe it. Now that I'm older, I feel travel on an internal wavelength where I'm looking for the beauty and I'm looking for the connections of people and I'm looking for all of those deep emotional things. When I was in my 20s, it was all sensation. It was like, I want to go in the water and I want to go dirt bike riding and I want to go, you know, it was all the big things. Now it feels like, I don't know, maybe this is going to make me sound really old, is the fact that you just, I just feel like you get a lot if you just sit down and watch the world for a little bit. And sometimes I like to do that now and travel. I'll go find a small restaurant somewhere, get something good to eat and just sit by myself for a little bit. Just watch the world kind of pass and watch people and see connections. And, you know, the world is doing everything it can to divide us on a daily basis. We are constantly being told how different we are by everyone. It doesn't take a whole lot to go out into the world and just watch how similar we all are, how we need certain things. We need connection. We need, you know, people need to be acknowledged, right? There is so much joy you get from somebody when they walk by you and you just see them. You see it when they walk by each other. If someone stops and they just look at you and they give you a little hand wave or they give you an acknowledgement that you exist and that you're in the world with them, it changes them. And you can see that when you watch the world a little bit. And I feel like in my 20s in New Zealand, I look back on that experience and I'm like, oh, like I did a lot of cool things and I did a lot of really fun things in that time, but I don't feel it like I do now. I don't feel the experience like I do now. It was a great experience, but I don't feel those deep things that I know I would feel now. And I think that's age. I think that's experience as well too. Yeah, being more
Speaker 00:present.
Speaker 01:Just being more present. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And even though in New Zealand you have this rich culture and you have a lot of people that identify with the same kind of experience that you do, the indigenous people there, now I know exactly what I would do. I would go to, I would learn more about the history. I would spend more time trying to find things that are different and unique experiences. I remember one of the first things I did, I was excited because there was like a restaurant that I recognized Over there. I was like, oh, we got to go there. It's going to be different. I'm like, why would I look for a McDonald's now anywhere? You know, like even though like you think to yourself like, oh, all the McDonald's are different. Right. But like in that moment, I'm like, I would never go to a McDonald's now.
Speaker 00:You're just eating like I feel like it's a waste of a meal, like a waste of an opportunity. Like I want to be hungry all the time when I'm traveling. I want to be hungry. I get small portions of everything so that I can try everything.
Speaker 01:Exactly. That's exactly it. I think that's what I would do now. I remember the family that we went and visited, my friend's family, they did a home-cooked meal one night with food sourced from their farm.
Speaker 00:Wow.
Speaker 01:And I remember it was like family dinner. I grew up with a family dinner of people. My mom and my dad both had pretty traumatic experiences growing up. My dad was a boarding school kid. He was put in boarding school pretty early and did boarding school his entire life. And when he was done, he tried to get away from the community as quickly as possible. My mom grew up in a community where alcoholism was the trauma that invaded her life. So when the opportunity came for her to leave, she joined the military and got into the Air Force and tried to get away. And when I got to college, I wanted to go into the military. And it was my parents who stopped me and said, hey, we did the military because we didn't have a choice. We felt like this was the only way that we could get away from our situation. We don't want that for you. That's why we did it was so that you didn't have to do that. So, you know, I look at those experiences and I think to myself, like, that's the idea, you know, of trying to grow and get better and be a little different. And so for my parents, you know, it was a big thing for them when we were older kids to have family dinner, to like sit around a table, Yeah. Share your day. And my mom was so big on like, she'd get these, um, and I, maybe it was her military upbringing, but she'd get those trays that had the little sections. Right. And we'd always have stuff in the sections. And I'd look at that and I'm like, and now this is where my, where I don't like my food to touch. Yeah. That's where that came from is from that. But that was my mom's, my mom's idea. So I, I had this family dinner again and go back to like how you're in a different country, but things still feel familiar. Right. So, Yeah. Yeah. And it was something that I really look back on and I appreciate that. And then when I went to New Zealand and I was walking around over there and now, you know, four years in the college, you don't have family dinners like you used to. You're on your own. You're trying to be your own individual to go over there, meet someone that was interested in you and was just like you. Right. And then get in the car that felt like your grandma's car and go to a farm that felt like your grandma's community and then have a family dinner that felt like your mom and dad's dinner. It was so strange. Everything felt familiar, but different. And even though the food that we got put in front of us wasn't what my mom would do, it was still very similar to what we did. And yeah, those are the things. And I look back on that and I'm like, it was so like, it was a whole different country, but everything felt the same kind of.
