Day 11 - "The Thing"

Today was relatively uneventful. Since we came into Flagstaff at dark last night we did not get to see it. As we left this morning, we realized it really is a nice town. There are lots of tall pine trees and the terrain is steeply rolling hills with mountains surrounding it. The elevation is around 8,000 feet so it was relatively cool. All in all, I can see us making a return trip to Flagstaff for further exploration.

Our biggest decision of the morning was whether to take the potentially scenic and shorter mileage route, albeit mostly on non-interstate roads, or the slightly longer but probably faster interstate route. We opted for the latter with the mindset of making tracks as quickly as possible. This put is on a southbound heading on I-17 through Phoenix and Tucson and then back on I-10 towards Las Cruces backtracking the way we came a week and a half ago.

We had a competitive game of 20 Questions this morning. Believe it or not, Braden won this round. There were two questions he answered after only one clue, which gives you the most amount of points for each round. He really is a smart kid. When he's around us he is very talkative and interactive. However, when he is by himself or in school, he is extremely quiet. I remember one time picking him up from Sunday School and he said something to me. The teacher said "wow, I don't think I have ever heard him talk". Since we're around him all the time, I don't think we realized for a while just how shy he is. So, when he's in school, he always has his ears listening and absorbing information. As a result, his mind is full of trivia answers. Thus, I guess we shouldn't be surprised he won the game.

We searched in vain for another In-N-Out Burger but never could find one that was convenient so we settled for Arby's. If you haven't tried one, you should try either the Club or Turkey Club sandwiches there. They're really very good.

In the afternoon we got in a groove driving along I-10 heading east. Once you leave Tucson, it is extremely boring. Even though today was not our longest mileage day, it sure seemed like the longest day. I suspect it is because we were tired.

As you drive along I-10 eastbound from Tucson or westbound from El Paso, you start to see billboards asking the question "What is The Thing?". I've seen these all my life during our travels to California and never paid attention to them. Truthfully, I never paid any attention to them today. About midway between Tucson and Las Cruces, I decided to fill up with gas and stretch a bit so pulled off at the first gas station I found. I filled up while Jennifer took the boys inside for a potty break. When she came back out, she asked if I'd noticed the big sign on top of the gas station advertising "The Thing". I had been so busy pumping gas, cleaning out trash, and getting all the mileage stuff reset on the vehicle computer that I had not even noticed we stopped at the milepost 322 gas station where "The Thing" is. I went inside to investigate and saw the sign offering admittance for $1/adult and $0.75/child 6-and-0ver. You're never going to believe that we plopped down the $3.50 admission fee and went to see "The Thing". Once you pay the admission fee, you go through a heavy steel door and follow some yellow painted footprints on the ground as you go through three buildings. Each building has something different. There is no theme in each building and the exhibits are relatively random. The first building has a couple of old tractors, a 1937 Rolls Royce they claim was once owned by Hitler, and believe it or not, an old jail cell with wood-carved figures inside depicting ancient techniques for torture. The second building has two rows of "cubbies" with glass fronts and signs indicating the contents of each box. I saw some old guns, typewriters, an ancient White House cookbook, along with a litany of other things. Finally, you get to the third building where "The Thing" is. Beside "it" are a whole bunch of other things: some old handmade saddles, a carriage they claim was used in Lincoln's inaugural parade, a set of horns from a Texas Longhorn, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, you're probably wondering what "The Thing" is, and I could tell you what it is. But, I'm not going to. I think if you really want to know, you're going to have to make the trip to Dragoon, Arizona and see it for yourself. You can cheat and look it up on Google (it has its own Wikepedia entry, including a picture), but I think that takes all the excitement out of it. The people in the store are extremely friendly and proud of their "Thing". By the time it was all said and done, our quick stop for gas lasted over an hour including the tour, some small talk with one of the store employees, and a visit to the adjacent Dairy Queen for some milkshakes. Tomorrow, we're going to see if we can find the world's largest ball of string........ha, ha, ha, ha......

If you're reading this, I really hope you'll go see "The Thing" some day. It's "things" (pardon the pun) like this that make road trips fun. Everyone flies everywhere these days because they want to avoid driving and get to their destination fast, and a lot of times it is cheaper to fly. To us, part of the vacation is the drive. We have enjoyed some of our road days almost as much as a day at Disneyland (maybe not quite that much).

After "The Thing" it took quite a while to get into Las Cruces. We're staying at the same hotel we visited on the way out. It's acceptable but nothing like the Embassy Suites in La Jolla; boy was that nice!

We'll get up in the morning and head for White Sands (too late by the time we got in tonight) and then on to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow afternoon.

Keep the comments coming. My friend Tim O'Dea suggested taking the blog and turning it into something permanent to memorialize the trip. We had already thought about doing that. Tim, just so you know, after Jennifer saw your comment, she immediately went to Blurb.com on the Blackberry to check it out. I'm sure she'll be doing something like this when we get home.

Some of the scenery south of Las Cruces. This is coming into Sedona, Az.

I couldn't resist taking this picture. North of Phoenix for quite a stretch there is a large diameter pipeline under construction parallel to I-17. I guess I can't leave work completely at home. I had my eyes trained right for quite a ways looking at all the equipment and materials, seeing how they were coming along, and just generally telling the kids about pipeline construction (I think they were extremely bored by this). If anyone knows who is building this pipeline, it's worth a Dr. Pepper to you. I never could figure it out. This is what our car would look like if we couldn't borrow Pa's trailer. Thanks Pa, the trailer is much easier to load and unload. Plus, our luggage would be really wet today from all the rain we drove through.
I'm thinking about putting a lift kit on the suburban and getting some tires like this. Wonder if that will affect my gas mileage any???

These are the billboards you see all along I-10. According to the store, there are around 200 of them along the interstate.

It's "The Thing". Jennifer and the kids are standing below the big sign I missed. "The Thing" has been on display since 1950 and in this same location since 1965. It shows its age, too. We felt like we were stepping back in time or we had entered the Twilight Zone or something to that effect.