[G2:706 size=349]OK, so things are finally getting up to speed, though not quite up to the speed I was hoping for.
I made it out to Dos Cabezas today — that's Two Heads, Arizona, for you monolinguists — for the first, and I'm already convinced the longest, interview of the trip. I was treated to a personal tour of the [G2link:630]Frontier Relics Museum[/G2link], a collection of ghost-town artifacts housed in a space under a thousand square feet, which took no less than 90 minutes to peruse. (Yes, that's about 10 square feet a minute.) But when a guy's waving a rusty bayonet at you, you go with the flow. Besides, when you rush things, you miss out on stuff like opium cabinets and [G2link:709]mechanized sauerkraut choppers[/G2link].
Then it was off to one of my all-time favorites: [G2link:715]The Thing[/G2link]! I've been to The Thing twice before in my life — once when I moved to California and once again when I moved back — and yet I still can't quite explain the appeal. It's a roadside attraction that, without the dozens of bright-yellow billboards that stretch for hundreds of miles in either direction, would probably make for a rather lousy museum.
But that might just be it. It's the build-up of all those signs proclaiming The Thing a "Mystery of the Desert" and taunting you, asking "What Is It?" "Have You Seen It?"
It's all about attraction the concept rather than attraction the object. The whole thing is pretty anticlimactic, but it's being able to answer back at those billboards, "Yes! Yes, I have seen it! And I know what it is!" that brings a sense of satisfaction. That, and the ability to goad your friends into a road trip by not telling them what it is for a whole year.
Capping off the day was a stop in [G2link:803]Tombstone[/G2link], site of the famous gunfight at the [G2link:857]O.K. Corral[/G2link]. Unfortunately, all the businesses were shutting down just as I got there, but I was able to get a lot of exterior shots out of the way as the sun started to set. After a stay in nearby Sierra Vista tonight, I'll hop back and take a little ghost tour.
Incidentally, I've been noticing a lot of curious looks from people as I've been driving around the last couple of days. It's probably just the perpetually lost expression I carry on my face, but my real suspicion is that people are snickering at my [G2link:804]somewhat diminutive SUV[/G2link]. I've begun to think I've been rented Hyundai's equivalent to the Canyonero F-Series and I'm unwittingly motoring through the state in a humorously compact and feminine 4x4.
[G2:701]
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