Speaker 00:Yeah, and it's really interesting because you work more or less as a seasoned traveler. You know about these new experiences. And I feel like there are people out there who are so afraid to travel. And that experience that you just shared with us would be like a dream to them, you know? Because I couldn't imagine anything going better than that.
Speaker 01:Yeah, yeah. It quite literally was one of the best experiences in terms of like– Feeling like a place belongs to you a little bit. It felt like I belonged there. It was so strange to have that feeling. Because I've been other places where the experience has been terrible. And you realize, oh, the reason why it was so special is because of those little things.
Speaker 00:Right.
Speaker 01:And one of my worst travel experiences ever was to Mexico City. Going to Mexico City, not because of the city, but because everything leading up to that moment went bad. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. But your brain kind of goes overboard because you just don't feel those pieces, right? You don't feel.
Speaker 00:Was this after the New Zealand trip?
Speaker 01:Yeah. This was after, maybe 10 years afterwards.
Speaker 00:So because that trip went so well, did you expect this one to Mexico to just go as well?
Speaker 01:I thought every trip was going to be like that.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:And for a while they were. I remember going to Hawaii, which isn't another country, but a whole different culture, right? A whole different culture. And going to Hawaii and having a very similar experience as well too. I remember being at the Polynesian Cultural Center. And a Polynesian man came up to me and we had the best interaction because he comes up to me. He goes, hey, man, where are you? He goes, hey, bro, where are you from? And I said, from Arizona. And he goes, oh, mainland. I said, yeah. And he goes, what are you? What are you? I said, I'm Native American. And he goes, yeah, yeah. But what are you? I said, I'm Apache in Navajo. And he goes, but where are you? What are you? And I said, like Native American, like American Indian. Yeah. And he goes, what are you? He just kept asking. It just didn't translate. It didn't translate for him. And even though I was using, you know, Navajo and Apache and all these things, like it didn't translate to him. Right. And it wasn't until later that somebody told me, oh, he wasn't asking about that. He was asking like for you to give you like your family, your family breakdown. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. It was so like different culturally. Like that wasn't what he was asking. But yeah, but I remember, yeah, and having that experience where like, even though it was a mixed up communication between the two of us, we still like felt like bros. It was weird. I was also really heavy at the time. So I think everybody thought like I was like, you know, because Polynesian people, Pacific Islander people in the area are often a little bit bigger. And I kind of fit in with them because I was a little bigger as well too. And so everybody was like, oh, he's like one of us. He's a bro like us. So it was kind of interesting. But yeah, that was a wild experience as well too. And still better than what I got in Mexico City. But even in Mexico City, the worst experience that I had traveling, once I got comfortable, it was really beautiful. The city's giant, giant, giant city. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 00:Well, let's stick with that really quickly because I'm curious. You had kind of a more difficult transition in Mexico City, but then you just went on to say that it ended up being a really great trip. Now, was it... did things start going your way that kind of pulled you into a more positive trip or was it something that you had to do mentally that was just like, okay, we're starting over from now on. It's going to be, I'm going to make the most of it. It's going to be a great trip. Like how did that, what changed?
