{"id":16630,"date":"2015-05-16T15:46:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T22:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16630"},"modified":"2015-05-16T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T00:50:18","slug":"present-day-thingness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16630","title":{"rendered":"Present-Day Thingness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"theThis is a follow-up to a previous post, Historical Thingness<\/a>, where I posted an old photo of The Thing in its original Route 66 location near\u00a0Barstow, California. Today The Thing (pictured at left)\u00a0resides\u00a0near the southern Arizona town of Dragoon, just off Interstate 10 at Exit 322.<\/p>\n

The Thing is an old-timey roadside attraction, ballyhooed in eerie-looking script on screaming yellow and blue freeway billboards for a hundred miles in either direction. I use\u00a0photos of those billboards for the\u00a0header image of this blog, and the “Thing” in “Paul’s Thing” was inspired by it. My\u00a0About Paul’s Thing<\/a> page is a short photoessay about The Thing.<\/p>\n

For someone who’s so into The Thing, you’d think I would have paid the price of admission and checked it out before now, but no … although\u00a0I’ve passed Exit 322 a hundred times, and actually pulled in for gas a few times, I’ve never been inside to see it.\u00a0That changed today, when\u00a0Donna and I stopped on our way back from our niece’s graduation ceremony at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.<\/p>\n

What you see from the freeway is a typical tourist stop with gas, souvenirs, and a Dairy Queen. Inside, against the back wall, is the door to The Thing. Admission is a dollar. When you go through the door you find yourself outdoors, following giant yellow footprints that take you to three shed-like buildings. Here’s Donna on the trail of The Thing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1457\"<\/a>
The footprints imply a creature of some size<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first shed\u00a0features\u00a0old cars. I liked Hitler’s Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1454\"<\/a>
You’d think they could have found an old Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also, too, a Very Special Exhibit depicting ancient methods of torture, the only one of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1455\"<\/a>
Needs more blood, and maybe a soundtrack with screams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second shed\u00a0is filled with\u00a0grotesque\u00a0creatures carved\u00a0from tree trunks, gnarled branches, and driftwood.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1458\"<\/a>
Donna with the grotesqueries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The third shed\u00a0houses The Thing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1466<\/a>
At last, I behold The Thing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But what is it?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1460\"<\/a>
Whatever it is, it didn’t make those footprints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All right, a bit of a letdown, not much of\u00a0a wonder, but what do you expect from a roadside attraction? I was happy. It was worth the dollar. I even went back to the store and bought a coffee cup.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1470<\/a>
A desktop reminder, in case I ever forget the name of my blog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a follow-up to a previous post, Historical Thingness, where I posted an old photo of The Thing in its original Route 66 location near\u00a0Barstow, California. Today The Thing (pictured at left)\u00a0resides\u00a0near the southern Arizona town of Dragoon, just off Interstate 10 at Exit 322. The Thing is an old-timey roadside attraction, ballyhooed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[555,2,1601],"tags":[1861,1181,1862],"class_list":["post-16630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-color","category-personal","category-photoblogging","tag-roadside-attraction","tag-the-thing","tag-tourist-stop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16630"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16636,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16630\/revisions\/16636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}