They’ve all been visited by me and Wanda today! For a over hundred miles yesterday and today, I’ve been seeing signs that say “The Thing”.
We all know it’s not actually “The Thing” but I start to get curious of course (you would too, don’t lie). I mean they know that you’ve been driving along, not much to see and probably need to stop anyway. And if you have kids, forget about it, they’ll whine until you do stop. When I walked into the gift shop I knew that the shop alone could be “The Thing” since really it could be anyThing. I notice a sign above a door within a cave like entrance that says Adults $1.00 so I think why not and pay my $1.00. As I open the door, I notice big yellow “Thing” like footprints leading to a shed like structure.
Of course right in front of me is some guy saying things like “I’ll bet it’s a horse or something lame like that”. Upon entering, I see…Oh My G! Not a big hairy anything, but a museum. An odd assortment of antiques, and even odder many are from Italy, not the good ole US of A. So I wander along to two more of these sheds and it’s pretty much the same Thing, nothing big and hairy (besides the woman in front of me) just a mish mash of artifacts.
Back down the freeway I go until I need to stop for gas in the little town of Lordsburg. I notice a sign that says “Shakespeare Ghost Town” so I ask a gal at a nearby hotel and she says that the ghost town was the original town until they built a new road and the town moved closer to the road.
She wasn’t sure if it was open but I decided to check it out anyway as she said it was only about a 10 minute drive. Maybe if you’re not towing Wanda it’s 10 minutes! I turn off onto a dirt road that had been graded like a wash board making it super bumpy, and a bit painful to my upper endownment. A storm was coming in too so it was super windy making it seem all the more creepy.
The ghost town itself was completely fenced in and if I hadn’t been alone, I probably would have hopped the fence to get some better photos. But between the crazy wind and a random guy driving up, I decided a few pics was plenty and went on my way.
My last stop of the night is a rest stop just outside of Las Cruces and Oh No! Silver and Wanda are almost eaten by a giant New Mexico state bird, the road runner!
Crazy- The Thing is my most vivid memory from my drive from NH to CA… well, the signs for it at least!