Speaker 01:I had to, I had to let go of my anxiety and that I, that, that idea of being safe. I had to feel safe. And when you show up to a, to the, when I showed up, no one spoke what I, the language I spoke. And I wasn't prepared for that. I remember being told, oh, there are people who will speak your language. I remember somebody told me that. And just assuming that that would be the case, right? Dumb American going to another country thinking everybody's going to speak English. And that wasn't the case. And when I started to talk with people, they were like, oh, we have no idea what you're saying. And they would just talk back to me in Spanish language. And I would just be like, I have no idea what's going on. I knew little words here and there. And then no one could help me. And finally I was able to find somebody that gave me directions to a taxi cab. And then I got to the location that I was in, but I was in the, they didn't drop me off in front of my door. They dropped me off like on a busy road. And I was looking around for where my hotel was at. And there's no, like the hill that I wasn't staying at, like a name brand hotel. It was just a hotel in the area and nothing made sense. I was like, well, everything's in another language. I don't know where to go. I don't know what, what I finally ended up being somebody who was like, come on. Like they knew what I said, but they couldn't communicate. They just said, come on. And I was like, just followed them blindly. I'm like, I could have been following them to like get robbed. But I just was like, I'm so desperate at the time. But once I got established, once I started to realize, okay, like you're not in danger, you're okay. Here, go back to your book that will give you conversational pieces that you can communicate. Remember these little pieces because they all went out the window, right? I went because I was visiting some friends and doing like a Habitat for Humanity kind of thing and helping out with that. And then they gave us these booklets that were like, oh, here's like how you can... adapt to that area. And it all got lost because I was so nervous about everything. But once I calmed down, once everything was fine, everything got much more easier.
Speaker 00:Yeah, because it sounds like it's kind of snowballing. Your anxiety was just growing and growing and growing. But once you were able to steady yourself,
Speaker 01:then
Speaker 00:you were able to reset and go on to have a wonderful
Speaker 01:trip. Yeah. But yeah, I've had some pretty amazing travel experiences, both internally in America and And then externally with some other countries as well too. I still haven't made it to some places I really want to go. Yeah,
Speaker 00:give us a list. Where do you want to go?
Speaker 01:I want to go to Japan and China. I want to spend some time there. I really would love to go there. And then I'd also love to go to India as well too. I have a few friends that are from India and I've always wanted to kind of just be immersed in that culture as well too. But yeah, and then like random places too. I'd love to do all seven continents. So, um, even like the, the tough ones to get to, um, Antarctica, those places. So, yeah. Um, but yeah, I'd love to do, do that. And, um, yeah, you know, I, I can't, I can't emphasize how much you get from traveling. Um, if someone ever comes up to me and says, Hey, should I buy that new car or go on that big trip? I'm like, go on that big trip and go, go, go someplace new. Um, because you get so much out of that. And it's not only the experience of becoming a good traveler. It's also the knowledge and the experiential pieces that you get and the growth you get. I feel like every place I've gone to, I feel like has made me a more empathetic human.
Speaker 00:I
Speaker 01:thrive on empathy for the world. And I feel like we don't have enough for people. And- it's difficult when you go places and you see poverty or you go places and see injustices and you go, and those all exist everywhere. Yeah. It's not that hard to find when you go to these different areas and you connect it back to being native in America or indigenous, whatever it is, you could, you start to see those, those pieces everywhere with the people in different countries, whether they're indigenous or not, people are going through stuff and you know, their, their journey, um, is necessary to be seen and heard and learned about because that's the only way that we change the world. And, you know, I feel like, you know, again, like I'm not doom and glooming on this podcast, but, you know, it's hard when things are going bad and, you know, whenever, you know, whenever your viewers get to listen to this, you know, the Native Americans are being challenged at every, almost every week now. And it's hard. And I tell people like, yeah, that doesn't make it easier to want to go travel. But there is so much beauty and so much joy and so much that you can gain from stepping out of your comfort zone and trying someplace new. And for anybody that's out there that is like, I don't want to leave my tribal community or I don't want to leave what's familiar to me. No one's saying you have to go to New Zealand. Start by going to... Yeah. The big puffy ones, the big flat ones, the small ones, the square ones, the ones that they put honey on, the ones that they don't put honey on, the one. Yeah.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. Now you're making
Speaker 01:me hungry. I know. I know.
