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Originally published 16 February, 2014
At "The Thing!", in Dragoon, Arizona
Today was not a big day. No problems, and our travels went fine, but it was a day in transit.
We got up at a reasonable time in Silver City. Moving from one place to another in the motorhome isn't as simple as hopping in a car. After getting up and having a bit to eat, we put the dolly on the motorhome, put the truck on the dolly, put running lights on the truck (they're held on with magnets), and use ratchet ties to tie the steering wheel in place. After this, we start with the motorhome stuff.
The motorhome has hydraulic jacks under it. It keeps the motorhome from bouncing about while you're living in it. They also serve to level the motorhome so all the appliances work well and you're not sleeping with your head downhill. The jacks are run from a central controller by the driver's seat. You run them down and manipulate them until the little level mounted on the dash shows that you are level.
Since we're leaving, you hit a button that says "all up"......and it runs them all up. After running up the jacks, the motorhome has a "slide", or a slide out room, which motors run in and out. Usually, while Laurie runs in the slide and puts all the things in the motorhome that will move around in a stable place, I deal with the outside stuff.
The "utilities"
The outside stuff has to do with "utilities". You unhook the electrical service which plugs into a panel, unhook the cable tv, and dump the tanks. There are two waste water tanks on a motorhome. Gray water, which is sink water and shower water, and black water...which is the fun stuff.
You pull a handle and the black water runs out of a hose and into a sewer hook up. Then you close the black water and pull the gray water. It's a bit less noxious stuff so it helps wash the black water out of the hose. If you're going to store the motorhome, you fill the tanks with water a time or two and rinse them. If you're just traveling for a day then setting up again, we don't bother. You then gather all the cables and hoses up and you're done.
All the plumbing and electrical
After this, we head down the road. We're about 2.5-3 hours to our next destination, Benson, AZ. This is a short hop for us considering the other hops we've made this trip. We leave out of Silver City and head down the road. We're about 20 miles out of town and there's a guy on a bicycle, and it's laid down on the side of the road. We pass by and he waves.
He's 20 miles out of one town and 30 miles from the next. We decide that we can't leave him out here and decide to turn around and help. We're 53 feet long, so we had to go a mile or so to find a place wide enough to turn around. We turn around and come back to where he is, and pull off the road. I open the window and ask if he need help. He thanks us profusely and tells us how nice we were to turn around, but says he's fine and just stopped to rest. We find another place to turn back around and continue our trip.
"The Thing!"
We continue through a hundred and twenty more miles of absolutely nothing. As an answer to South of the Border on the east coast, here, they have THE THING! Laurie says, "c'mon....we gotta stop!" It is coupled with a gas station/Dairy Queen/gift shop...and THE THING exhibit. We pull in, park, and go inside. There are cheezy souvenirs, snacks, and Dairy Queen. It costs a dollar to see THE THING, so Laurie quickly shucks off two bucks and drags me along.
We go through...and it is a random collection of old broken down cars and antiques, but oddly enough, some very interesting wood carvings. There was a huge collection of animals made of drift wood and tree roots that we thought were really cool....and at the end....THE THING!
THE THING turns out to really be a thing! It's actually a real mummy that they have in a glass case. While the thing (lower case for emphasis) was not that big a deal....the carvings were worth a buck to see. It's a fun, silly thing to do, and we enjoyed it. I will say that everyone who worked there REALLY knew how to treat tourists. The were the nicest, most courteous people we've ever run into at a tourist trap!
Even Walmart had a souvenir section! At bargain prices of course.
We have about 20 miles to go and we're at our destination. It goes by quickly, we top off with fuel before we pull in to the campground, and then we're there. It's probably the nicest campground I've ever stayed at....but more about it in a future post. We're gonna be here for 5 days or so, because there's so much to see.
Tomorrow, Fort Huachuca.......the place I was born. Quote of the day-"Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.- Blaise Pascal Song of the day- Rambling Man, The Allman Brothers
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I'm Bill. My wife Laurie and I love to travel and share our stories. We especially love it when we have been able to motivate our readers to start traveling on their own, and making their own stories. 
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