Day 19 - Benson, AZ - Part Two

It seems like eons ago that my Mom and Jack told me about going to see THE THING (mystery of the desert).

And now we were going to see THE THING.

We are leaving New Mexico and are headed in to Arizona. I'm not going to lie. I'm torn about going home.

I do need to get back to my life. There is so much to do there.

But I don't want this trip to end. It has been everything that I've hoped it would be.

I've played so many roles on this trip: Navigator, travel critic, personal shopper, care giver, valet, bell help, strong man, jester, photographer, travel agent, and my most important one...

Son.

I don't want this trip to end.

I don't even want to think about it.

So I don't. I focus on what is next. THE THING!

You can see the sign coming on the horizon from a couple of miles away. As the sign gets bigger, you can feel your excitment growing.

And...then....the...sign...is....riiiiiiiight......THERE!

WHAT IS THE THING???

(brought to you by DQ)

I fall asleep on the way to see THE THING (I'm not sleeping well) and before I know it we are there.

My Mom had fallen asleep too.

Now she doesn't want to go in. She wants to stay in the car.

Jack convinces her to come in.

We enter the storefront and Jack pays the $3 for us to see THE THING.

Now I'm not going to describe what is on display behind that door. It quite honestly defies description.

I will tell you that you could make an agruement that we did not receive a dollar's worth of entertainment.

But there was something interesting about THE THING.

There were people living there.

I couldn't be entirely sure about that. The three mobile homes inside the boundaries of THE THING could have been offices.

But then I saw all of the kids toys back there.

I can't believe that people were living with THE THING.

We leave THE THING head over to the adjacent Dairy Queen.

We each get a milkshake and take this respite to find out next hotel room.

We decide to stop in Benson, AZ since we can't get a hotel room with a roll in shower in Tombstone.

The hotel we book used to be a Holiday Inn Express but it isn't any more. It is also the cheapest hotel that we've booked on this trip.

I really hope that I didn't book ourselves into a fleabag hotel right at the end of our trip.