Speaker 00:Okay. Let's go back to this trip really quick and we'll wrap this up really quickly. But how did you feel knowing you were about to leave and heading back home? What were your thoughts about that? Obviously, nothing happened. Your anxiety when you first started, when your flight out there was all about this big ocean. And I'm assuming that was... Was gone on the flight home. Still
Speaker 01:there. Still there. Because I was traveling at night.
Speaker 00:Oh, that's a different... Yeah.
Speaker 01:Yeah. I was traveling at night and it was dark and you can't see anything. No. And that was a little bit worse than being seen just blue. So on the flight back, I didn't get to sit by a window. I had to sit aisle. So that was helpful. But the person that was sitting window was... like very chatty and kept saying over and over again, you can't see anything. You can't see anything. I can't see anything. They just kept saying that over and over again. I'm like, I'm good, man. I'm good. Just bring me my diet Coke and I'll be okay. But it was a lot easier because I was tired, I think as well too. So while I was scared, I was also dealing with like tremendous jet lag. So I actually slept for about six hours on a flight back. I remember being really exhausted.
Speaker 00:That's good.
Speaker 01:But also to feeling too, like, even though it was just a few days, I, I, you still miss home, right? You still miss your bed. You still miss all those things. And yeah, at the time I remember like being excited to go back home, really excited to tell people about the experience. And, you know, I've always taken a camera with me everywhere I go. So I'm a pretty avid photographer when I go places. So I had, you know, and at the time I was being, trying to be real fancy and I was using film and digital age, right? Digital age was brand new then. And everybody was trying to take these two megapixel pictures with everything, but I was still stuck in the film days. So I was, I wouldn't, I would go get the fancy films, right? The black and white, right? The, all the different styles of, um, a film that they had available. So I had these really beautiful pictures and it's funny. I still have one up that I actually keep up in my office at home of, uh, the beach. in the area. And yeah, every time I look at it, I think to myself, Oh yeah. Like, and sometimes people don't know. I have a lot of people who walk by and they think it's like, um, stock stock, like a stock picture that was put in there and it's not, it's actually from my time out there. But yeah, I remember being excited and you know, I'm really aging myself. Cause I remember getting a booklet and being like, look at all my pictures in this booklet, mom, dad, check it out. Nowadays people just go to their phone and they're like, Hey, check it out. I got, I took, A thousand pictures on my trip and Monty was all excited for his 36, I think, that I took.
Speaker 00:Well, earlier you mentioned about, you know, being more present. You're more aware. You want to make those connections, you know. Being older and if you get the chance to travel again, how does picture taking come into that? Like, are you able to still be in the moment and appreciate all those while still trying to get as many photos? Or like, how do you approach photo taking on vacation?
