Yep, we stop at
The Thing
every time our route takes us past it, as it did again this year.
Why? Well, there is a certain fascination about something
that receives so much promotion and turns out to be so little.
This was our fourth visit since 2004.
Last year we counted the number of signs
between Las Cruces and the exit for The Thing. This year, we tried
to count them all between Phoenix and The Thing, but we might have
missed one or two. Somewhere around a dozen is about right. To the
left and below are three of them.
"Yer" almost there. Get it? It's a take-off
on the word "you're." Not much gets past us.
The view as
you are coming down the exit ramp from the west. The excitement
begins to build as you realize you are mere moments away.
The gang out
in front before going in. Note the Dairy Queen sign at the far
right. Yes, you can get a Blizzard here, too! Is there any
want that a stop at The Thing can't satisfy?
The ever useful Professor Ridgway
demonsrating once again his ever-usefulness.
The Thing can be found easily at night.
Admission prices have not
changed since our first visit in 2004,
although we didn't take a picture of the admission price sign that year.
We did on our second visit in 2005.
Now that's price stability.
What you finally see at the
end of your $1.00 tour. Comments like "this is it?" and "that's
$1.00 and 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back" are common.
I took a picture of this back
in 2005 (below left) because I thought it was cool. Now I feel
like I have to take a picture every time we stop. An "AAA" sticker
appeared in 2008 (below right), and it was still there this year.
The folks inside would probably faint dead away if anyone actually
pulled out a "BankAmericard" or a "Master Charge" card.