Speaker 01:Yeah. So if I'm by myself and I don't have family around, I am all about engaging in a feeling, a feeling for my photos. Because that's what I'll remember when I come back. So if I'm in an area and I start to feel like, oh, I can feel the warmth. I can feel a peace. I can feel a calm. I'll find that in whatever that area is and try to find it and put it between the frames. If I'm with my family, it's more about trying to find how they're connected to the environment and the atmosphere. Right. Vacation pics, I don't like the, let's all stare at the camera and take a picture in front of a monument or something. I like to take pictures of my family when they're not looking at the camera or when they're engaging with something and try to find that balance because it feels more real to me that way. But I do love to go on travel when it's just me and I have maybe a few hours to go out and explore a city. I like to find those ideas. I love nighttime in any community that I think I'm a... I thrive in the night, I guess. I'm not a vampire, but I thrive in the nighttime. I just love the glow of the cities. I think every city glows differently. And when you're in a city like New York glows different than Chicago and Chicago glows different than LA and these cities all have their own personality. And you can see it in everything from the way the shadows reflect off of the other shadows in the area, how the lights bounce off of the different places and angles that are in the city. I just love to find that. So if I can find that, I like to take a picture of it. All my photography feels moody, but it means something to me. And I don't really care if it means anything to anybody else. Right. But my ones that I have with my family and my kids, I try to find them engaging in the atmosphere. And I try to find that rather than everybody looking at a picture. But, you know, I also have a family that is like, why do you keep taking these pictures? We want to post it on Instagram. And none of us are looking at the camera. Like, wait a second. Like, this is very artistic. Appreciate it. They don't care. They're like, we're not looking at the camera. Why would you get the side angle? That's what my daughter says. Why would you take a picture for me at that angle? Like, my goodness. But yeah, it's one of my favorite things. And I always have headphones in. So I always have like a soundtrack going. So when I'm on travel, I'll sometimes just shuffle. And what songs are connecting with me in those areas, I'll add them to a playlist. And that playlist will be like, you know, Orlando. or Dallas or Long Beach, and I'll find those pieces and I'll build playlists. So I have probably, I don't know, 90 playlists from different cities. Some of them with four or five songs, some of them with 50 songs. But they're all familiar to that area. And I try not to overpopulate it. The 50 playlists are usually places I revisit a few times and I have these really extensive playlists. But when I go back to those playlists and I... press play, I feel that song in that area. So there's like certain songs that I have in my, in my, on my many playlists and under many genres that I listened to that I'm like, oh, that is, that is that city. Yeah. Prince is Washington DC for me. Cause that's when he died and I was in DC and I went on the subways in DC to try to get to the American film Institute, that little theater they had out there, but I was on the other side of the city. And no one told me how long it would take there to get there. It didn't look like it was very long. It took like two and a half hours to get there by subway. So I just listened to Prince all the way over there and listened to Prince all the way back. I took these really cool subway pics, took some really cool video. But for some reason, Prince, this icon, doesn't exist for me anywhere else except for Washington, D.C.
Speaker 00:That's awesome.
Speaker 01:So it's very set up in that area.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Other bands as well, too. There are certain bands that when I hear that song, I'm like, oh, that's that area. There's this very deep cut song from Metallica on their Black album that reminds me of the driveway towards my grandpa's house.
Speaker 00:Interesting.
Speaker 01:And I don't know why. It wasn't even conscious. It was when I was a little kid.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Maybe listening to it on my Walkman or something like that. That song came on. But every single time I hear it, I see my grandpa's house. That's awesome. Yeah. So not only is travel connected to me through music. atmosphere and mood but through music as well too because i'm always i'm always engaging with music when we're out there even with the kids my my kids are very very well well experienced music kids because i'm always playing deep cut stuff or you know even pop music for them and stuff like that but i go real deep my son's name is he's named after a jazz musician so um he knows all of that jazz musician songs and even though he's only my son's only a new teenager He'll listen to a song and he goes, oh, that guy's named after me. And that makes me feel good. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm doing a good job.
Speaker 00:Doing a good job. Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, every traveler is different. You know, you have your thing. This is your thing. And this is how you travel. And I'm excited to learn how other people travel and what their thing is. Yeah. It's really it's interesting. I love that. I love that we are. Are on this rock and we're still always just trying to figure it out. You know what I mean? We're trying to figure out what makes us happy, regulate our moods, try not to freak out as much, you know, make the most out of our time wherever we are. And I think that I think as a human being, that's just one of the things that one of the things that really fascinates me is trying to learn who I am constantly.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I go back and tell people, you know, we we it's our job to to pursue happiness. It's our job to do that. However you can find it, find it. Try to pursue it because it's not promised to you. And if you can find a way to pursue that happiness, even if it's through travel, that's honestly some of the best happy moments I have is from traveling and pursuing these adventures in the world. When you can do that and you can find that balance, it really is magical. It is magic. And I can't think of any other way to describe it. When you have a great experience in a different place that isn't familiar to you, it is magic and you feel it and you will always feel it and you'll always remember it. And memory to me is so important. And when you can have that, it's a really beautiful thing.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Yeah. Well, Monty, thank you so much. I have enjoyed listening to your story, talking to you, having a little chat with you about this. All of it's very fascinating to me. And yeah, just thank you again.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 00:If you have socials, you want to tell people that they can follow you. I
Speaker 01:do a lot of travel videos on my TikTok. So if you find my TikTok, Monty Ozzy on TikTok, I'm I think I'm the only one that comes up on there. Um, you can find me on, on Tik TOK. I do all my travel videos there. I try to keep up pretty actively with it. There's a ton of videos that are mostly travel oriented. Um, so go check it out for one minute of Monty's travel experiences. And, uh, yeah. And, uh, you know, I shameless plug. I, uh, I run a film festival in Arizona, uh, the Phoenix film festival. happens April, I'm sorry, March 27th through April 6th. So it's coming up. And for those of you interested in going, it's a great way to see the world as well too, but through film. And we have a wonderful program. We have a Native American program. So if you're interested in Native creators, Native filmmakers who are putting their movies on the big screen, it's a great opportunity to get connected with them, to see their movies, to connect with creatives. And it's a fun way to kind of start getting an idea of maybe different parts of the world that you want to visit because we are an international film festival. So we get people who travel in from all over the globe for movies. I think the farthest that we've had was Russia. We've had someone from Russia show up to our film festival and another person from Guatemala and another person from Thailand. So filmmakers come from all over the world and bring their movies over. It's a great way to kind of get a... A taste of culture from somebody coming into your neck of the woods. And it's always my favorite thing to be like, have you been to McDonald's in America? I'm just kidding. I don't do that.
Speaker 00:Oh, man. That's good. Well, thanks again. Yeah,
Speaker 01:definitely. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 00:Wow. What an incredible ride Monty took us on. I am so grateful to him for sharing all of that with us. From facing the fear of flying over an open ocean to being welcomed into a home halfway across the world, that kind of story just sticks with you. Monty definitely has a gift for storytelling, and I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more from him down the line. There was a part in the end where he's talking about the Phoenix Film Festival. Even though that date has already passed, he described it really, really well. And it happens every year, so I left it in so you can be on the lookout for it next year. It might be something you want to attend. And really quickly, Monty, most recently, well, he co-produced a film called The Dead Thing, which is now streaming on Shudder. Shudder? Yeah, Shudder. How cool is that? If you don't know what Shudder is, that's S-H-U-D-D-E-R. Shudder is a subscription-based streaming service owned by AMC Networks that focuses on horror, thriller, and supernatural fiction. It offers a wide variety of content, including original films, TV series, and documentaries. You can also find The Dead Thing on all video-on-demand platforms for purchase. Also, if you're listening to this before June 21, 2025, and you're in the Arizona area, There will be a screening of The Dead Thing at Majestic Tempe. Tickets should be on sale soon if they aren't already. Again, thank you to Monty. That was just an awesome interview. Really thoughtful, creative person all around. And I'm really so grateful that he took time to share his journey with us. So that's it. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to send me an email, you can send it to acrossnewskiespodcast at gmail.com. You can also find the show on Instagram and Blue Sky at acrossnewskiespod. And yeah, that's it. Safe travels and we'll catch you next week. Bye. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. While some stories are based on true events, details may be misremembered or creatively retold. I don't fact check and I'm not a travel expert, so please don't take anything here as legal or travel advice. Some portions of the show may use AI-assisted tools to enhance production. And remember, these stories belong to the people who tell them. I'm just here to listen. Theme music by Permission, Ecstasy on Park Ave by Secret Tween. Across New Skies is hosted, edited and produced by me, Jessica Joaquin.